Wake Forest picked to finish 16th in ACC preseason poll
Wake Forest is picked to finish 16th in the ACC’s preseason poll.
The league announced its media-generated poll results Wednesday afternoon. A panel of 183 media members voted in the poll last week.
Clemson is the preseason favorite to win the league, garnering 167 first-place votes. Miami received the second-most votes to win the league with seven.
Wake Forest is coming off back-to-back 4-8 seasons. The Deacons are a combined 3-13 against ACC teams in that span — both of last year’s ACC wins were on the road.
It’s the first season at the helm for Jake Dickert, who replaced Dave Clawson in December. Everything is new in Winston-Salem. The Deacons have a quarterback battle between transfers Robby Ashford (South Carolina) and Deshawn Purdie (Charlotte), and freshman Steele Pizzella. The coaching staff was completely overhauled. Wake’s roster is littered with transfers.
The Deacons were picked to finish 15th in last year’s preseason poll — the first in which the ACC had 17 teams. By going 2-6 in the ACC, they finished in a tie for 14th.
Here is the full predicted order of finish in the ACC preseason poll:
1. Clemson (167)
2. Miami (7)
3. SMU (2)*
4. Georgia Tech (2)*
5. Louisville
6. Duke*
7. Florida State (4)*
8. UNC*
9. Pittsburgh
10. N.C. State*
11. Virginia Tech (1)*
12. Syracuse
13. Boston College
14. Virginia*
15. California
16. Wake Forest
17. Stanford
(first-place votes in parenthesis)
* indicates a team Wake Forest plays this season.
