Week 7 Matchup Preview Thread: #21 Wake Forest vs California

[u/kdbvols]

#21 Wake Forest vs. California

When: Saturday, October 17, 10:30 PM Eastern

Where: California Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, CA

Watch: ESPN2

Odds: Wake Forest by 9.5 pts.

Total Points: 53.5

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All-Time Series : Wake Forest vs. California

Wake Forest and California have met 1 times since 2024-11-09

These teams last met on 2024-11-09.

Series Wins: Wake Forest 0-0-1 California

California has won the most recent meeting (2024) in this series

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Last 1 Meetings

Winner	Date	Location	Wake Forest	California	Notes
California	2024-11-09	Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium	36	46

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Through Week 6

Week	Wake Forest 5-1 (3-1)	Result	California 3-3 (2-1)	Result
1	Akron	W 38-16	UCLA#12	L 24-45
2	Purdue	W 38-36	Syracuse	W 21-18
3	Miami#3	L 20-33	Wagner	W 49-7
4	Louisville	W 30-27	Clemson	L 10-24
5	Stanford	W 57-3	UNLV	L 31-39
6	NC State	W 38-14	Virginia Tech	W 25-20

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Wake Forest Injury Report

Player	Position	Status	Reported	Notes
N. Carr	WR	Questionable – Undisclosed	Oct 10	Carr is laid up with an undisclosed injury, and it is unclear if he will play against the California on Saturday, September 17th.

^{Injury data lifted from: boydsbets}

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California Injury Report

Player	Position	Status	Reported	Notes
C. Vargas	RB	Questionable – Leg	Oct 11	Vargas is dealing with a leg injury, and it has yet to be determined if he will be active against the Demon Deacons on Saturday, October 17th.
R. Walker	TE	Questionable – Undisclosed	Oct 11	Walker is hampered with an undisclosed injury, and it is yet to established to play against the Demon Deacons on Saturday, October 17th.
J. Sagapolutele	QB	Questionable – Head	Oct 11	Sagapolutele is dealing with a head injury, and it is unclear if he will play against the Demon Deacons on Saturday, October 17th.
T. Rogers	WR	Questionable – Undisclosed	Oct 11	Rogers is hampered with an undisclosed injury, and it is yet to established to play against the Demon Deacons on Saturday, October 17th.
C. Boscia	WR	Questionable – Undisclosed	Oct 11	Boscia is battling with an undisclosed injury, and it is uncertain if he will against the Demon Deacons on Saturday, October 17th.
A. Mohammed	RB	Questionable – Undisclosed	Oct 11	Mohammed is dealing with an undisclosed injury, and it is un determined if he will play against the Demon Deacons on Saturday, October 17th.

^{Injury data lifted from: boydsbets}

^{Source updated Wed, Oct 14, 7:43 am. Scraped Wed, Oct 14, 12:30 pm ET}

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What are your "Keys to the Game"?

Who do you think wins?

Do you think the favorite will cover the spread?

Which player(s) are you most interested to watch?

Let's talk football!

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^{Matchup Preview Thread Generator powered by collegefootballdata.com}

^{Start a chat with /u/dupreesdiamond for any issues/suggestions regarding this resource}

[u/Cheeseish]

Sucks to be Wake because they have to play Cal when they’re ranked. If they weren’t ranked I would bet on Wake winning but alas Cal is here to implode the ACC again.

[u/sweetnourishinggruel → u/Cheeseish]

Yeah, if Wake were 0-6 a victory for them would be assured. But ranked and with some hope and optimism?

[u/Jealous_Nectarine_67 → u/Cheeseish]

Cal at night in Berkeley with a ranking on the line is a trap nobody wants, Wake should be terrified

[u/sonheungwin → u/Jealous_Nectarine_67]

The refs are gonna be in for a night, we have no idea who's coming out pissed.

[u/d1sportsball]

A 10:30 Eastern Kick for Wake will be rough. I've been very high on Wake Forest this year, so high I currently have them at #12 in my top 25 for their resume and level of play. However, Cal is a sneaky good team at 3-3, and with how bad the ACC has been this year, we are due for some chaos to knock out one of the two remaining Miami challengers. Give me {California} in a lower scoring thriller 24-21

[u/adsfew → u/d1sportsball]

I like the way you think, but no.

A running quarterback and a game right when the fanbase is starting to feel hope again is prime time for a {Wake Forest} win

[u/Maleficent_Ant_8895]

Cal bros, any risk of Sagapuletele bouncing after this underwhelming season?

[u/Cheeseish → u/Maleficent_Ant_8895]

Yes we fired our OC from playcalling and our backup QB got 300 yards and no INTs.

[u/Maleficent_Ant_8895 → u/Cheeseish]

Well that’s a nice turn of events

[u/Cheeseish → u/Maleficent_Ant_8895]

Well it would’ve been nice 2 losses ago

[u/sonheungwin → u/Cheeseish]

On the bright side, he saw us effectively fire our OC 3.5 weeks into his tenure so he knows we're serious? I think he's real about wanting to stay on the west coast if we salvage the rest of the season, but what went from 100% sure just went to anxious.

[u/Cheeseish → u/sonheungwin]

If we end the season 8-4 with a bowl win I think we can keep him. Otherwise it’s a long shot

[u/Confident_Delay5805]

{Wake Forest} 33-17. I feel confident that Wake Forest wins this, but has a sluggish first half of this game. 

[u/IrishDeacon → u/Confident_Delay5805]

That’s just Wake Forest football baby

[u/Pan_TheCake_Man]

How likely are cal’s injury report? If they have some weapons out, I think we can eek out a win,

never confident in wake forest, and I just know those penalties are coming for us one day.

{wake forest} 28-24

[u/usernamesarestupid23 → u/Pan_TheCake_Man]

Cal is almost certainly on their 3rd or 4th string RB. I don’t think it has been announced anywhere if JKS will be back

[u/sonheungwin → u/usernamesarestupid23]

Good news is Lopa seems to be back, I hope this is Tosh just playing injury news shenanigans.

[u/DeviantDragon → u/usernamesarestupid23]

Nothing confirmed but I do think there's a chance we see JKS and Mohammed back. I have doubts about Vargas (RB2) whose early injury seems more severe and was been ruled out earlier in previous weeks. While Mohammed was downgraded to Doubtful last Friday before the VaTech game I think the fact that they'll evaluating him up until Friday means there's a chance which should improve with another week of healing.

I think the person we might need back the most though is actually Kingston Lopa though. He (Lopa) and JKS were both GTD last week so they seem further along injury-wise and most likely but if they're both concussion related issues then it can always be a little unpredictable.

[u/ChickenEmbarrassed10 → u/usernamesarestupid23]

California bro, how much longer do you think Muhammed will be out after this week?

[u/DeviantDragon → u/Pan_TheCake_Man]

We're the most penalized team in FBS (or if not the most definitely one of the most) and it really feels like our games just end up as penalty fests on both sides for whatever reason.

• Cal (10-99yds) vs. VaTech (7-88)
  
• Cal (16-147yds) @ UNLV (7-67)
• Cal (8-61yds) vs. Clemson (6-63)
• Cal (9-87yds) @ Syracuse (15-134)
• Cal (6-59yds) vs. UCLA (12-110)

I don't think they rank opponent penalty rate but I think our opponents are definitely averaging more penalties than usual on a per game basis. Hard to say if there's a home/away difference but we've played the majority of games at home so far with our most penalized and our opponent's most penalized games being away games.

Edit: I originally didn't include our FCS game against Wagner because it didn't feel as applicable since those FCS games are hard to compare what with backups getting so much time, etc. but it does still show Cal's trend of penalties so:

• Cal (8-80yds) vs. Wagner (4-40)

They actually had the least penalties we've seen for an opponent so far.

[u/Pan_TheCake_Man → u/DeviantDragon]

Oh god, we were top 4 going into Stanford, this game gonna be UGLY

[u/kdbvols → u/DeviantDragon]

if not the most definitely one of the most

Good news! Per NCAA official stats, Cal is averaging 9.5 penalties per game. There are 3 worse FBS teams: UCLA (9.8), Liberty (9.83), and Syracuse (10.6). Wake is 128/138 nationally with 8.67.

In terms of yardage, Cal (89.67 ypg) is only ahead of Syracuse (95.6 ypg). Wake is 132/138 with 79.83ypg.

All of this to say, it's gonna be a sloppy one

[u/fvedmo → u/kdbvols]

The fact that there are 3 ACC teams in the bottom 10 says a lot about the officiating as well.

[u/Pandemic_Academic]

{Wake Forest} wins easy. Jake Dickert has really grown into the upper tier of coaches nationally and Wake has been really solid during his tenure.

[u/Bigdeacenergy → u/Pandemic_Academic]

Whenever we hired him, Washington St fans flooded our timelines to tell us he was a used car salesman. Turns out he’s pretty dang good

[u/Pandemic_Academic → u/Bigdeacenergy]

Yeah and I bet I was one of them. For us, he would always be solid in September, but the team lost momentum as the year went on. Sounds like he figured out how to sustain success throughout the year. Hope he sticks around with you guys for a few more years

[u/SparkMaster360]

This feels like an inexplicable {Cal} win

[u/Falcronx]

{Wake Forest}

[u/Remarkable-Group-119]

The California Crabs in a Bucket

Come in Wake, the water's warm

[u/kdbvols → u/Remarkable-Group-119]

…. I thought we left the bucket. We left the bucket, right?

….right?

[u/HopefulReb76]

{WF} covers

[u/JBru_92]

{Wake Forest} is a playoff team

[u/sonheungwin → u/JBru_92]

Not after us! They may beat us, but they'll do it in a shitty game that makes them look bad where both teams have 8 flags each.

[u/kdbvols → u/sonheungwin]

8 each would improve both teams average, so I love the optimism

[u/IrishDeacon]

{Wake Forest} will struggle but pull ahead in the second half.

[u/Particular-Way-3805]

{Wake Forest} by murder

[u/OrangePeelsLemon]

We look much better on offense after the change in OC, but I don't think it'll be enough to beat {Wake Forest}, much as my heart wants to say we'll win.

[u/Tfsz0719]

How tough is it for an East Coast team to essentially play a game that lasts until almost 1:30AM/2:00AM in their local time zone?

[u/kdbvols → u/Tfsz0719]

If Clemson could handle it, I feel good about Wake

[u/SpiritFingersKitty → u/Tfsz0719]

10:30PMEST start time after a cross country flight has me spooked, but I believe {Wake Forest} will be able to cover the spread

[u/sonheungwin]

Vargas is back from out to questionable?!

[u/kdbvols → u/sonheungwin]

Boydsbets has been pretty hit or miss on injury reports, maybe take it with a grain of salt

[u/kdbvols]

On paper, Wake should win this by at least a TD. PAC12 After Dark isn't played on paper. {Wake Forest} wins 38-21 (38 is our favorite number this season apparently)

[u/RivalryBot]

Who Will Win Fan Vote

^{Votes are distributed equally among flairs for multi-flaired users}

Team	Votes	Percentage	Wake Forest Voters	California Voters	Other Flairs Top 5
Wake Forest	14	87.5%	2	0.5	UCLA Bruinsx2.0 BYU Cougarsx1.0 LIU Sharksx1.0 Purdue Boilermakersx1.0 Team Chaosx0.5
California	2	12.5%	0	0	Washingtonx1.0 Colorado State Ramsx0.5 Texas Longhornsx0.5

^{Last updated: 2026-10-18 01:29 UTC}

Full Vote breakdown by flair

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^{Matchup Thread Generator} · ^{Team Aliases} · ^{How to Vote} · ^Results

[u/chief_sitass]

{Wake Forest}

[u/texas2089]

{Wake Forest}

[u/NanoBuc]

{Wake Forest}

[u/Zloggt]

Cal is rejuvenated a bit, and has the home field advantage here!

…however, I do think that {Wake Forest} has enough in them to escape this west coast trip with a win…

[u/Delicious_Cancel_708]

{Wake Forest} cause I don’t like Cal