Week 1: Wake Forest vs VMI 9/1/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons and VMI Keydets square off Thursday night in week 1 college football action from Truist Field in Winston-Salem.

The VMI Keydets come into the 2022 season looking to rebound from a disappointing 2021 campaign, where the Keydets finished at 6-5 overall, including a 4-4 mark in SoCon play. The season started with optimism at 6-2 but three straight losses to close the year doomed the Keydets and sealed their fate. Seth Morgan is back at QB after throwing for almost 2,200 yards, 14 touchdowns and 11 picks last season, while Korey Birdy will once again lead VMI’s ground attack after putting up 668 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns last season. Stone Snyder is expected to be the anchor for the VMI defense after logging 120 tackles and 11 TFLs last season.

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons will hope to build on the program’s most successful season in 15 years and their best under Dave Clawson after finishing the season at 11-3, including a 7-1 record in ACC conference play to win the regular season Atlantic division title and earn a spot in the ACC title game, a game the Demon Deacons lost to Pitt by a final score of 45-21. Wake received an invite to the Gator Bowl where Wake Forest took out Rutgers by a final score of 38-10. Sam Hartman is back in the Demon Deacons’ program, but he is currently out indefinitely with an undisclosed issue, leaving the offense to QB Michael Kern, but if and when Hartman’s able to go, the job at QB1 is his. The Deacs have a solid pair of RBs to aid in the ground attack with Christian Turner and Justin Ellison combined for over 1,000 yards and 12 TDs last season while AT Perry returns for Wake Forest’s receiving group after putting up almost 1,300 receiving yards and 15 TDs on 71 catches. Taylor Morin and Ke’Shawn Williams are also back after chipping in 70 combined catches and 8 touchdowns last season. On defense, the Demon Deacons lost leading tackler Luke Masterson, but second-leading tackles Ryna Smenda’s back after putting up 83 tackles and Eldrick Robinson transfers in from Georgia Southern after chipping in 74 tackles last year. Rondell Bothroyd anchors Wake’s D-Line with 16.5 TFLs returning while Kobie Turner transfers in from Richmond to strengthen the D-Line.

I can understand why some people may scratch their heads at this line, with Sam Hartman out of the lineup. However, Michael Kern is a capable backup with a litany of receivers at his disposal and while VMI is a decent FCS squad, this is still a Kedyets group that has trouble when making the leap in competition to play FBS teams as they had issues stepping up to Kent State last season with a 60-10 loss and a 56-17 loss to Marshall in 2019. I think Wake Forest uses this game as a tune-up to work out whatever kinks they may have and to give KErn a shot to loosen up and get comfortable. I’m backing Wake Forest in a beatdown.