It appears Wake Forest took it personally that the College Football Playoff committee ranked them outside the 12-team field despite a sizzling 8-1 record.
The Demon Deacons went on the road and absolutely splattered SMU 49-7 Saturday after building an outrageous 42-0 lead by halftime.
Wake Forest scored six touchdowns on seven drives in the opening half, while also posting two takeaways, one turnover on downs, and one recovered kickoff.
Jake Dickert's team finished the day outgaining the hosts by an absurd 535-275 total and forced three turnovers in the win.
While it would be easy to say SMU no-showed - and it did largely - this isn't the first time Dickert's team has steamrolled an opponent from the jump. They are now holding a 313-38 scoring margin over the last six games combined.
That's the type of mentality supplied by a coach who dropped this banger at halftime of Saturday's game.
"We're not finished with them yet. We came for 60 minutes and they've got nowhere to hide" - Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert to Dave Goren about SMU
— Cam Lemons Debro (@CamLemons_) November 14, 2026
Gio Lopez once again shone for the offense with 201 yards passing and a touchdown while also adding 34 yards and two scores on the ground. Wake Forest gashed SMU for a whopping 286 yards rushing as a team and held the Mustangs to just 66 yards on the ground.
Wake Forest's record was the same or better than 10 of the 12 teams in the field, but saw its name appear at No. 13 in last week's rankings. After what we saw Saturday, you can guarantee that won't be the case with the third version of the rankings on Tuesday night.
