Wake Forest Football: Bowl projection for Demon Deacons in 2021

The Wake Forest football team should make a bowl game this season, but it may not be a great one.

Demon Deacons head coach Dave Clawson has made his historically lackluster team a familiar face in college football’s annual bowl season, and he plans to do so once again throughout these upcoming months.

However, just stating the fact that Wake Forest football holds a strong possibility of making a bowl game means practically nothing. The question of the matter should be which bowl will they find themselves attending?

According to ESPN’s current algorithm (that is supposed to accurately calculate a team’s chances to win each game they play), the Deacs should be expected to sit somewhere around 7-5 by the end of their 2021 regular-season slate.

A couple of games in that stretch were interpreted as “swing games,” or matchups that could seemingly go either way due to lacking a clear favorite. So to account for any close calls, we will just think of Wake Forest football as a middle-of-the-road squad and lock them in at 6-6.

Such an approximation is not very far-fetched either, as the Deacons have seen multiple seasons similar to it in recent memory.

Unfortunately, with a mediocre team comes a mediocre bowl. Depending on Demon Deacons ultimate rank in the Atlantic Coast Conference, there are a few options that could find their ways to WF, but the one that would perhaps make the most sense is the Military Bowl.

Military Bowl would be a good spot for Wake Forest football

For starters, the Demon Deacons are no strangers to this bowl game, appearing in it twice throughout its entire history (the latter of which being under five years ago) and subsequently garnering a 2-0 record in the affair.

Also, the vast majority of ACC teams who participate in the bowl fail to reach just eight wins on the season, regardless of the meeting’s outcome. For reference, one out of the last seven to perform in the Military Bowl finished their year 8-5 (2015-16 Pittsburgh Panthers).

Essentially, it appears as if the Military Bowl would be a perfect destination for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in 2021. Their opponent would most likely be someone like Houston or Central Florida, as the other conference tie-in is the American Athletic Conference, which has several bowl-attending programs of its own.

But regardless of who else may make it, they better look out for the odds of the Deacs taking them down. They are unbeaten in the bowl for a reason, after all.