No. 16 Louisville hosts Wake Forest to headline ACC’s Week 4 slate

Things to watch this weekend in the Atlantic Coast Conference:

Game of the week

Wake Forest (2-1, 0-1 ACC) at No. 16 Louisville (2-1, 1-0), Saturday, noon ET (ESPN)

The Cardinals won the battle of teams projected to be top contenders to preseason ACC favorite Miami, beating a ranked SMU team 41-31 at home last week. And their only loss came in a shootout against now-No. 4 Mississippi. So Jeff Brohm’s team has a chance to stack wins and push for a bid to the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Now comes a visit from the Demon Deacons, coming off a 33-20 loss to the Hurricanes. Wake Forest’s offense has been strong with North Carolina transfer Gio Lopez at quarterback, while Jake Dickert has led Wake Forest to 11 wins in 16 games as a second-year coach.

The undercard

Clemson (2-1, 1-0) at California (2-1, 1-0), Friday, 10:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)

The Tigers had been a mess through a blowout loss at LSU and an ugly win against Georgia Southern, though they found some hope after rallying to beat North Carolina at home. Now comes the Tigers’ first cross-country league trip since the league’s expansion for the 2024 season. The Golden Bears are still leaning on a rising quarterback in sophomore Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (seven TD throws, two interceptions).

Appalachian State (3-0) at N.C. State (1-2), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPNU)

Dave Doeren’s Wolfpack will have to regroup from a shocking last-second loss at Vanderbilt on a fumble in the end zone. The Mountaineers have won their last two games against instate foes (at East Carolina, home against Charlotte) by a combined eight points.

Impact players

– Duke RB Nate Sheppard. The sophomore has been nothing short of superb to start the season as the focal point of the offense for the reigning ACC champs. He enters the week averaging a national-best 176.0 yards rushing — 23.3 more than the No. 2 rusher — and tied for the Bowl Subdivision lead with eight total TDs. Sheppard has amassed at least 156 yards of total offense in each game and faces a Championship Subdivision foe Saturday in William & Mary, which just allowed Fordham to rack up 428 yards on the ground.

— Miami QB Darian Mensah. The Duke transfer has been elite for the sixth-ranked Hurricanes entering Saturday’s visit from Central Michigan. He has more touchdown passes (11) than incompletions (eight) through three games just set ACC records for consecutive completions in the Wake Forest win.

Inside the numbers

Mensah leads the country in completion percentage (.899) by completing 71 of 79 passes, while top receiver Malachi Toney is No. 2 in receiving yards (148.0). … The ACC has three teams in the AP Top 25. The list includes No. 22 SMU, which tries to regroup from a loss to Louisville when it hosts Missouri State. … Georgia Tech visits Stanford on Saturday, joining Clemson as the last two teams to travel across all four time zones in the continental U.S. for a league game. … Virginia Tech visits Boston College on Saturday with the league’s No. 2 scoring offense (50.7) and No. 4 total offense (493.3). … UNC and Syracuse have open weeks.

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