Who is the Next Indiana?: ACC Edition

(Image/ESPN)
​
By: Lucas Kochevar

It’s the dog days of the offseason in football, especially college football. The draft and spring games are the only events happening, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look ahead to the 2025 season. In this series, I’m going to look through the conferences for next year’s potential Cinderella team.

There’s no doubt the Indiana Hoosiers took the college football world by storm, going from worst to first. In head coach Curt Cignetti’s first season, the Hoosiers went from a 3-9 record to an 11-2 record with a CFP appearance. Although it was built on a weak schedule and a blowout CFP loss, what Indiana did was remarkable. Now, who could that be in the ACC next season?

This conference has a couple teams you would think about as major dark horse CFP contenders like Syracuse or Georgia Tech, but when I’m talking about the next Indiana, I’m talking about an awful team jumping to the top. Three teams that could fall under this are Wake Forest, Stanford and Florida State. Florida State won just two games last year and they open up with Alabama, scratch them off the list. Stanford is heading in the right direction with Andrew Luck as their GM, but they just hired former NFL head coach Frank Reich and they have no QB with experience. 

That leaves Wake Forest. 

The Demon Deacons posted back to back 4-8 win seasons and fired head coach Dave Clawson, who reigned over the program for 11 seasons. Clawson out, Jake Dickert in. The former Wazzu coach comes to Winston-Salem after four seasons and a record of 23-20. He comes from humble beginnings as an assistant coach for multiple D-III teams and then a stint with Wyoming before his time in Pullman. 

The head of the snake will always be the quarterback and the Deacons have two capable guys. Robby Ashford is in line to be the starter as one of the most experienced QBs in the country, but he’s not very good. I think his backup, Deshawn Purdie, has a better chance to steal that job. The Charlotte transfer didn’t light the world on fire, but managed to throw for 1,802 yards and ten touchdowns as a true freshman. He even recorded two touchdowns in his debut against North Carolina. 

Dickert overhauled the offensive line with four incoming transfers that project to be starters. The weapons on the outside will need to step in and step up, but Demond Claiborne comes back in the backfield. He had over 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns last season. 

Meanwhile, the defense returns a lot of the same guys that boast more experience. Out of those experienced guys, playmaking safety Nick Anderson comes back. Dickert, a defensive coach, will have his hands full coaching up a group that gave up 435 yards per game last season.

Part of what made Indiana was a weak schedule and that’s exactly what I see with Wake Forest’s schedule. Their non-conference opponents are Kennesaw State, Western Carolina and Delaware. They get three tough ACC teams at home with NC State, Georgia Tech and SMU. They travel to Virginia Tech, Florida State and Duke. 

It’s not a complete cakewalk, but if they can pull off some upsets, I think they could fit the Indiana mold.