Wake Forest vs Ole Miss September 6th, 2008 BB&T Field Winston-Salem, NC

Why?: Wake opens at Baylor, who should be slightly improved from a coaching change, and then hosts Ole Miss, who should be greatly improved from a coaching change, so that's two weeks in a row that fan bases get to see just what the new staff has against the Demon Deacons. Plus, the Tide will be taking on Tulane so that will likely be a late day PPV affair, while this will be an afternoon ABC game.

Who do I think will win?: This one is interesting, actually. Wake is rebuilding their offense (only five returning starters, only two of which are on the line), the kind of opportunity that Ole Miss needs to wash the taste of their horrendous defensive showing last season out of their mouthes. Wake, on the other hand, returns 9 defensive starters including all of their LBs and secondary, and should be pretty solid on that side of the ball. This one pretty much comes down to whether or not the Rebels can make good use of the sudden upswing in QB talent and all the great receiving threats they have, plus super stud freshman RB Enrique Davis against a veteran defense on the road while also doing just enough on D to try and re-establish some sense of respectability, and I'm not sure if they'll be quite up to the task just yet. It will be, after all, just week two of the Houston Nutt experience and even though I think having him on the sidelines will get them to a bowl this year, Wake probably won't be one of the teams that gets them there.

Who do I hope will win?: Honestly, I like Wake, I like what Grobe has done there (go ahead and cue the "Todd has a man crush on Grobe, too!" chatter you devilish scamps), and I think the "Demon Deacons" moniker is all kinds of awesome, but I'm not foolish enough to say I'm pulling against Ole Miss in any way that the Girl might find out about (she doesn't typically read the blog, but every once in a while I get in trouble when I least expect it because she got bored at work and decided to check up on me), so hotty toddy and all that.