The Wake Forest Demon Deacons began their 2026 campaign with a resounding 38-16 victory over the Akron Zips last week in what was a good start to Year 2 of the Jake Dickert era in Winston-Salem. But that was just the appetizer, as the Deacs are now set to enter the meat of their schedule, beginning with a road bout against a Big Ten opponent in the Purdue Boilermakers.

It’s no secret just how poor Purdue has been throughout the majority of its football lifespan, particularly the last three seasons. The Boilermakers went 4-8 in 2023 before turning around and putting up 1-11 and 2-10 records in 2024 and 2025, respectively. The latter record came under then-first-year head coach Barry Odom, who, while respected as one of the most astute football minds in the business, always had his work cut out for him in terms of making Purdue a relevant entity in the Big Ten.

The same could be said about Wake Forest’s football history, too, though there’s been more success as of late. Regardless of the past, this weekend’s matchup presents both sides with the same test: Can you actually beat an opponent that possesses similar athletic ability and skill?

Purdue Players to Watch

Junior quarterback Ryan Browne will lead the way for the Boilermakers’ offense. He opened his season with a pretty good effort versus Indiana State, completing 23 of 29 passes for 317 yards and three touchdowns. The level of opponent will obviously be higher against Wake Forest, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can keep up the quality work on Saturday.

Browne won’t have to do it alone, either, with Purdue possessing some skill around him to make Wake Forest’s defense work considerably harder than it did against Akron. Watch out for junior wide receiver Asaad Waseem, who caught six passes for 107 yards and a touchdown versus Indiana State this past weekend.

Who Has the Edge?

This is where things get considerably more difficult to predict because neither team has given us enough evidence to confidently declare it significantly better than the other. Wake Forest looked good in its opener, but beating Akron at home is considerably different from going on the road and beating a Big Ten opponent. Purdue can make essentially the same argument after taking care of Indiana State, meaning Saturday should provide the first “real” data point for both teams.

Wake Forest does have the advantage of being further along in its current rebuild. Dickert exceeded expectations in Year 1, while Purdue was fairly lowly in the first season of Odom’s tenure in West Lafayette. The depths that he’s having to drag that program out of are so immense that it’s somewhat hard to explain.

That’s enough to give Wake Forest the slight edge, but there shouldn’t be much separating these teams. Purdue being at home matters, and Browne showed enough in Week 1 to make the Boilermakers appear dangerous if Wake Forest allows him to get comfortable. Deacs signal-caller Gio Lopez will obviously have something to say about that when he has the ball, which should make this matchup one of the more underrated of the weekend.