Wake is 2.5-point favorite over UVA, will start 25-year-old QB

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia could face two Wake Forest quarterbacks when the Cavaliers have their first road test Saturday night in Winston-Salem.

UVA (1-0) is a 2.5-point underdog at Wake (1-0) for the 7-p.m. game (ESPN2). The Demon Deacons opened last weekend with an easy win over North Carolina A&T, a game in which Coach Dave Clawson played both quarterbacks, Hank Bachmeier and Michael Kern (both seniors).

“Hank’s going to start this game,” Clawson said Tuesday. “We’re still repping Hank and Michael with the ones. We don’t necessarily have a predetermined plan, but we’d like to get Michael in there.”

Bachmeier is a 25-year-old who has started games in five previous college seasons (at Boise State and last year at Louisiana Tech). He passed for more than 3,000 yards in 2021 at Boise and more than 2,000 last year at Louisiana Tech.

Wake had a quarterback battle in training camp just as Virginia did, but the battle carried over to last Saturday’s opening game in Winston. Kern actually started the game, the third start of his career, and was 5 for 8 for 57 yards.

Bachmeier was 18 for 28 in that game for 263 yards and three touchdowns, including no turnovers.

“I’m not ready to declare this over, but Hank played really well,” Clawson said at his press conference. “When he was in there, I thought we got into a rhythm and had those two drives at the end of the first half and then we scored on every drive of the second half.

“We’re going to need two quarterbacks, but we made a decision based on the last game that we’re going to go with Hank, a little bit in terms of how he moved the team. I don’t necessarily think Michael played poorly, but things maybe broke a little better for Hank and he took advantage of it.”

Wake is coming off a 4-8 season in 2023, ending a string of seven consecutive bowl appearances. After opening up 3-0, the Deacs lost 8 of their last 9 games.

Saturday night’s game will be the first between UVA and Wake since 2021, and the Cavaliers have lost their last five meetings with the Demon Deacons.

Virginia hasn’t beaten Wake Forest since the 2007 season, when Al Groh was head coach of the Cavaliers. UVA hasn’t won its ACC opening game since 2020, a 38-20 victory over Duke.

In Virginia’s last dozen ACC games, nine of them were decided by a touchdown or less and seven of those by four points or less. Last season, the Wahoos were 2-5 in games decided by one score.