Villanova Football to play Wake Forest in 2020

It’s a game that had been on former longtime head coach Andy Talley’s wish list. With the originally scheduled game with Tulane being pushed back to 2027, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons have filled the vacancy with a showdown against the Villanova Wildcats.

On Wednesday, it was announced that the two teams will be meeting for the fifth time ever on Sept. 19, 2020.

The head-to-head series is split evenly between both teams. Villanova won the first-ever meeting back in 1952 in 20-0 shutout fashion, when the Demon Deacons came to play the Wildcats at Franklin Field.

It’s a game that would have a throwback feel to it. Wake Forest was the first opponent Villanova played when it joined the Division I-AA Yankee Conference back in 1988, completing the program’s rebuild under Talley—from restarting as a Division III program, in 1985, to a Division I-AA independent for the two seasons that followed that.

Now his successor, Mark Ferrante, will be facing the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest won the last matchup in 1988, winning 31-11.

Dave Clawson, the current head coach at Wake Forest, served as the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator from 1996-98.