College Football Opening Night: No. 23 Wake Forest at Baylor

All the waiting. All the excitement. All those preview magazines later, college football is back, folks! Zombie Nation is proud to provide you with only the best Penn State and college football blogging, leading off with tonight's prime-time season opener. A talented Wake Forest team travels to the Lone Star State to take on the Baylor Bears. Can first-year head coach Art Briles lead Baylor to the upset? Or will Wake Forest return home a winner, starting off the season with a victory over one of the worst BCS conference teams? Let's find out.

Only two seasons ago, the Demon Deacons took home an improbable ACC title after defeating Georgia Tech in the championship game. While their season ended with a loss to Louisville in the Orange Bowl, it was an amazing run for Wake. Last year, Jim Grobe led his program to another bowl game, capped with a win over UConn to reach nine wins. This season Wake enters its campaign ranked in the preseason polls for the first time in the program's history. A win over Baylor would definitely keep them there. Look for star-QB Riley Skinner to pick apart the Bears secondary, setting up last season's ACC Rookie of the Year, Josh Adams.

The win won't look impressive on paper, but the Demon Deacon defense will smother the Bears ability to move the ball. Baylor will get on the board, but won't be able to gain enough traction to do any real damage. On defense, Baylor hasn't been able to stop any team in a long time, and that should be no different this season--even though I think former PSU-safties coach Brian Norwood will turn things around soon. But the real killer in this game will be the turnovers. Baylor gave the ball away 30 times in 2007. Wake took the ball away 35 times in 2007. This could get ugly.

Prediction: No. 23 Wake Forest, 27 - Baylor, 6