Wake Forest Demon Deacons vs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Preview and Pick

In what seemed like a very unlikely match-up in the pre-season, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons meet the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game Saturday afternoon at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville.

Saturday’s conference title game winner will play in the Orange Bowl in Miami on Jan. 2 against a BCS at-large team.

Wake Forest, the champs of the ACC’s Atlantic Division, started out this season 5-0, then lost to Clemson, then won four more games in a row, then lost to Virginia Tech before beating Maryland last week 38-24 in College Park to clinch a berth in this championship game.

Georgia Tech, champs of the ACC Coastal Division, opened its season with a 14-10 loss to Notre Dame. The Yellow Jackets then won five in a row, lost at Clemson, then won four more in a row before losing at Georgia last week 15-12.

These two teams have played five common opponents this season. Wake beat Maryland (38-24), North Carolina (24-17) and North Carolina State (25-23), and lost to Virginia Tech (27-6) and Clemson (27-17). On the other side, G Tech beat the Terrapins (27-23), the Hokies (38-27), the Tar Heels (7-0) and the Wolfpack (31-23), and lost to the Tigers (31-7).

The Deacons and the Wreck didn’t meet this season. Last year, Georgia Tech beat Wake Forest 30-17.

This season, the Deacons are 7-4 against the spread, while the Yellow Jackets are 6-4-1 vs. the number.

The Wake offense ranks 97th in Division 1 (out of 119 teams) in total offense at 302 yards per game, while the Demon Deacon defense ranks 42nd in total defense at 315.5 YPG.

The Georgia Tech offense ranks 73rd in D1 with 324 yards per game, while the Wreck defense ranks 20th at 289.5 yards allowed per game.

Wake QB Riley Skinner, since taking over for the injured Ben Mauk, has completed 67% of his passes and owns an 8/4 TD/INT ratio. But the Deacon passing game ranked dead last in the ACC at 144 passing yards per game.

Scatter-armed GT QB Reggie Ball has only hit on 46% of his passes this season but owns a respectable 20/12 TD/INT ratio.

Wake Forest is outrushing opponents this season by a 158-101 yards-per-game average.

Georgia Tech is outgrounding foes by a 164-88 YPG margin this season.

These teams are two of the better squads in the country at holding on to the ball. Wake ranks tied for 6th in D1 in turnover margin at +12, while GT ranks 24th at +7.

The Jackets rank 47th in average time-of-possession at 30:15, while the Deacons rank 61st at 29:52.

The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com rank the Yellow Jackets 41st at 76.8, the Demon Deacons 44th at 76.5.

The O/U is 3-8 in Wake games this season, 6-5 in Tech games.

This game opened on the betting boards with a total of 42, but that number has been bet down to around 40.