What happened to SMU in north Texas was not just a beatdown. It was a shellacking of epic propositions by Wake Forest.
Wake Forest, the 13th-ranked team in the country, entered its road matchup against unranked SMU as a 2.5-point underdog and proved the oddsmakers just as wrong as College GameDay hosts Pat McAfee and Kirk Herbstreit.
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The two picked the surging SMU Mustangs during the College GameDay broadcast at Boise State, which featured Ian Johnson, the former Broncos running back who scored the game-winning two-point conversion against Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.
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Kirk Herbstreit pets his dog Peter during ESPN’s College GameDay on the Quad at the University of Alabama before the Alabama-Vanderbilt game on Oct. 4, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
Fast-forward to halftime — SMU was down 42-0. The game wasn’t close from the get-go, so McAfee and Herbstreit took to social media to provide a little humor and humility for their poor pick.
“We apologize to Wake [Forest]. Wake is real,” McAfee said as Herbstreit put his arm around his colleague.
Pat McAfee and the ESPN “College GameDay” crew appear on set in front of a crowd of college football fans. (Roger Wimmer/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
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“I don’t know what we were thinking,” McAfee added as Herbstreit agreed.
“Boy, were we wrong,” Herbstreit said with a sense of astonishment.
In my opinion, it wasn’t an awful pick. SMU has a high-powered offense that put up 51 on Virginia Tech last week, but as they acknowledged in the apology video, Wake Forest has looked great too. The Demon Deacons have averaged over 50 points over the last three games.
Pat McAfee takes the stage at ESPN College GameDay ahead of the University of Oklahoma–Michigan college football game in Norman, Oklahoma on Sept. 6, 2025. (IMAGN)
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Picking winners each week is not easy, unless you’re Steve Young, who went perfect as the guest picker when College GameDay visited BYU this season. But sometimes, when you’re wrong, you’re really wrong.
Wake Forest went on to win 49-7. So much for that prolific SMU offense.