Wake Forest vs Akron: The PrizePicks Play to Sweat on Thursday Night
Jovan gives his favorite PrizePicks square for Wake/Akron.
Jovan
CFB + MLB
GAME BETTING LINES
9/3 - 7:00 PM EDT
AKR
0-0
@
WAKE
0-0
This should pretty easily be the best Akron offense we’ve seen in a few years. CFB heads probably know the name Reese Poffenbarger, who transferred into FBS from Albany a few seasons ago but unfortunately got stuck behind Cam Ward at Miami and Drew Mestemaker at North Texas. He takes over a unit that wasn’t terrible last year, as Ben Finley kept the offense more than afloat in the MAC to lead them to 5 wins. At least we think. Somehow we still don’t have full clarity on whether Poffenbarger is eligible the day before the game. If we don't see Poffenbarger, it'll likely be Brayden Roggow who backed up Finley last year. Based on the lines on the game I think he’s playing but we don’t know for sure. I’ll bet that he plays and talk about it as such, but I like the play regardless of the QB.
I believe in Poffenbarger, and there’s a guy that I think has the potential to have a really good season with Reese throwing him the ball. After redshirting in 2024 he had a pretty decent 2025 as a freshman, tallying 33 catches for 481 yards and grabbing 5 TDs. He stands 5’9” 155 with a quick burst and plays a lot bigger than his frame. He should be able to get a good bit of usage over the middle of the field this season, where they used him as kind of a safety valve last year like you’d think of a tight end being.
To begin the year the Zips take on a tough Wake defense lead by Jake Dickert. But a tough defense where I think the veteran QB will look to get his speedy target the ball in space, especially with how tenacious this front seven will look against the Akron OL. And while that front seven will cause problems for the Zips, I still have some questions about the corners.
They graduate their two starting corners Karon Prunty and Lardarius Webb and replace from within (and with transfer Deuce Blades from FIU). The safeties should be rock solid, especially with Davaughn Patterson who’s a potential NFL guy. But I think the only way to attack this defense for either Akron QB is to get the ball out quick to your most explosive guy, which should be Mason. Not to mention the almost certain trailing gamescript should keep us alive all game if need be. Kyan could become a TNF legend on Week 1.
Betting Picks
