List of Wake Forest Demon Deacons head football coaches

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons college football team represents Wake Forest University in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Demon Deacons compete as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 33 head coaches since it began play during the 1888 season. Since December 2024, Jake Dickert has served as head coach at Wake Forest.^[1]

Seven coaches have led Wake Forest in postseason bowl games: Peahead Walker, John Mackovic, Bill Dooley, Jim Caldwell, Jim Grobe, Dave Clawson, and Dickert. Two of those coaches also won conference championships: Cal Stoll and Grobe each captured one as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Peahead Walker is the leader in games won and seasons coached with 77 wins in his 14 years as head coach each. Hank Garrity has the highest winning percentage at 0.722. Bill Hildebrand has the lowest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with 0.175.

Key to symbols in coaches list
General		Overall		Conference		Postseason^{[A 1]}
No.	Order of coaches^{[A 2]}	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties^{[A 3]}	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage^{[A 4]}

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards^{[A 5]}
No.	Name^{[A 6]}	Season(s)^{[A 7]}	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	CW	CL	CT	C%	PW	PL	PT	CC	NC	Awards
1	W. C. Dowd	1888	1	1	0	0	1.000	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2	W. C. Riddick	1888–1889	6	3	3	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3	E. Walter Sikes	1891–1893	9	6	2	1	0.722	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4	A. P. Hall Jr.	1908	5	1	4	0	0.200	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5	A. T. Myers	1909	6	2	4	0	0.333	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
6	Reddy Rowe	1910	9	2	7	0	0.222	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
7	Frank Thompson	1911–1913	24	5	19	0	0.208	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
8	Wilbur C. Smith	1914–1915	16	6	10	0	0.375	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
9	G. M. Billings	1916	6	3	3	0	0.500	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
10	E. T. MacDonnell	1917	8	1	6	1	0.188	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
11	Harry Rabenhorst	1918–1919	11	3	8	0	0.273	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
12	James L. White	1920–1921	19	4	15	0	0.211	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
13	George Levene	1922	10	3	5	2	0.400	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
14	Hank Garrity	1923–1925	27	19	7	1	0.722	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
15	James A. Baldwin	1926–1927	20	7	10	3	0.425	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
16	Stan Cofall	1928	10	2	6	2	0.300	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
17	Pat Miller	1929–1932	37	18	15	4	0.541	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
18	Jim Weaver	1933–1936	33	10	23	1	0.309	2	3	0	0.400	—	—	—	0	—	—
19	Peahead Walker	1937–1950	134	77	51	6	0.597	53	33	5	0.610	1	1	0	0	—	—
20	Tom Rogers	1951–1955	50	21	25	4	0.460	16	14	2	0.531	0	0	0	0	—	—
21	Paul Amen	1956–1959	40	11	26	3	0.313	7	19	1	0.278	0	0	0	0	—	—
22	Bill Hildebrand	1960–1963	40	7	33	0	0.175	6	21	0	0.222	0	0	0	0	—	—
23	Bill Tate	1964–1968	50	17	32	1	0.350	13	18	1	0.422	0	0	0	0	—	—
24	Cal Stoll	1969–1971	32	15	17	0	0.469	9	9	0	0.500	0	0	0	1	—	—
25	Tom Harper	1972	11	2	9	0	0.182	1	5	0	0.167	0	0	0	0	—	—
26	Chuck Mills	1973–1977	55	11	43	1	0.209	6	23	1	0.217	0	0	0	0	—	—
27	John Mackovic	1978–1980	34	14	20	0	0.412	6	11	0	0.353	0	1	0	0	—	—
28	Al Groh	1981–1986	66	26	40	0	0.394	8	32	0	0.200	0	0	0	0	—	—
29	Bill Dooley	1987–1992	67	29	36	2	0.448	14	29	0	0.326	1	0	0	0	—	—
30	Jim Caldwell	1993–2000	89	26	63	0	0.292	12	52	0	0.188	1	0	0	0	—	—
31	Jim Grobe	2001–2013	159	77	82	—	0.484	42	62	—	0.404	3	2	—	1	—	AP College Football COY (2006) Bobby Dodd COY (2006) Sporting News COY (2006)
32	Dave Clawson	2014–2024	136	67	69	—	0.493	32	55	—	0.368	5	2	—	0	—	—
33	Jake Dickert	2025–present	13	9	4	—	0.692	4	4	—	0.500	1	0	—	0	—	—

v t e Wake Forest Demon Deacons football
Venues	Gore Field (1922–1939) Groves Stadium (1940–1955) Bowman Gray Stadium (1956–1967) Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium (1968–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Tobacco Road Duke North Carolina NC State
Culture & lore	Demon Deacon WakeyLeaks The 5th Quarter
People	Head coaches NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896–1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

List of Wake Forest Demon Deacons head football coaches

Coaches

Notes

References

Related Articles