WINSTON-SALEM – The road has been so kind to Wake Forest’s football team — two trips, two wins — the Deacons are heading back on it a day earlier than usual.

Well, that’s true … but leaving a day early this week was the plan long before the Deacons won at N.C. State and Connecticut earlier this month.

“I made that decision early in the year,” coach Dave Clawson said of this week’s travel arrangements, “because another great benefit with our schedule is you don’t know when you’re playing until — sometimes you don’t know until six days before, usually you know 12 days before.

“So, the logistics of going out to California, you’ve got to plan those things in the summer. … My concern was if we ended up having a 7:30 or 8 o’clock west coast kickoff time, you have to plan for that in case it is that way, and I would want to get out there early and adjust for the time change.”

Wake Forest will practice in Winston-Salem on Thursday and leave later that day ahead of its game against Stanford on Saturday. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. eastern, so the nighttime kickoff was dodged — but as Clawson explained, plans were set long before the time of this game was announced (which was a week ago, Oct. 14).

The Deacons will arrive in California around 5 p.m. PT, Clawson said.

This year is the first of three straight that involves a west coast trip. Wake Forest goes to Oregon State next year and to California in 2026. Wake’s next trip to Stanford won’t be until 2029 under the current ACC scheduling model.

“For the first time in my time here, we’re traveling to California and playing our ACC rival, Stanford,” said Clawson, those last few words, sharpening in tone. “So, I’m sure there’s a lot of bad blood and hatred that’s been built up by this rivalry.”

In case it doesn’t translate well: That last part was tongue-in-cheek.

While realignment tears apart traditional rivalries and pursuit of the almighty TV dollar resulted in the collapse of Stanford’s former conference, there’s a silver lining to this trip for the Deacons.

Sixth-year defensive tackle Kevin Pointer, from Jonesboro, Ark., is among the Deacons who has never been to California. Running back Tate Carney also said he had never been to the state.

“The hotel that we’re staying in, they said it’s pretty nice,” Pointer said. “I’m looking forward to that. We’ll be right across from the 49ers stadium, so it’s going to be fun just to see how the atmosphere is out there.”

Which brings up a cool Wake Forest connection.

Malik Mustapha is starting games at safety for the 49ers. The rookie was a fourth-round pick after leaving Wake Forest and has quickly established himself as a hard-hitting safety.

Though, he was on the receiving end of a hard hit this past weekend.

“I’ma definitely hit him up. If he’s not busy he should be able to come talk to us a little bit,” Pointer said, “so I can mess with him about Patrick Mahomes running him over.”

(to Mustapha's credit, he seems to be taking it in stride)