Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes is expected back next season amid the Demon Deacons’ turbulent 2025-26 campaign. Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman reported the news on Tuesday morning.

Per Goodman, Forbes has the support of Wake Forest AD John Currie. Across six seasons with the program, Forbes has led Wake Forest to a 106-78 (55-57) record. It, however, has not made the NCAA Tournament in that span, and does not appear to be on that track this year. Wake is 14-13 (5-9) this season.

BREAKING: Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes has the support of AD John Currie and is expected to be the head coach next season for Year 7, barring something crazy happening, source told @TheFieldOf68.

FULL COACHING CAROUSEL RUNDOWN:https://t.co/J1qUGkCG8J

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 24, 2026

Forbes was lauded as a slam dunk hire for Wake Forest prior to the 2020-21 season. Previously at East Tennessee State, Forbes led the Buccaneers to a 130-43 record and two Southern Conference titles. This resulted in a Round of 64 appearance in 2017 and a scheduled appearance in the 2020 NCAA Tournament, before it was canceled.

The Demon Deacons have reached 20-plus wins in three seasons under Forbes, but have been relegated to two NIT appearances. While Wake Forest advanced to the Quarterfinals in 2022, it was knocked out in the Second Round in 2024. Wake Forest has not been selected to the NCAA Tournament since 2017, has not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2010, and has not advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2004 (led by future NBA Hall of Famer Chris Paul).

Wake Forest has nosedived following promising start to season

This season actually opened quite strongly for Wake, as it won six of its first eight games. The two losses, which came against National Championship contenders in No. 6 Michigan and No. 15 Texas Tech, both came by one point each. Since the Demon Deacons’ 6-2 start, they have gone just 8-11 overall.

“Just stay confident in the process, stay confident in what we’re doing in practice, what we’re doing as far as the game plan,” Forbes said about the season last week. “Having a next-game, next-play mentality. I’ve said this ever since I’ve been a head coach: Teams are either getting better or worse ever since I became a head coach. These guys have come every day, punched the clock, put the work in. Some of it is just some confidence issues late in the game, some of it is execution issues late in the game.”

His impending return next season makes the 2026-27 campaign a ‘must-deliver’ for Wake Forest. In an extremely competitive ACC, the Demon Deacons have never finished higher than fourth in the conference under Forbes.