Wake Forest's new quarterback needed one half to make his ACC debut look effortless, and Akron never had the pieces to answer back.
Gio Lopez's first start at Wake Forest didn't take long to look like a formality. The UNC transfer completed 17 of 25 passes for 350 yards and 3 touchdowns, and he'd already thrown all 3 scores by halftime. Across the field, Akron trotted out Cibastian Broughton for his own college debut after projected starter Reese Poffenbarger got tangled up in an eligibility fight over the summer — a redshirt freshman getting thrown into a senior-laden ACC defense with almost no runway to prepare.
The mismatch showed up everywhere Wake Forest chose to attack. Antonio Meeks, a Louisville transfer, hauled in a 72-yard score, and Carlos Hernandez turned a short pass into a 78-yard touchdown before exiting with a midsection injury. Ty Clark III added 105 yards on just 7 carries. Akron came in having lost 3 starting offensive linemen to the portal, and it showed against a Demon Deacon front that returned defensive end Langston Hardy off a 2025 season of 7 sacks and 17 tackles for loss.
By the second quarter Wake Forest had built a 28-0 lead, the kind of start that turns a game into roster math. Head coach Jake Dickert rebuilt this roster through the portal after a 9-4 finish in 2025, bringing in 11 offensive transfers and 7 defensive ones, and night one answered the only real question about it — whether all those new pieces could play together on short notice. They could.
Hernandez's exit before halftime was the one sour note in an otherwise clean opener, and it's worth watching how the Wake Forest receiving room reshuffles if he's out any length of time — Meeks and tight end Kam Shanks, who added a 27-yard touchdown catch of his own, both showed they can carry snaps in his absence. Akron, for its part, got a look at what it actually has at quarterback: Broughton threw for 111 yards and ran for 82 in his debut, and backup Brayden Roggow closed the game with 2 touchdown passes once the outcome was long decided.
None of it changed the final read on this one. Wake Forest looked like the deeper, more experienced roster from the opening series, and Akron looked like a team playing its backup plan at the most important position on the field. The Zips will need Poffenbarger's situation resolved — or Broughton to grow up fast — before MAC play matters.
