Wake Forest names Gio Lopez starting quarterback
Wake Forest has its 2026 starting quarterback, and the pick says as much about who's calling plays as who's throwing the ball.
Gio Lopez has the keys
Wake Forest turned the page on its quarterback room for a third time in three years, and this time it went and got who it wanted. On Tuesday the program named North Carolina transfer Gio Lopez its starter for 2026, according to On3's Pete Nakos — a passer who has thrown for 4,781 career yards and 32 touchdowns, with 12 more scores on the ground, across stops at South Alabama and Chapel Hill.
The fit says more than the résumé. Lopez is walking back into an offense installed by Rob Ezell, his coordinator from that 2024 South Alabama team, which is why Wake Forest is treating this as a reunion rather than a reset. Jake Dickert, opening fall camp nine days out from the opener, framed the whole install the same way: "my whole focus for the next nine days is what's the style of football that is Wake Forest Demon Deacons in 2026?" Handing the huddle to a quarterback who already speaks Ezell's language is as direct an answer as a coach can give.
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How last season actually ended
Whatever else changes, Wake Forest ended last season on a signature note. The Demon Deacons closed out 2025 by beating Mississippi State 43-29 in their bowl game on January 3, capping a stretch in which they won four of their final five games after a November 29 road loss to Duke.
That run is also the closest thing to form this roster has right now. Wake Forest beat Virginia on the road, handled North Carolina and Delaware at home, and slipped only against Duke before closing the season with the bowl win over Mississippi State. None of it carries into a 0-0 season, but it's the last competitive football this group played — and it's why last season's finish, not last season's record, is the number worth remembering walking into September.
A clean bill of health and a patched secondary
Fall camp gave Dickert one number he was happy to repeat: zero. "Zero season-ending injuries to this point, which is ultra-positive coming out of camp," he said — a rare clean bill of health heading into a season opener, and one that matters more than usual for a program that spent the offseason patching its most exposed unit.
The secondary was the widely flagged concern coming out of last season, and Wake Forest went to the portal to fix it, adding Deuce Blades from FIU and Bernard Causey from Georgia State, according to NCFootballNews. Camp wasn't all clean, either — Dickert called his group "a little sloppy" during one mid-August practice and said it was time for some players to get out of their emotions and just play, the normal texture of a program still finding its identity nine days out from a game that counts.
Opening night comes with a number attached
Wake Forest opens the Lopez era Thursday night vs. Akron, and the market says this one won't be close: the line opened with Wake Forest favored by 23.5, with the total set at 49.5. That kind of number reflects a program comfortable enough with its own depth chart to treat Akron as a tune-up rather than a test.
History leans the same way. Wake Forest has won 10 of its last 11 season openers, per NCFootballNews, while Akron hasn't beaten an FBS opponent in a season opener since 2007. A total in the high 40s points toward a game where Wake Forest controls tempo and Lopez gets his first live look at Ezell's offense before the calendar turns to a real test — Wake Forest at Purdue on September 12.