Gio Lopez starts as Wake Forest opens against Akron
Gio Lopez gets his first snaps as the starter tonight, Griffis waits behind him, and Wake Forest opens as a heavy favorite over an Akron team that may not even know its own quarterback.
Dickert says this year brings excitement, not last year's nerves
Gio Lopez has had the job since August 25, when Wake Forest named the North Carolina transfer its starter for 2026, and Jake Dickert spent this week explaining why he trusts it. "Last year there was a confidence thing. There was a nervousness people felt. This year, it's an excitement," Dickert said, according to The Ticket — drawing a line between last year's team and tonight's nine days before it mattered. Lopez arrives with 4,781 career passing yards and 32 touchdowns, plus 12 more on the ground, and a reunion with offensive coordinator Rob Ezell from the 2024 South Alabama team Dickert has pointed to as proof this is more than arm talent. "We can beat anybody if we don't beat ourselves. ... The pressure is a privilege, and our guys are ready to perform," Dickert said. Naming Lopez one of six team captains was the paperwork; that quote is the coach explaining why he did it.
Behind Lopez, Wake Forest isn't starting from zero at the position. Cole Griffis started for the Demon Deacons back in 2020 and has 10 career starts on his resume, most recently as the backup at Texas Tech, where he threw for 2,314 yards and 17 touchdowns in a scheme close to what new offensive coordinator Jordan Davis has brought over from North Texas, according to Pete Thamel. That's a QB2 who has already played meaningful snaps in a version of this offense — the kind of insurance policy a program installing a new starter and a new system in the same summer is glad to have.
Last season ended on a four-game run and a bowl win over Mississippi State
Whatever else changes for 2026, Wake Forest gets to open the season on the back of how last season actually finished. The Demon Deacons went 9-4 in Dickert's first year at the helm and closed it out by beating Mississippi State 43-29 in the Duke's Mayo Bowl on January 3, according to SI.com — the last of four wins in their final five games after a November 29 road loss to Duke.
That stretch is the only form on the board right now, even if none of it carries into an 0-0 season. Wake Forest won on the road at Virginia 16-9, handled North Carolina 28-12 and Delaware 52-14 at home, slipped only against Duke, and then closed last season out in January against Mississippi State. It's last season's finish, not last season's record, worth carrying into tonight's game.
A clean camp gives Dickert one number he loves: zero
Fall camp gave Dickert one number he was happy to repeat. "Zero season-ending injuries to this point, which is ultra-positive coming out of camp," he said — a rare clean bill of health for a program that spent the offseason patching its most exposed unit. Wake Forest went to the portal for its secondary, adding Deuce Blades from FIU and Bernard Causey from Georgia State, according to NCFootballNews.
It wasn't a spotless camp, either. Dickert called his group "a little sloppy" during one mid-August practice, and after another uneven session later in the month put it plainly: "We've come a long way. We've got a long way to go," according to Last Word on College Football — the normal texture of a program installing a new quarterback and a rebuilt secondary nine days from a game that counted.
Wake Forest doesn't even know who's throwing the ball for Akron
Wake Forest opens tonight vs. Akron as a heavy favorite, and part of the gap is that nobody's fully sure who lines up under center for the other side. Akron's presumed starter, Reese Poffenbarger, has been tangled in a medical-waiver eligibility fight for a sixth season, and as of late last week his status for tonight was still unresolved, according to Last Word on Sports. If he can't go, the job likely falls to Brayden Roggow, a redshirt freshman who appeared in only three games for the Zips in 2025 — which is a lot of unknown for a Wake Forest defense that otherwise knows exactly what it's getting: an Akron team that finished last season 19-16 over Bowling Green in its last game on the books.
The number tells the same story as the quarterback room. The line opened at Wake Forest -23.5 with the total set at 49.5, pricing this as one of the more lopsided, lower-scoring openers on the board tonight. Akron is 0-0 and hasn't played a snap of 2026 football yet, so this is as much a first look at the Deacons' new pieces as it is a real test of them.