Lopez throws 3 TDs as Wake Forest opens 1-0 past Akron
Gio Lopez threw for 350 yards and 3 touchdowns in his Wake Forest debut, and Dickert still wasn't satisfied — now the Deacs turn to a desperate Purdue team in West Lafayette.
Lopez throws 3 TDs in his first start, and Dickert still wasn't sold
Nine days of Jake Dickert explaining why he trusted Gio Lopez with the job turned into one half of him proving it Thursday night. Lopez went 21-for-32 for 350 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 38-16 win over Akron, and two of those scores covered more ground than most entire drives do — a 72-yard strike to Antonio Meeks and a 78-yarder to Carlos Hernandez, both in the second quarter. Wake Forest's own account clocked it live as the most passing yards in a game for Lopez since 2024, and it wasn't even halftime yet.
Akron38-16Akron never had the answers. Redshirt freshman Cibastian Broughton made his first career start after Reese Poffenbarger sat out with an NCAA eligibility issue, and he went 21-for-26 for a modest 111 yards while the Zips didn't get on the board until a field goal right before half. Ty Clark III ran for 107 yards on just 7 carries, and Deuce Lawrence added a rushing score of his own — the ground game Dickert has been asking for showed up too, even if not every carry did.
The most passing yards in a game for @lopezgio1 since 2024. It ain't even halftime 😳 t.co/dpd4UESDZS
And still, Dickert wasn't fully sold. "Success can be an illusion," he said afterward, calling the team sloppy in phases and pointing at a defense that didn't finish the game the way he wanted, according to Last Word on College Football. It's the same coach who spent fall camp talking about a program with real excitement in it instead of last year's nerves — and one blowout in, he's already coaching like the next 11 games are what count.
Wake Forest is tied for the ACC lead, and Stanford just joined the teams with a loss
One week into the ACC and the Deacs are one of five teams still unbeaten, tied at 1-0 with Florida State, Miami, North Carolina and Virginia — nobody has played a conference game that counts toward the actual race yet, but Wake Forest gets to enjoy a share of first place in the box score. Georgia Tech and NC State are the two teams already sitting at 0-1, and Stanford has now dropped to 1-1 as well, a reminder of how fast a league table can tilt in September before anyone plays anyone in it.
None of it means much yet — this is a non-conference standings snapshot, not seeding — but it's a clean look while it lasts. The real ACC test doesn't start until Miami comes to Winston-Salem on September 18, and Dickert's team gets to build toward that with a spotless record and, in his own words, a real to-do list.
A desperate Purdue team gets the first shot at the Deacs on the road
Wake Forest travels on September 12 at Purdue, a program that hasn't beaten a Power Four opponent since 2023 and knows it. Barry Odom's team opened 1-0 behind quarterback Ryan Browne, though Odom spent his own postgame explaining away the self-inflicted penalties that nearly let a lesser opponent hang around — the kind of tape that gives a road favorite something to actually worry about. Wake Forest opened as a 3.5-point favorite and the total was set at 49.5, a number that reads on the low side for two teams that just combined for 82 points in their openers.
The Deacs will have to answer that without a full receiver room. Carlos Hernandez, who hauled in the 78-yard touchdown against Akron, left that game with a chest injury and is listed as Questionable for Purdue, per Covers' injury table — a genuine doubt, not a ruled-out, but one more thing for Dickert to manage on a short week that also brings his first true road test of the season.