Lopez throws 3 TDs as Wake Forest tops Akron 38-16
Gio Lopez threw for 350 yards and 3 touchdowns in his first start, and Jake Dickert still called the win sloppy.
Lopez throws 3 TDs in his first start, and Dickert still wasn't satisfied
Nine days of Jake Dickert explaining why he trusted Gio Lopez with the job turned into one half of him proving it. Lopez went 21-for-32 for 350 yards and 3 touchdowns in his Wake Forest debut, and two of those scores covered more ground than most drives do — a 72-yarder to Antonio Meeks and a 78-yarder to Carlos Hernandez, both in the second quarter, according to Field Level Media. Wake Forest's own account clocked it live: it was the most passing yards in a game for Lopez since 2024, and it wasn't even halftime yet.
Akron38-16Akron never had the pieces to answer. A redshirt freshman making his first career start after Reese Poffenbarger sat out with an NCAA eligibility issue went 21-for-26 for a modest 111 yards through the air, and the Zips didn't get on the board until a field goal right before the half. Ty Clark III added 107 yards on just 7 carries on the ground, per Field Level Media, and Deuce Lawrence punched in a rushing score of his own — the run game Dickert wanted 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," according to Last Word on College Football. It's the same coach who spent fall camp talking about a program with an excitement to it instead of last year's nerves — and one blowout in, he's already coaching like the next 11 are what count.
Wake Forest is tied for first in a league where 2 teams already have a loss
One week into the ACC and the Deacs are already bunched at the top with Florida State, North Carolina, Stanford and Virginia — five 1-0 teams sharing the table before anyone has played a conference game that counts toward the actual race. Georgia Tech and NC State are the two names already sitting at 0-1, a reminder of how fast a league table can tilt in September even when nothing in it is final.
| ACC | W | L | Pct | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Florida State | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | — |
 Georgia Tech | 0 | 1 | .000 | — |
 NC State | 0 | 1 | .000 | — |
 North Carolina | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | — |
 Stanford | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | — |
 Virginia | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | — |
 Wake Forest | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | — |
None of it means much yet — this is a non-conference standings snapshot, not seeding — but Wake Forest banked a possession-of-first-place look in the box score along with the win. The real ACC test doesn't start until Miami comes to Winston-Salem later this month, and Dickert's team gets to build toward that with a clean record and, per him, a real to-do list.
Next up: Purdue, fresh off a 56-3 beating by Indiana
Wake Forest heads out on the road on September 12 at Purdue, a Boilermakers team that closed last season getting run off its own field 56-3 by Indiana. That result is a year old, not a preview of what's waiting at Ross-Ade Stadium, but it's the only form on Purdue's side of the ledger right now against a Wake Forest offense that just put up nearly 400 yards in a single half.
Miami follows on September 18 back home in Winston-Salem, and that one is the actual measuring stick — an ACC opener against a program that finished last season 21-27 at Indiana. Purdue is the tune-up. Miami is when this column finds out whether Thursday night was the start of something or just the best team on the schedule showing up first.