Gio Lopez keeps stacking up games that look more like statements than box scores, and Wake Forest added another one Saturday in a home win over Virginia.
The Demon Deacons were in control from the start, and Lopez was at the center of it all. The dual-threat quarterback didn’t need to live downfield to make the Cavaliers pay. He opened by using his legs, and even with sacks counted against him, he still averaged 4.9 yards per carry.
That ground success changed the shape of the game. Virginia had to crowd the box and play underneath, and Lopez kept finding answers anyway. Carlos Hernandez, Lopez’s favorite target, was consistently available, and when he wasn’t, Lopez still kept the offense moving.
Wake Forest never let the game get away from its grip. The Deacs controlled every phase, and even when Lopez was knocked back behind the line on a sack, he was right back on schedule almost immediately. The offense was so efficient that Wake Forest didn’t attempt a punt all game.
It was another reminder of how much this season has been driven by Lopez. He has the sixth-highest QBR in Division I at 84.5, and his touchdown-to-interception ratio ranks second, behind only Darian Mensah. That kind of production has helped fuel Wake Forest’s best season in recent memory, with serious College Football Playoff talk now surrounding a program with less spending money than all but one team in the ACC.
The season-long picture keeps getting brighter, and this latest performance only adds to it. Lopez has been one of the premier quarterbacks in college football all year, and the resume keeps growing.
Heading into a non-conference game against Merrimack, Wake Forest needs to keep the balling rolling if they want a chance to play in the CFP.
In Other News...
Wake Forest Keeps Fueling A Bigger ACC Debate
Wake Forest stayed put in second place in the Week 10 ACC Football Power Rankings, a spot it has held for six straight weeks as the league picture continues to shuffle around it. The Demon Deacons are coming off a 51-7 win over Virginia, and that kind of result has kept them firmly in the conversation behind Miami, which remains the unanimous No. 1 team.
The bigger debate now is less about Wake Forest itself and more about how the rest of the ACC keeps rearranging underneath it. Louisville and Duke both moved up this week, creating more movement in the middle of the rankings, and the weekly list is still being shaped by a nine-person editorial staff weighing recent results and overall performance. Wake Forest has stayed steady, but the pressure around it keeps building. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forests Offense Gave Fans Little Hope At Vanderbilt
Wake Forests trip to Vanderbilt brought a familiar kind of frustration, the sort that can linger when a team does enough on one end to stay competitive but never finds any rhythm on the other. The Demon Deacons actually defended well enough to hold the Commodores to 38% shooting, yet the offense never matched that effort and the margin kept growing in a 23-point loss, the second straight season Vanderbilt has handled Wake Forest by a wide margin.
Kevair Kennedy tried to give the Deacs a spark with 20 points, and Gavin Placide added 10, but the scoring support never really arrived behind them. For a team looking to build something early, the concern is less about one bad night than the way the offense stalled even while the defense gave it a chance to hang around. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Showed Fight But One Problem Still Looks Concerning
Wake Forest had enough fight to make things interesting against No. 24 Vanderbilt, but the result still left the Demon Deacons at 1-1 and searching for cleaner execution in the spots that tend to decide close games. Kevair Kennedy led the way with 20 points, giving Wake Forest a scoring presence it can build around, while Vanderbilt leaned on Tyler Tanners 17 points and 10 rebounds to keep control when the game tightened.
The bigger concern was the kind of slippage that can undo a solid effort: Wake Forest struggled from long range and at the line, and Vanderbilt kept extending possessions with extra chances on the offensive glass. Those second-chance opportunities added up, and for a team trying to establish itself early in the season, the margin for error was thin enough to show exactly where the next step has to come from. [Read more 🡒]