Wake Forest Athletics
With Familiarity and Comfort, Lopez Ready for 2026 Season at Wake Forest
8/18/2026 1:30:00 PM | Football
Gio Lopez drove himself to Wake Forest the day after he entered the transfer portal.
There was no official visit scheduled, no drawn-out recruitment process and no weighing of options over several weeks.
He had spent a season at North Carolina playing for Bill Belichick, the most decorated coach in NFL history in his first college head-coaching job, and when that chapter ended, Lopez knew almost immediately where he wanted to go next. He drove down to Winston-Salem, sat with offensive coordinator Rob Ezell and head coach Jake Dickert, and by the time he left campus, his mind was made up.
"After I met with Coach Ezell and Coach Dickert, I knew I didn't need to go anywhere else," Lopez said. "I know where I want to be."
The 6-foot, 203-pound redshirt junior from Madison, Ala., arrives at Wake Forest as the most experienced quarterback on the roster and one of the more intriguing portal additions in the ACC this cycle.
His path to Winston-Salem — South Alabama, then North Carolina, now Wake Forest — is the kind of journey that would have been unheard of in college football a mere decade ago and has become almost routine in the NIL era. For Lopez, each stop taught him something different, and he's carrying all of it into what figures to be the most important season of his career.
The story begins in Mobile. South Alabama was the first program that truly believed in Lopez, offering him a scholarship while he was still recovering from shoulder surgery in high school — a gesture that he has never forgotten and never will.
"It meant the world to me," Lopez said. "It's always a great place in my heart."
He rewarded that faith. After redshirting as a freshman and winning the MVP of the 68 Ventures Bowl, Lopez emerged in 2024 as one of the Sun Belt's most productive quarterbacks, starting 11 of South Alabama's 13 games and averaging 274.7 yards of total offense per game — good for 22nd nationally.
He threw for 2,557 yards and 18 touchdowns against just five interceptions, completed 65.9 percent of his passes and added 465 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on the ground. He set the program's single-game total offense record in the opener against North Texas with 494 yards and earned All-Sun Belt Honorable Mention honors. The offense he ran was built by Ezell, who perhaps knows Lopez as well as any coach in college football.
When Ezell left South Alabama for Wake Forest ahead of the 2025 season, Lopez entered the transfer portal and landed at North Carolina, where Belichick — with seven Super Bowl rings, one of the most decorated football minds in American history — was beginning his first season as a college head coach.
"I got my opportunity to play at North Carolina," Lopez said. "So I'm thankful for every opportunity I had. I got to learn a lot there."
He started 11 games for the Tar Heels in 2025, completing 65.1 percent of his passes for 1,747 yards with 10 touchdown passes and adding 133 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground. He had six games with a completion percentage of 65 percent or higher, including four above 70 percent, with standout performances at Syracuse (15-of-19, 216 yards, two touchdowns) and against Stanford (18-of-25, 203 yards, two touchdowns). The numbers were solid. But when the portal opened again, Lopez followed his instincts — and they led him back to Ezell.
Getting reimmersed in the offense he had run at South Alabama was, he said, like riding a bike.
"I got back in the playbook and remembered everything," Lopez said. "All the checks, all the protection checks. Just a little bit of verbiage difference, but it's the same plays. I'm like, 'Oh, this is this — I know what this is.' It feels like I've never left it, honestly."
That familiarity gave Lopez the ability to function as a teacher from the moment he arrived in Winston-Salem, helping incoming transfers and freshmen compress a learning curve that would otherwise eat up weeks of spring camp.
"Knowing the playbook was able to be helpful for everybody," he said. "I could help the new guys, the transfers, the freshmen. But for me to be a leader, it was more about showing up every day and making sure I'm first one in, last one out. Leading by example and leading from the front."
Those younger quarterbacks — freshmen Gannon Jones, Grant Lawless and Billy Johnson, along with redshirt freshman Steele Pizzella — have become people Lopez thinks about in terms that echo how he once thought about his own mentors.
"I remember when I was a freshman having Carter Bradley and Desmond Trotter and Tanner McGee," he said. "I remember those guys like yesterday. I just want to be able to do the same for Steele and Grant and Gannon and even Billy — being able to help those guys out and make sure we're building a forever connection."
One of the adjustments that came naturally was the practice environment under Dickert. Lopez had experienced two distinct cultures before arriving at Wake Forest: South Alabama, where music played and the energy was high; and North Carolina under Belichick, where the atmosphere was buttoned-up and businesslike in the way you'd expect from a man who ran the New England Patriots for two decades.
"When I was at South Alabama, we had music playing, but it was more intense," Lopez said. "And at UNC, it felt like you were really in a serious, business environment. And it was. But coming here, it kind of brings joy to the game. You see guys bouncing around, singing along to the music, jumping around. You remember what football's all about.
"It's a game you enjoyed playing when you were four or five years old. Coach Dickert does a great job making sure we're having fun. At the end of the day it's a business and we want to win, but he makes sure we're enjoying ourselves while we're on the field. He's not just beating us down 24/7."
Dickert was, in fact, a major factor in Lopez's decision — perhaps as much as the Ezell connection.
"What really sold it for me was Coach Dickert," he said. "Getting to meet with him, seeing his standards and seeing how he carries himself. I've never met a coach that's so empowering and makes sure you're doing the right things. You're not just a player, a number to him. You're a real kid, a person. He treats you like that."
He was asked whether the version of Dickert he encountered in recruitment had held up once he got to campus.
"He's been the same guy through and through," Lopez said. "The pitch he gave me to get me here is the same guy he's been. Super supportive, but also stern and honest. He's never beating you down in a bad light, but he's teaching you what to do, what not to do, what we need to get better at. Very honest and upfront. And I love playing for him."
The academic adjustment from one school to the next has also been part of the journey. At South Alabama, Lopez did most of his coursework online. At North Carolina, he was in-person with afternoon practices that meant he wasn't getting home until 7:30 p.m. Wake Forest flipped that schedule entirely — early mornings, done by midday, then film and academics in the afternoon.
"Adjusting to Wake Forest has been a lot better than I expected," he said. "The classes are smaller, so you get a lot more attention from your teachers and get to know them on a personal level. They're very helpful here. It's a lot easier, honestly."
Off the field, Lopez is about as far from the social media-saturated culture of college athletics as you can get. He fills the time instead with walks around Winston-Salem with his French bulldog, Sosa — who turned two recently and whom Lopez describes without irony as his best friend — and books. He's currently working through the myth of Sisyphus.
"Social media is so time-consuming," he said. "You don't realize how much you're on it until you get off it. For me, not focusing on it makes me more productive throughout the day. If I don't know what to do, I grab my book, walk Sosa, and get outside. Social media is about comparison. You're just comparing yourself all the time, doing it for the likes and the views.
"Not having that has given me a clearer mind. Some people might say I'm an old head, but I think it's been beneficial."
Family is the other constant. Lopez grew up close-knit in Madison — older siblings he describes as the best he could ask for, parents who have been his backbone through every high and low of a career that has seen more change than most. His father, Barney Lopez, is his best friend. When Lopez had what he described as one of the lowest points of his football life — a performance against TCU during the 2025 season that shook him — it was his father who pulled him back up.
"My dad was just really supportive, picking me up, making sure I was keeping my head up, making sure I was attacking the next game," Lopez said. "Realistically in life, it's going to be a lot worse than just a football game. But for me, at a young age, that was something I'd never really dealt with. My dad really picked me up and made sure I had my head right for the next game."
One of the things that has come to matter most to Lopez as his career has progressed is what he can do for the people around him — not with his arm or his legs, but with resources. A New York Times feature noted that Lopez purchased a fence for his sister Shelby's home in Alabama so her daughter Kalani could run and play safely in the yard. He talked about it with a warmth that made clear it was the best money he's spent.
"My favorite purchase in the world is being able to see her run around," he said. "Hearing my sister send me a video of Kalani just running around — being able to know I could provide that for my sister was an amazing feeling. It just warmed my heart."
As for what he and the Demon Deacons are capable of in 2026, Lopez is characteristically team-first about it. He isn't particularly interested in personal statistics. He's interested in winning football games, and he thinks there's a lot of that ahead.
"I think we're capable of winning a lot of games," he said. "For me on a personal level, I just want to win games. I'm not a big stat person. As I've grown older, I've realized I just want to win games and I don't care how it looks. If we can just win games, then as a quarterback, you're doing the right thing."
He paused and thought for a moment about the journey — South Alabama, North Carolina and now Wake Forest, where on opening day he'll take the field in black and gold for the first time.
"It's been a ride," he said. "But it's been an experience, one of one, of course."
