Will Gio Lopez Be Limited Saturday at Louisville?
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This weekend's game between Louisville and Wake Forest has all the makings of a shootout. However, a wrinkle in the Demon Deacons' plans emerged when Gio Lopez was listed as questionable on Wednesday's injury report. This turned heads for a lot of fans who were obviously concerned about seeing their X-factor quarterback on the injury report.
One question was unanimously posed: Will Gio Lopez play for Wake Forest on Saturday?
Luckily for us, we now have a clearer answer.
On Jake Dickert's weekly radio show Thursday night, Gio Lopez was this week's special guest. When speaking about Lopez, Dickert said: "I can confirm for all the Louisville fans watching, he didn't come up here with a wheelchair; he's gonna be ready to go. Had a great day of practice today; he's feeling in rhythm, and he's a tough son of a gun."
Gio's status on the Thursday injury report was also upgraded to probable, so Deac fans should be reassured that he will almost certainly be good to go on Saturday. With that being said, the question still remains: will Gio truly be at full strength?
For Wake to pull off a big road upset, they will need Gio Lopez at his best and the offense as a whole at their best. One of Gio's biggest strengths this season has been his mobility and ability to take off on the run when the pocket collapses. In fact, Gio has the second-highest rushing grade among ACC quarterbacks. This was especially true at the end of the Purdue game, where Wake often ran Lopez's legs late in overtime.
As is true with all rushing quarterbacks, hits start to pile up. This is in addition to coming off a week when Lopez was hit multiple times against a ferocious Miami pass rush. It is fair to ask if all these hits will have an effect on Gio's performance this weekend against the Cardinals.
We all know that Gio is a fierce competitor and will do everything it takes to get this time over the line, but the question of whether he will be physically able to execute at the highest level is sure to be on everyone's mind going into this one.
All of this just adds another wrinkle to an already exciting matchup that could absolutely turn into a very high-scoring affair. My bet is that we will see Gio continue the positive momentum from the start of this season, and he will have this offense firing on all cylinders. Am I right? We will have to wait and see.
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Justin is a student at Wake Forest University. He is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and aspiring finance major interested everything sports. In his freshman year, Justin completed an internship with the Wake Forest Ticketing Department where he gained some valuable insight into the sales and operations aspects of collegiate athletics. Before working with Wake Forest On SI, Justin was a contributing writer for Wake Forest’s student publication The Old Gold and Black. Currently, Justin serves as a student manager on the Wake Forest Men’s Tennis team. In his free time Justin enjoys spending time with his family and friends on the golf course and traveling.