Among those great players that Miami (2-0, 1-0 ACC) will have to contend with is quarterback Gio Lopez, a redshirt junior who joined the Demon Deacons after playing at South Alabama and North Carolina, where last season he threw for 1,747 yards and 10 touchdowns as a starter.<\/p>\n
Through Wake\u2019s first two games of the season \u2013 wins over Akron and a double-overtime victory over Purdue \u2013 Lopez has accounted for six touchdowns, including two rushing touchdowns and a passing touchdown against the Boilermakers. He also scored on the game-winning two-point conversion for the Demon Deacons (2-0, 0-0 ACC).<\/p>\n
Lopez has thrown for 575 yards and four touchdowns, while rushing for another 98 yards and two scores and the Hurricanes expect his experience and mobility will make him a challenge to defend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching him, he\u2019s a very intense, explosive guy,\u201d defensive lineman Armondo Blount<\/a> said of Lopez. \u201cWe just have to be very detailed in our work, very detailed in our steps, things like that. He\u2019s a shifty guy in the open field. He\u2019ll take gaps. He can scramble from any window and throw from any window. That\u2019s what I noticed about him.\u201d<\/p>\n Said defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman, \u201cThe quarterback makes a lot happen. Going all the way back, we\u2019ve been watching South Alabama stuff, we\u2019re watching the North Carolina stuff and obviously, we\u2019re watching the first two games this year. He extends plays. He makes guys miss. He makes a lot of things happen in the run game. He gets the ball up in the perimeter fast. \u2026 I think he\u2019s a very dynamic player and I think he makes them very good on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n Joining Lopez in making plays for the Demon Deacons offense is wide receiver Carlos Hernandez, who has totaled more than 700 receiving yards in his last five games dating back to last season, and running back Ty Clark III, who is averaging 7.4 yards per carry through Wake\u2019s first two games.<\/p>\n Defensively, the Demon Deacons are allowing an average of 380.0 yards per game and have totaled 15 tackles for loss and five sacks in their wins over Akron and Purdue.<\/p>\n And Miami offensive lineman Ryan Rodriguez<\/a> made it clear that protecting quarterback Darian Mensah<\/a> against Wake Forest\u2019s veteran defensive front will be a priority.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir front seven is very experienced,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cTheir starting four d-linemen are all seniors. They\u2019ve all played last year. They\u2019re returning. Their linebackers are veterans. They\u2019ve been there and they\u2019re all experienced and they know what to do. They play hard, they play physical and it\u2019s going to be a great challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among those great players that Miami (2-0, 1-0 ACC) will have to contend with is quarterback Gio Lopez,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-403378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}