Whatever attitude adjustment head coach Jake Dickert gave to his Wake Forest team during the week, the Demon Deacons took it out on Virginia Saturday night at Allegacy Stadium. Wake pummeled Virginia 51-7 to improve to 7-1 on the season and 5-1 in ACC play. Coupled with SMU’s earlier loss at Syracuse, the Deacs are now in sole possession of second place in the ACC.
Wake Forest Takes Attitude Adjustment out on Virginia, 51-7
Gio Lopez Early Exit
The cost of the win is still to be determined. Up 37-0 in the third quarter, Wake quarterback Gio Lopez dropped back to pass and was leveled by the Cavaliers’ Matthew Fobbs-White. UVA got flagged for roughing the passer, but Lopez was on the ground, grabbing his right knee. After being tended to by trainers, he hobbled off the field on his own, even rejecting help from receiver Carlos Hernandez. After being examined in the trainers’ tent, he stayed on the sidelines with his teammates for the rest of the game. After the game, Dickert answered the question about why Lopez was still in the game with Wake holding such a big lead late in the third quarter. “I think it’s a fair question.” Dickert said he wanted to give his starter one more series. “Obviously we got a bad result there. I take that on me always.” According to Dickert, Lopez will be examined more thoroughly on Sunday.
Wake is not required to issue an injury/availability report next week because it is not a conference game. Lopez’s status may be a question mark for many days.
As for the game itself, the Deacs came out like a team that heard its coach’s message loud and clear. They scored on their first nine possessions of the game. “We really dominated from start to finish, Dickert said after the game, emphasizing the importance of getting off to a fast start.
Dickert told us on Wednesday that he was far from pleased with the effort from his team at practice. He felt they were resting on their 6-1 record and, coming off a bye week, they needed a fire lit under them. Dickert was the fire starter…