Quarterback
Gio Lopez – 6’0”, 220 – 4th Year – N.C. A&T/S. Alabama/UNC
Week 1 Stats vs Akron – 21/32, 350 yards, 3 TDs, 7 Rushes, 39 Yards
Strength: Veteran signal caller with 1,464 career snaps under his belt. He’s careful with the ball, with a career interception rate of 1.8%. He’s mobile in the pocket, and while he can run, he’s normally looking to throw the ball when he escapes the pocket. He has above-average arm talent and showed nice touch on his deep ball in the opener.
Weakness: He can be a little too careful with the ball, especially when under pressure. North Carolina had a tough time scoring last season, in part because their quarterback threw only 10 touchdown passes. He’s athletic but isn’t a particularly good runner. His best rushing game of 2025 was a 44-yard performance against Charlotte.
He played his best against the bottom of the ACC, picking up his only 2 conference wins against Syracuse and Stanford, while failing to help the Tarheels crack 2o points in losses to TCU (14), UCF (9), Cal (18), UVA (16), Wake (12), and NC State (19).
Thoughts:
I watched Lopez in several UNC games last season and wasn’t impressed. He looked much better against Akron in the opener, but that’s closer to the level of team he was successful against when he played for South Alabama. Purdue needs to get pressure in the face of the 6’0” (a generous listing, in my opinion) quarterback, and the ends need to work in tandem to collapse the pocket around him instead of letting him escape out the back door and get into clean air where he can see everything down the field.
If you offer him a checkdown, he’ll probably take it. The Boilermaker defense needs to rally to the ball and not let a 2-yard pass end up as a 20-yard gain. Based on last week, I expect him to try to work the short, quick passing game until the safeties become fixated on what’s in front of them. Look for a few out-and-ups, slants-and-goes that test the discipline of Purdue’s deep safeties. He’s going to complete some passes; Purdue has to limit the damage and make Wake win 4 and 5 yards at a time.
In short, Purdue needs to be disciplined in their rush lanes, rally to the ball in the short and intermediate passing game, and not let the short passing game convince the safeties that he won’t throw it deep if given the opportunity. Stay patient and wait him out; he hasn’t been the type of quarterback to win a game on his own.
Running Back
Ty Clark III – 6’0”, 205 – 3rd Year – Wake
Week 1 vs Akron – 7 Rushes, 105 yards
OR
Deuce Lawrence – 5’7”, 195 – 1st Year – Wake
Week 1 vs Akron – 13 rushes, 52 Yards, 1 TD
Strength: This is a classic “thunder and lightning” pairing with Clark playing the role of thunder and Lawrence as the lightning. Clark broke off a 57-yard rush on an inside run against Akron. Purdue needs to look for Clark III in the A and B gaps and make him bounce the ball wide. Make him run horizontally because he’s tough to stop when he gets vertical.
Lawrence is the lighting; he led Wake in carries last week, but a good number of those carries came in garbage time after Clark was already on the bench. He’s on the small side, but Wake didn’t hesitate to run him between the tackles last week. He’s low to the ground and bounces off tackles if the defender doesn’t wrap up. He holds the Georgia High School record for rushing yards in a state championship game last season with a 380-yard, 5-touchdown outburst to help his Thomas County Central team to a Georgia Class 5A state championship.
Thoughts:
My thoughts are pretty much the same with these two backs as they are with Lopez. It’s all about limiting the big plays and making them earn it, 3 or 4 yards at a time. Clark is tough to tackle because he runs hard downhill; Lawrence is tough to get on the ground because he gets low, hides behind his linemen, and bounces off tackles from bigger players with his low center of gravity. Wrapping up will be at a premium for the Boilermaker defense on Saturday.
Wide Receiver
Slot
Kam Shanks – 5’8”, 170 – 4th Year – UAB/Arkansas
Week 1 vs Akron – 5 Rec, 55 Yds, 1 Td
Wide
Carlos Hernandez – 6’0”, 190 – 4th Year – Washington State
Week 1 vs Akron – 5 Rec, 165 Yds, 1 Td
Antonio Meeks – 6’1”, 205 – 5th Year – Tuskegee/Louisville
Week 1 vs Akron – 3 Rec, 93 Yds, 1 Td
Strength:
Shanks is an experienced slot receiver with the smarts to find holes in a zone defense and the quicks to play a role in Wake’s screen game. Hernandez carved up the Akron defense in the first half with his ability to run after the catch. Lopez is good at getting the ball out quickly, and Hernandez has the ability to turn a short pass into a long game. He put up his stats in the first half against the Zips. Meeks is Wake’s best deep target. One of his 3-receptions last week went for 72 yards and a touchdown. This group can attack a defense on all-3 levels and will be a challenge for Purdue’s secondary to both cover and tackle.
Thoughts: Hernandez took a shot to the ribs on one of his long runs against Akron and sat out the second half because he was having trouble catching his breath. That certainly seems like a rib injury. It sounds like he’s going to start, but the Boilermakers need to test out those ribs (legally, of course) early to see how he’s feeling. Sometimes rib injuries feel OK in practice and turn into something completely different during a game. If he’s not 100%, it will help Purdue’s cause, because he’s a tough receiver to get on the ground, and I’m still not sold on the Boilermakers’ tackling.
What concerns me is that Shanks is also a tough guy to stop once he has the ball in his hands. Tackling will be at a premium on Saturday. Wake and Lopez want to throw it short and have the receivers do most of the work after the catch. That was a knock Lopez at UNC last season; it appears the Demon Deacons are attempting to weaponize his dinking, dunking, and checking the ball down. Meeks is the change-up; offensive coordinator Rob Ezell wants to get the deep safeties interested in what Hernandez and Shanks are doing in front of them and then release Meeks down the seam.
Wake is going to complete short passes and pick up some first downs. Stopping Hernandez and Shanks close to where they catch the ball, while not losing their discipline in the deep middle, is the task for the Boilermaker secondary on Saturday. Hines and Saunders are both big corners who should be up to the task on the outside. Mister Clark will be tasked with slowing down Shanks. Smiley Bradford sat out the first game after missing a portion of fall camp for “personal reasons.” Hopefully that’s all cleared up, and one of Purdue’s best defensive backs is ready to help with this challenge.
Tight End
Will Loerzel – 6’5”, 250 – 3rd Year – Wake Forest
Week 1 vs Akron – No Stats
Thoughts:
Loerzel functions the same way Luca Puccinelli does in Purdue’s offense. That makes sense because Puccinelli transferred from Wake to Purdue. In essence, he’s an extra offensive lineman they can deploy when they need additional blocking in the run game or pass protection. One thing to note: when he’s in the game, the deep ball is in play because one of his jobs is to help keep Lopez upright to allow routes to develop further down the field.
Offensive Line
Left Tackle
Tolu Olajide – 6’4”, 305 – 5th Year – Stonehill/New Hampshire
Left Guard
Ryan Berger – 6’4”, 320 – 2nd Year – Oregon State
Center
John Ohnegian – 6’2”, 310 – 5th Year – Bucknell
Right Guard
Jack Hines – 6’8”, 310 – 2nd Year – Wake
Right Tackle
Aidan Martin – 6’6”, 295 – 2nd Year – Wake
Thoughts:
Against Akron, Wake focused their run game wide left, outside of Tolu Olajide (7 attempts), and in both A gaps (6 attempts). The defensive tackles holding up and shutting down A-gap runs, with help from the linebackers, will be a critical factor in the game. If Wake can run inside, it makes running outside much easier and also unlocks their play-action passing game. Purdue needs to control this run game with their defensive line and linebackers and keep the safeties out of the run game as much as possible. Lopez is a veteran; if he notices the safeties cheating up to stop the run game, he’ll eventually hit Meeks over the top.
Left tackle Tolu Olajide and center John Ohnegiuan made their FBS debuts last week against Akron and didn’t seem to have any issues. Purdue isn’t Akron; I expect the Boilermakers to throw some different looks at this offensive line to see how they handle stunts and twists. My guess is you’ll also see a couple of different defensive ends get a chance to go one-on-one with Olajide in obvious passing downs. He may be up to the task, but I think it’s a good idea to check and make sure.
Wake wants to get the ball out quickly. If Purdue can find a way to either knock down a couple of passes or make immediate tackles and get the offense off schedule, the pass rush has a chance to challenge this offensive line on 3rd-down. You can’t rush the passer if the quarterback gets rid of the ball as soon as it hits his hands. Winning 1st and 2nd down keeps the ball in Lopez’s hands longer. That’s the goal.
Overall
Is Wake a world beater on offense, or is Akron bad at defense? I’d say it’s a little bit of A and a good bit of B. If Lopez can throw quick stuff that turns into long stuff, it’s going to be a long day for the Boilermakers. The Zips struggled to tackle and got blown out.
If Purdue struggles to tackle, they could (and probably will) face a similar fate.
If Purdue rallies to the ball and limits yards after the catch, Wake will be in trouble because their offense is built around keeping things on schedule with an inside-run game and quick-hitting passes. That makes the game easy for Gio Lopez, and when the game is easy, he’s a good quarterback. From what I saw of him at UNC last season, when the game gets hard, he’s not nearly as effective. If you can get him in 3rd and long, he’ll throw the 2-yard check-down with little provocation and live with the results.
A strong tackling game from Kevin Kane’s defense on Saturday would go a long way toward securing a crucial win for Barry Odom and silencing everyone who questioned his decision to bring Coach Kane back into the fold, despite being permeated with the stench of the Ryan Walters error, excuse me, era.
The risk of bringing Kane back is that his defense doesn’t tackle well in this game, and the fanbase lights the torches and sharpens the pitchforks.
We’ll all get to see how this plays out together. I have no idea how Wake will look against a Big 10 defense, and I have no idea how this Big 10 defense will look against a confident Power 4 opponent.
As I always say, if I knew how this was going to play out, I’d move to Vegas, and y’all would never hear from me again. I’m hoping for the best and expecting the worst.
Such is the Purdue football experience.
