Rebuilding a college football program today is a different endeavor than it used to be. In the age of unfettered player free agency, a coach has to rebuild on a yearly basis, and a long-term stamp on the program is difficult. It is with these circumstances that Jake Dickert begins his second rebuild at Wake Forest.
It’s one thing to take a team that went 4-8 the previous season and lost a boatload of talent to the transfer portal. It is a wholly different task to rebuild a team that you took to a 9-4 record in the previous system, including a bowl win. But a rebuild is what Dickert has to do in order to fill some huge holes in the roster.
A Different Type of Rebuild at Wake Forest
Going Over the Details
Dickert met with the media on Wednesday to talk about the players, new and returning, as his roster is now complete for the 2026 season. The press conference coincided with the first Wednesday in February, which used to be the signing day for high school recruits. Now that it happens in early December, Dickert has spent the rest of his time rebuilding through the portal.
Wake Forest is bringing in 42 new players, according to Dickert. There are 20 new players coming from the high school ranks and 22 through the portal. He added that there are 56 “holdovers,” or returning players. The total roster sits at 116 players, including walk-ons and DSA’s (non-scholarship designated student athletes whose spots are protected by the House v. NCAA settlement).
Dickert talked about the evaluation process in the current era, and Wake getting some transfers from smaller schools. “When you walk in these doors, nobody cares. Nobody cares where you came from,” he said, adding that the Deacs took a player from Dayton just as easily as they took one from LSU. “You’ve got to come in here, and you’ve got to make sure you are willing to put in the work. No one’s going to give it to you in our program.”
New Quarterback
Of utmost priority, at least on the surface, is the quarterback spot. Robby Ashford’s eligibility has expired. And the heir apparent, Deshawn Purdie, unexpectedly went into the transfer portal and moved on to Liberty University.
Dickert answered the need by signing Gio Lopez, the transfer from North Carolina. This will be Lopez’ third school in four years, having previously played two seasons at South Alabama prior to UNC last year. He is expected to be medically cleared to resume full workouts in a couple of weeks after suffering a right leg injury at the end of the 2025 season.
Lopez is already familiar with the Wake Forest offense. His offensive coordinator at South Alabama was current Wake Forest OC Rob Ezell.
“Here’s what I love. He’s got a chip on his shoulder,” Dickert said of his new quarterback. “He’s been told for the last four months that he’s not good enough. He has the type of DNA we need here to lead a football team.” Lopez’s best statistical year was his second season at South Alabama under Ezell. He threw for 2,559 yards, 18 touchdowns, and five interceptions.
The Running Back Room
There is also a significant departure at running back, where Demond Claiborne is now working on his hopes for an NFL contract. Wake already had depth with Ty Clark III and Jamar Searcy. They added transfer KD Daniels from Florida and Sawyer Seidl from North Dakota.
“This is going to be an ultra-competitive room,” Dickert assessed. “I think we know what Ty is. But I want what Ty can be.”
Rebuilding Areas
At the end of the 2025 season, Dickert said he knew the receiver room was going to be a rebuilding project. He said the recruiting effort was based on “dynamics over dimensions.” He said he feels good about the role returnees Bryce Kania and Jack Foley can play. Dickert also signed Chase Tyler from Duke. He said that Tyler will bring a high level of athleticism to the position. Dickert said there is also a lot of potential for Kam Shanks, the transfer from Arkansas, despite his 5’-8”, 169-pound frame. “Who’s going to be explosive and who’s going to put in the work to see how these guys most succeed in getting the ball.”
Dickert emphasized multiple times throughout the press conference the need to get bigger. When it comes to the incoming freshmen, he said in today’s pre-college football environment, personal trainers are over-emphasizing on-field athleticism. “Because of the trainers of some of these kids, they think development is a bad word,” Dickert said. “We are very detailed to the process of it,” he added. “Some of those freshman players are on such a developmental track,” he said, noting that many of them are lifting more in the weight room than they have ever done before. “We are in a bulk phase.”
The Line
Dickert said there is a need on his offensive line to get bigger and stronger. “I told the team, we’re not strong enough, physically,” he said. “And I think we have a lot of skills. I think we’re more explosive. And I think we’re faster. I’m looking to get stronger at the line of scrimmage.”
Part of that is the loss of Melvin Siani, who left Wake Forest within days of signing his 2026 agreement. Within three hours of going into the portal, he was signed by Texas. Dickert talked about the landscape of players being able to buy their way out of their contracts. He said the process has brought about what he called the most overused word, tampering. “As a sport, we need to honor contracts. If we don’t have the honoring of contracts in our game, what do we have?” He made it a point multiple times in the press conference to say that Wake Forest honors its contracts. He said the school will “Fully enforce the buyouts in the contracts.” Thus, Siani was allowed to leave by paying whatever the dollar amount was that the contract called for. Dickert thinks there could be help from the NFL in laying the groundwork for college football player movement.
Year to Year
The difference from year to year is clear in how the players came to be Demon Deacons for the 2026 season. In 2025, with Dickert in his first year, 12 players followed him from Washington State. Another eight followed their coaches as they took new jobs on the Wake Staff. There was a known product for at least 20 of the new players. “Now you’re looking at 22 high school guys who we really vetted, that we really know. And 20 guys through a quick process [in the portal] with skill sets that you like.” He said it is a different room and a different mentality than it was last year. It will also likely be different next year.
The New Vision
Dickert painted a picture of his recruiting trails coming off a 9-4 season. “What a difference a year makes. Just the reverberations of Wake Forest football in North Carolina has completely changed,” he said. He called the recruiting process very detailed, saying he has traveled to every corner of the state. “I don’t travel with an entourage. It’s just me out there. There’s no area recruiters. There’s no player personnel guy. There’s just me and my truck hitting North Carolina.”
Main Photo from Tony Siracusa
