{"id":86564,"date":"2026-04-08T09:17:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=86564"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:47:10","slug":"86564-wake-forest-installing-puzzle-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/04\/08\/86564-wake-forest-installing-puzzle-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake Forest Installing Puzzle Pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Wake Forest offense continues to move puzzle pieces around to find the right picture, they have two weeks left in Spring camp<\/a> to move the installation process along. Even with new players blending in at receiver, offensive line, and, of course, quarterback, the process of putting the big picture together is moving along better than some might have expected.<\/p>\n

Wake Forest Installing Puzzle Pieces<\/h2>\n

Quarterback coach Dan Enos said yesterday, \u201cI would say with the install, we are way further ahead [than the same time last yea<\/a>r]. That\u2019s really not a knock on the two guys who were here last year [quarterbacks Deshawn Purdie and Robby Ashford].\u201d Enos said last year\u2019s process was impacted by the fact that everyone was still finding their way. \u201cWe were all new last year. So you had coaches who were learning. All the players were learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with the presumed starting quarterback, Gio Lopez<\/a>, being new to Wake Forest, he is not new to the offense. He played under Wake’s offensive coordinator Rob Ezell when the two were at South Alabama in 2024. \u201cEven though he\u2019s been in the offense, you\u2019re constantly adding and subtracting and multiplying. So there\u2019s been some things that he has not been very familiar with that we\u2019re doing that\u2019s been great,\u201d Enos said.<\/p>\n

He added that having Steele Pizzella back for a second year has helped the entire quarterback position with installing the offense. \u201cYou have two guys that are very comfortable within the system. They are past basic math. They\u2019re past Algebra I. They\u2019re into the Algebra II\/Calculus range.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enos gave Lopez credit for bringing \u201ccalming poise\u201d to the huddle. \u201cHe has a veteran poise to him. He\u2019s played a lot of football and a lot of snaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding A Way<\/h2>\n

The Offensive Line Pieces<\/h3>\n

Part of putting the puzzle pieces together is on the offensive line. The build around returning veterans like George Steih, means melding in some talent from the transfer portal. Head coach Jake Dickert brought in five offensive linemen from the portal and signed one freshman lineman from the recruiting class.<\/p>\n

Will Way is going to be a redshirt junior in the upcoming season after transferring from Weber State. He played in 11 games last season for the Wildcats, his third season at Weber State.<\/p>\n

Adjusting to a New Line<\/h3>\n

The Wildcats beat McNeese State, Butler, Portland State, and Northern Arizona. They got beaten badly in their marquee FBS-level games against James Madison and Arizona early in the season.<\/p>\n

Way said some of the adjustment in coming to Wake in getting up to the speed of having bigger games each week. \u201cMy biggest thing that I wanted to work on was speed. Obviously, it\u2019s a different level moving up from FCS to Power Four,\u201d he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He said that adjustment determined his off-season workouts. \u201cI just had a bigger intent. I knew I would be on a bigger stage, and I knew I would have a bigger role.\u201d He said there was also the adjustment to the mental approach. \u201cBig fish, little pond type of deal [at Weber State] and then moving here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Way said offensive line coach Jared Kaster has been interchanging a lot of players on the line for depth purposes. Way said it is easier to get used to the same players on both sides of you every snap. But there is more work that goes into developing an entire unit. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to get repetitions with everybody, so that I am not just used to one person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adjusting to a New World<\/h3>\n

There was also the day-to-day change. The things you get at a Wake Forest-level school are far different from those at Weber State. \u201cWe have all this stuff that I was introduced to that I didn\u2019t have access to before,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, at first when I walked in, my eyes were probably like gumball-size, like a kid in a candy store.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he took pictures of all the workout facilities to send back to his mom and dad in Tucson, AZ. \u00a0Way is a particular fan of the sleep pods. \u201cI get in there and can take a good nap before some of my classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bigger adjustment is life in Arizona and then Utah to life in Winston-Salem. He said the North Carolina humidity is new for him. But when NC got a dousing of snow, he laughed at the reactions from his new neighbors, friends, and teammates. Having played in Ogden, Utah, he was used to snow. \u201cI went to Walmart just to get some paper towels for my apartment. And the shelves are bare, and I was like, \u2018What are we doing?\u2019<\/p>\n

Last week, defensive back transfer Deuce Blades, having grown up in South Florida, said it was the first time he had seen snow, and his car was stuck in the parking lot for three days. Way brought his Utah preparedness with him. \u201cI have a GMC [truck] so I was picking up guys, giving them rides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Main Image: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Wake Forest offense continues to move puzzle pieces around to find the right picture, they have two weeks left in Spring camp to move the installation process along. Even with new players blending in at receiver, offensive line, and, of course, quarterback, the process of putting the big picture together is moving along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":86575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,35643],"tags":[3010,9582,34724],"class_list":["post-86564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-featured","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-dan-enos","tag-jake-dickert","tag-rob-ezell"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86564"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86577,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86564\/revisions\/86577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}