QB Gio Lopez Looks to Prove Himself All Over Again

North Carolina Tar Heels starting quarterback candidate Gio Lopez will bring a new dimension to Bill Belichick's offense.

He comes from the University of South Alabama and the Sun Belt Conference. In the Sun Belt, they play mostly wide open offenses and play on a big stage, when the schools get paid to be served up as sacrificial lambs to the bigger schools.

Lopez wanted a change of scenery. He wanted to play with the big boys on a consistent basis. He wanted to come to a Power 4 school and show he belonged.

It wasn't always that way for Lopez. He arrived in South Alabama in 2023. He played behind Carter Bradley, who was recently waived by the Las Vegas Raiders. Lopez soaked everything up from Carter that he could and his brain turned into a sponge. Lopez saw some action in five games his freshman and took a redshirt.

"We went there with a plan," his father Barney Lopez said to 247Sports. "We knew we wanted the starting position, but we knew what we were coming into. We were coming in as a redshirt-freshman, they were going to give him his touches and get him prepared to take over the team the next year. So it was staying focused, staying humble."

Lopez then had to split reps the following season with Desmond Trotter. It was not until the middle of the season he won the starting job. It was a job he would never relinquish. Lopez was impressive in the games he started, but that was expected. He was very confident, even as a backup turned starter.

"Gio is very humble," Barney Lopez said. "Awards and all that don't mean a lot to him. It was just like, 'Dad, I expected that. I know what I came here to do. This is a job. I know what I came here to do. I know I came here to win it all. I came in to break records,' which he did at South Alabama.

"He goes, 'To me, that's just another notch on the belt of me accomplishing what I set forth to get done.' So it worked out beautifully. Yes, it gives you self-confidence and self-motivation to know you did all that. But like he said, he goes, 'I have unfinished business. Now I'm ready to take this team.'"

Lopez built off of his success and took it with him into the 2024 season. He started all 11 games and won the locker room over with his gutty play and skilled precision. He finished his career at USA with 3,034 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.

"Watching him take the team on his shoulders, and just know that that's where he belongs," Barney Lopez said. "The confidence in him every day to go out and lead a team, a Sun Belt team. I got to see my son's dreams come true in his eyes. And just to say I was proud and happy is an understatement. I get to say that I'm the father of a D-1 athlete who's doing it at a big level, and now say he made it to the P4 level. You can't put it into words, man, it's just overwhelming."

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