Danny Karnik

Football

Week 1 Thursday Night Preview: Doubleheader Opens Five Straight Days of ACC Football

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) - The ACC kicks off five straight days of football on Thursday, September 3, with a pair of primetime matchups featuring Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. The Demon Deacons host Akron at 7 p.m. ET on ACC Network before the Yellow Jackets welcome Colorado to Atlanta at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Thursday night doubleheader begins a stretch of 12 games featuring 14 ACC teams from Thursday through Labor Day Monday.
 
The Week 1 slate reinforces the ACC’s commitment to playing a challenging non-conference schedule and providing national exposure for its programs. The ACC leads all conferences with five Power Four non-conference games this week, while seven of the nine Week 1 games nationally matching Power Four opponents – or Notre Dame – feature at least one ACC team. The conference enters the week with momentum after going 3-0 in non-conference play during Week 0 and outscoring its opponents 86-54.
 

Thursday, September 3
Akron at Wake Forest | 7 p.m. ET
Series: First-ever meeting
Last meeting: N/A
TV: ACC Network
SiriusXM Radio: SiriusXM 173 / SiriusXM 234
SiriusXM App: SiriusXM 958
  • Wake Forest opens its 124th season of football and its second under head coach Jake Dickert with a Thursday night matchup against Akron.
  • It is the first-ever meeting between the Demon Deacons and the Zips.
  • The Demon Deacons are coming off a 9-4 season—the fourth nine-win campaign in program history. Dickert’s nine victories were the most by a first-year head coach in Wake Forest history.
  • Defensive lineman Langston Hardy returns after leading the ACC and ranking fifth nationally with 17.0 tackles-for-loss in 2025.
  • Wide receiver and return specialist Carlos Hernandez headlines the Wake Forest offense after recording 611 receiving yards, four offensive touchdowns and an 88-yard punt-return touchdown last season.
  • Wake Forest added quarterback Gio Lopez, who started 11 games at North Carolina in 2025 and completed 65.1 percent of his passes for 1,747 yards and 10 touchdowns.
  • Akron enters its fifth season under head coach Joe Moorhead after finishing 5-7 overall and 4-4 in Mid-American Conference play in 2025.
  • Running back Jordan Gant, a Maxwell Award watch list selection, rushed for 1,032 yards and six touchdowns while averaging 4.8 yards per carry last season.
  • Graduate quarterback Reese Poffenbarger joined Akron after previous stops at Old Dominion, UAlbany, Miami and North Texas. At UAlbany in 2023, he led the FCS with 3,603 passing yards and threw 36 touchdown passes while helping the Great Danes reach the national semifinals.
 

Thursday, September 3
Colorado at Georgia Tech | 8 p.m. ET
Series: Georgia Tech leads series, 1-0
Last meeting: Georgia Tech, 27-20 (2025)
TV: ESPN
SiriusXM Radio: SiriusXM 84
SiriusXM App: SiriusXM 84
  • Georgia Tech and Colorado will open the season against one another for the second consecutive year, as the Yellow Jackets won 27-20, in the two teams’ lone other meeting.
  • The inaugural meeting drew 3.74 million viewers on ESPN, making it the network’s ninth-most-watched game of the 2025 regular season and its second-most-watched weeknight broadcast, excluding Labor Day and Black Friday.
  • The programs are historically connected after splitting the 1990 national championship. Georgia Tech finished 11-0-1 and earned the United Press International coaches’ title, while Colorado went 11-1-1 and claimed the Associated Press championship.
  • Georgia Tech returns five All-ACC performers from last year: kicker Aidan Birr, offensive linemen Malachi Carney and Ethan Mackenny, linebacker Kyle Efford and running back Malachi Hosley.
  • Hosley and Michigan transfer Justice Haynes give Georgia Tech two members of the preseason Doak Walker Award watch list. Both averaged more than 7.0 yards per carry last season. Hosley rushed for 697 yards and seven touchdowns on only 98 carries in 2025, while Haynes recorded 857 yards and 10 touchdowns in seven games at Michigan.
  • Colorado begins its fourth season under head coach Deion Sanders after finishing 3-9 overall and 1-8 in Big 12 play in 2025.
  • Colorado’s offense will be led by quarterback Julian Lewis, who completed 52-of-94 passes for 589 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions in four games last season.
  • The Buffaloes added All-America wide receiver Danny Scudero from San José State. Scudero led the nation with 1,297 receiving yards and 108.1 receiving yards per game in 2025, totaling 88 receptions and 10 touchdowns.