COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK TWO:
Duke, Wake, App, Elon, In-State NFL Pipeline
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Sept. 9, 2026)
While the focus of our weekly college football shows are forward-looking as often as possible, we always take a glance back at the previous week, too, and sometimes we’ll offer some quick mentions to those making impactful headlines on the gridiron, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or across North Carolina.
With that in mind, below are our Week Two “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” brought to you by our good friends at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach and the same folks’ latest creation, Jimmy’s Inland, their new bar in Wilmington.
Jimmy’s has a full bar, nightly drink specials and live music 365 days a year(!). (It’s a great place to watch a game, too.) Right next door in Wrightsville Beach, King Neptune has become one of the best restaurants in the greater Wilmington area. Jimmy’s Inland, which features live music, pool tables, darts, an arcade and the brand’s signature slushies, is located about a mile from the UNC Wilmington campus.
Week Two “Fun Fact #1”
As the National Football League begins its regular-season schedule this week, the great state of North Carolina has more than a dozen of its college football programs represented on that professional league’s game-day rosters or practice squads once again this year.
As usual, NC State, North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest each have 10 or more of their former players in The League. The Bold North State presence continues with a handful of products from fellow FBS programs Appalachian State, Charlotte and East Carolina, and it continues with those from FCS schools Campbell, Elon, North Carolina A&T and NC Central. Finally, from the Division Two ranks, Barton, Fayetteville State, Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate each has one or more former player in the NFL right now.
If you want to remind yourself of all the current NFL players who came through our state’s college ranks, check out the full list we’ll post shortly. For now, we’ll offer just a few reminders.
UNC has Drake Maye starting — and starring — at quarterback for the New England Patriots, of course, but the Tar Heels also have Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Josh Downs, Los Angeles Chargers running back Omarion Hampton and Dallas Cowboys running back Javonte Williams in important Week One roles, among many others.
Meanwhile, former NC State star quarterback Russell Wilson has moved from the field to the CBS broadcast booth, but the Wolfpack still has Carolina Panthers tackle Ikem Ekwonu, Chicago Bears offensive linemen Garrett Bradbury and Joe Thuney, Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill and others starting in the trenches at the next level, among others.
There also are amazing Bold North State stories such as that of former Lenoir-Rhyne star Kyle Dugger, a rare example of a D2 player who became a second-round NFL draft pick. The New England Patriots selected Dugger that high back in 2020, and after five seasons starting at safety for the Patriots and then one more last year for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he’s now representing the Cincinnati Bengals, and he’s expected to play a lot for them, too.
Week Two “Fun Fact #2”
Wake Forest quarterback Gio Lopez, a transfer from North Carolina, led the Demon Deacons to a higher scoring total in his first half of play wearing the Old Gold and Black uniform (28 points) than he led the Tar Heels to in any entire game he played against an FBS-level opponent last season.
In Lopez’s debut for the Deacons, his offense scored 28 points in the first half against Akron, an FBS team from the Mid-American Conference. In UNC’s 11 entire games against FBS opponents in 2025, the Heels never managed more than 27 points over the full 60 minutes of regulation.
There is an array of reasons that the same quarterback performed so poorly over an entire season in Chapel Hill yet so well in his debut in Winston-Salem.
First, Lopez had a preexisting relationship with his offensive coordinator, Rob Ezell, and the scheme they ran together very successfully at South Alabama in 2024, when Lopez ranked in the top 25 nationally in total offense yards per game. Second, whereas Ezell — who previously worked under Nick Saban at Alabama — is now in his third season as a play-caller, UNC’s offensive coordinator last year, Freddie Kitchens, had never been a full-time offensive coordinator or a full-time play-caller despite his previous quarter-century of experience in the NFL and college football.
Finally, whereas Lopez missed spring practice with the Tar Heels last year because of the late timing of his transfer, Lopez had an eight-month-long ramp into his Wake Forest debut, having signed with the Deacons last December, gone through the entirety of spring practice under second-year head coach Jake Dickert and his staff, participated in player-led drills all summer and then obviously practiced with the starters during August practice, as well.
So far, at least, it looks as if Lopez once again has found the “right fit” for himself at the college level.
On to some quick shout-outs, brought to you by our friends at Muscle Milk, as we head into Week Two …
#1—Shout-out to sophomore Duke running back Nate Sheppard.
In the Blue Devils’ season-opening 17-7 victory over Tulane, on an afternoon when the Duke passing attack proved erratic, Sheppard saved the day with a workhorse-worthy 35 carries for 227 yards and the Devils’ only two touchdowns of the game.
For perspective, consider that Sheppard’s 227 rushing yards were more than any ACC running back ran for against any opponent during the entire 2025 season, when only two backs surpassed even the 200-yard mark in a single game. Sheppard’s 227-yard total against Tulane last week also represented the fifth-best single-game rushing performance in Duke history.
According to post-game video analysis from the Pro Football Network, Sheppard forced a stunning 21 missed tackles in the Tulane game, far more than any other player in any college football game so far this season. According to Pro Football Focus, Sheppard forced 63 missed tackles last season, 28 more than any other freshman in college football.
In a recent interview on the David Glenn Show, Sheppard said that after he entered Duke in January 2025 as a true freshman, he gained 20 pounds while working under the supervision of Duke’s much-celebrated strength and conditioning coach, David Feeley.
Now listed at 5-foot-10 and 205 pounds, Sheppard ended up with 200 carries for 1,132 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns last season, while helping the Blue Devils to their first ACC championship since 1989 and earning Freshman All-America and second-team All-ACC honors along the way.
Now Sheppard looks like an even better version of himself and an intriguing NFL draft prospect, although as a true sophomore he won’t be eligible to play at the next level until the 2028 season.
#2—Shout-outs to Miami quarterback Darian Mensah and Pitt quarterback Mason Heinstschel.
Mensah, a Duke transfer who is now a redshirt junior with the Hurricanes, continues to make a case for himself as a first-round NFL draft pick because of his uncommon combination of high football IQ, poise in the pocket, and polished downfield passing.
Last year, Mensah led the Blue Devils to the ACC championship, was the conference title game MVP, and earned second-team All-ACC honors while completing 67 percent of his passing attempts for 3,973 yards, 34 touchdowns and only six interceptions.
This season, in his debut for Miami, Mensah had video-game numbers as the Hurricanes traveled cross-country to Stanford and absolutely dominated the Cardinal (45-6), completing 27 of 30 passing attempts for 401 yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions and no sacks. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
Mensah’s top two receivers, Malachi Toney and fellow Duke transfer Cooper Barkate, also are All-ACC performers, so it’s easy to see why the Canes are the favorites to win their first ACC title since joining the league in 2004.
Heintschel is only a 19-year-old true sophomore at Pitt, but he also got off to a truly spectacular start to the 2026 season, after winning the starting job with the Panthers at midseason a year ago.
In Pitt’s opener against Miami-Ohio — that’s an FBS opponent from the Mid-American Conference — Heintschel tied the all-time Pitt record and set a new ACC record by tossing seven touchdown passes in the Panthers’ 59-14 victory.
The previous ACC record of six TD throws in a single game had been held by eight players, including Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, UNC’s Sam Howell and Pitt’s Kenny Pickett, all of whom are now in the NFL.
Heintschel is a 6-foot-2, 222-pounder who put up some big numbers at Clay High School in Ohio, but he was recruited mainly by MAC schools before signing with Pitt, the only Power Four program that offered him a scholarship.
Against Miami-Ohio, Heintschel’s final numbers were 31-for-41 through the air for 453 yards, the record-setting seven touchdowns and no interceptions.
#3—Shout-outs to Appalachian State head coach Dowell Loggains and his brand-new quarterback, highly touted Purdue transfer Malachi Singleton.
Everyone can agree that it was only one game — and against an FCS opponent at that — but Singleton played extremely well and made only one major mistake as the former Arkansas and Purdue backup QB led App State to a 55-3 thrashing of Maine at Kidd Brewer Stadium in Boone last Saturday in his very first start for the Mountaineers.
Loggains is part of the shout-out here, too, because he and Singleton have been virtually attached at the hip for the last eight months, as both men seek to rediscover some of their previous success as pivotal parts of high-scoring offenses.
Loggains is a former NFL offensive coordinator who also did great things as the OC for the South Carolina Gamecocks before taking the App State job, but his first offense in Boone ranked only 10th in the 14-team Sun Belt last year, at just 24 points per game.
Singleton was a well-decorated prep star as a high school player in Georgia back in 2022, but he mostly rode the bench for the Razorbacks and the Boilermakers at the Power Four level over these past three seasons.
Against Maine, at least, Loggains and Singleton formed a magical combination. Singleton completed 22 of his 24 passing attempts (that’s about 92 percent!) for a career-high 291 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
The only blemish on his entire afternoon came when Singleton both took a 13-yard sack and fumbled the ball away on a first-quarter play, but he settled down nicely and distributed the ball to a wide variety of receivers accurately, as the Mountaineers (who eventually used three quarterbacks) finished the day with 34 first downs and a whopping 647 yards of total offense.
Last, but certainly not least…
#4—Shout-out to eighth-year Elon coach Tony Trisciani.
As the Phoenix’s defensive coordinator, Trisciani worked under Curt Cignetti — yes, the guy who led Indiana to a national championship, in the sport of football, just last year — on some high-quality Elon teams in 2017 and 2018. Both of those squads made the FCS playoffs and finished in the national Top 25.
As Elon’s head coach, Trisciani led the Phoenix to an 8-4 record, the FCS playoffs and a top-25 finish in 2022, and his teams have had records of .500 or better in conference play for five years in a row and counting.
Now Trisciani has the 2026 Phoenix off to a 2-0 start while playing some of his trademark high-IQ, hard-hitting defense along the way.
Elon opened this season with a 42-7 home victory over Glenville State, a Division Two program, then posted a dominant 38-0 road triumph at Davidson, an FCS opponent. Glenville State managed a measly 133 yards against the Phoenix, and Davidson posted only 251, another extremely low total by modern standards.
Elon’s schedule certainly gets a lot tougher the rest of the way, starting this week, when the Phoenix visit Coastal Athletic Association rival Rhode Island on Saturday (noon, FloCollege).
The Rams have won two straight CAA championships and currently carry a #13 national FCS ranking, so Elon will be a road underdog this week, but both teams ultimately could contend this season in a conference that has lost Delaware to the FBS ranks and Richmond, Villanova and William & Mary to the Patriot League, another FCS conference, just in the past two years.
