Heel Tough Blog: Gio Lopez Expected to Return to UNC in 2026

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Tar Heel fans are hoping for a new starting quarterback in 2026 after a rough season with Gio Lopez at the helm, but as Pete Nakos of On3 Sports is reporting, he isn’t going to be giving that job up without a fight.

According to Nakos, Lopez, who signed a two-year deal last offseason with the Tar Heels, is expected to return to Chapel Hill for the 2026 season. The redshirt sophomore still has two years of eligibility remaining at the college level.

Lopez, who transferred to UNC after a two year stint at South Alabama, started all eleven games that he was active for the team this season and had his ups-and-downs. In 594 snaps, he threw for just 1,747 yards passing, posted a 10-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio and ran for just 133 yards and three touchdowns on 86 carries. Back in his time at South Alabama, he threw for 3,034 yards, posted a 22-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio and ran for 617 yards and nine touchdowns in 808 snaps over the course of sixteen games.

This news shouldn’t come as a shock to Tar Heel fans because of the fact that he signed a two-year deal with the program. The hope is that the rumors of him re-signing are true and that the team is able to adjust the money to free some up for this offseason. While he was playing better at the end of the season, the team should not look at him as the unquestioned starter for next season. If that money is freed up, the team needs to at least bring in a quarterback to compete with him. Ideally, they would bring in someone that could beat him out pretty easily and bridge the gap to Travis Burgess, who will hopefully be ready to take over as the starter at the beginning of the 2027 season. The potential disaster scenario would be to run it back with Lopez in the new offense without competition and just hope it works. Hopefully that is not the avenue that this staff chooses to go in the next few weeks.