Even as the window to enter the transfer portal closed last month, Jake Dickert has continued to shop to add to his roster. Wake Forest added two more players in recent days to what Dickert had labeled as positions of need at the end of Spring camp.
The Demon Deacons added another tight end and a new linebacker to the roster with incoming transfers in the last week. Tight end Eni Falayi is coming to Wake Forest from Utah Tech. Linebacker Alec Marenco is headed to Wake from Kansas State.
Wake Forest Adds Two More Players
Falayi is 6-4, 220 pounds. The Boston native had 30 catches for 408 yards and five touchdowns for Utah Tech last season. Prior to that, he spent three seasons at UMass. He played in 19 games with three catches for 26 yards during his time with the Minutemen. He is a redshirt senior with 2025 being his last year of eligibility. Unofficially, Falayi is now the seventh tight end on the roster. That includes the return of Harry Lodge who returned to Wake Forest after transferring to Georgia Tech during the Winter transfer portal.
A New Linebacker
Marenco spent three seasons at the University of New Mexico, including his redshirt season of 2021. In 2023, he led the team with 66 total tackles. Marenco was an All-Mountain West Honorable Mention in 2023. He had 97 career tackles for the Lobos. He transferred to Kansas State in April 2024, but played in only one game for the Wildcats.
Marenco was injured in a car crash in mid-November when another vehicle crossed the center line, resulting in a head-on collision. Marenco sustained minor injuries and was transported to the hospital from the scene of the crash. He was released from the hospital the same day.
Roster Numbers
The two additions to the roster bring the unofficial Wake Forest total to 99. Dickert can go as high as 105 scholarship players. Buit there could be other players added on via last minute walk-ons, as part of the House v. NCAA settlement.
Judge Claudia Wilken was expected to finalize the settlement in late April. But she was displeased that most schools had already completed roster reductions in one all-encompassing move. Most football programs had rosters in the 115-120 player range.
As part of the settlement, going forward, schools would be allowed to directly pay their athletes. Most schools quickly moved to trim the rosters to scholarship players only. At last month’s hearings, Wilkens did not sign off on the settlement. Instead, she ordered the NCAA and its member schools to submit a plan that to ensure no athletes would lose out on previously promised roster spots due to new roster limits that would be imposed by the settlement. She submitted that she would not approve the settlement otherwise.
Next
Those briefs were submitted to the court last Wednesday. The revised plan would allow schools to offer players back their roster spots that have been rescinded in anticipation of the settlement. However, it comes with the caveat that the schools can decide on their own if they want to reinstate the walk-ons. They are not required to do it.
Wake Forest has not yet said whether it is going to add roster spots back. Judge Wilken is expected to rule on the viability of the new plan after opposing counsel has had two weeks to issue a written brief. If she does not validate the settlement, the case will go to trial. All contracts signed by current roster athletes that include direct payments from the schools, contingent upon the legal settlement, would likely be voided.
Main Image: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
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