Duke came into the season considered one of the two worst teams in the ACC. There were even whispers they could have a 1 win season.
That’s all history now as Mike Elko took exactly one off-season and two games to make Duke look as good as they have in about 5 years.
After a 30-0 shutout of Temple, which was a good solid win, but didn’t really catch anyone’s attention, Duke headed to Northwestern to play a not great Wildcat team, but one that was 1-0 after defeating Nebraska. Northwestern was also coming off a BYE week and at home.
Duke sprinted out to a 21-0 and then held on for a 31-23 win. Northwestern was driving for a TD and Duke forced a fumble to seal the game.
What struck me the most as I watched the game is how much today reminded me of the better Duke teams under David Cutcliffe.
They were never overly talented, but they were opportunistic on defense, and physical, and they didn’t make a lot of mistakes.
Saturday against Northwestern they won the turnover batter 3-1. They outgained Northwester 216 to 78 on the ground.
Riley Leonard makes just enough plays QB to keep defenses honest, and don’t look now but Duke could start the year 6-0.
Next week is North Carolina A&T, then a game at Kansas, Virginia who is struggling with offensive line issues, then a game at Georgia Tech. It’s not out of the question, though I don’t expect it.
4-2 seems more realistic, but even that would be the type of start that could get Mike Elko into the ACC COY conversation.
Elko never ran off a series of excuses in the off-season why Duke couldn’t be better, he just made it happen as the Blue Devils are one of the early ACC surprises.
