ACC football record book: Duke’s DeVon Edwards has permanent place in league history
Editor’s note: This is part of a 10-story series focusing on ACC football records. See the bottom of this story for a list of all the other content in the series.
DURHAM — Suiting up for his second career start, Duke’s DeVon Edwards appeared an unlikely candidate to tie one of NCAA football’s “unbreakable” records.
Truth be told, on Nov. 9, 2013 against N.C. State, the redshirt freshman was clinging to his job.
“Going into the game, my mindset was I want to keep my spot,” Edwards said. “I want to keep playing. So really just trying to keep hope alive as a freshman starting in a big-time college football game.”
Standing 5-foot-9, Edwards knew the football world viewed him as an undersized defensive back. He felt he needed to do more than most to earn respect.
Intercepting passes on consecutive plays and returning both for touchdowns to seal a win over the Wolfpack certainly accomplished that.
You read that right — pick 6s on consecutive plays from scrimmage.
Over the next couple weeks, we’re going to take a deep dive into the ACC football record book, focusing on the state of North Carolina and telling stories we find interesting and impactful.
Edwards’ performance against the Wolfpack certainly falls into that category.
Combine his interceptions feat with the touchdown he scored on a kickoff return earlier in the game and, well, Edwards certainly did enough to protect his starting job in Duke’s secondary while leading the Blue Devils to a 38-20 win.
“His athleticism in that game was maybe as good as I’ve ever seen a player display,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “With the kick return and scoring two touchdowns on back-to-back pick 6s? You’d have a hard time finding a better game by a player. I’m not just talking about Duke. I’m talking about anywhere.”
The win over N.C. State was part of the eight-game winning streak the Blue Devils put together on the way to winning their lone ACC Coastal Division championship. The 10-4 record Duke compiled marks the program’s lone season with 10 or more wins.
If not for the heroics of a freshman safety just trying to stay in the starting lineup, none of that may have happened.
After leading 10-0 at halftime, Duke saw N.C. State take a 13-10 third-quarter lead.
That’s when Edwards first changed the game.
He gathered Niklas Sade’s kickoff at the goal line, picked his way through Duke’s blocking scheme, cut right and returned the ball 100 yards for his first college touchdown to put the Blue Devils back in front.
“It’s really kind of a flash now,” Edwards said, looking back, “but I do remember catching the ball and seeing a seam. Once I hit it, you hear the crowd yell louder and louder. You don’t see anyone else in front of you.”
The teams traded the lead twice more to leave the Blue Devils up 24-20 with 3:31 to play.
Edwards personally secured the game from there with his two interceptions. But he overcame a rookie mistake to accomplish the first.
With N.C. State starting from its 25, Wolfpack quarterback Brandon Mitchell dropped back to pass. Edwards saw Mitchell starting to run and reacted — incorrectly
“When Brandon Mitchell starts to scramble,” said Matt Guerrieri, a Duke assistant since 2012 who is now the team’s co-defensive coordinator, “DeVon comes out of coverage like he’s going to attack the quarterback — which is a big no-no for him. We always talk about keeping the depth in our zone until the quarterback breaks the plane (of the line of scrimmage). He’s not primary in responsibility there.”
N.C. State tight end David Grinnage ran past Edwards and was wide open along the near sideline behind the Duke defense. As Mitchell tried to loft the ball over Edwards to Grinnage, Duke defensive tackle Jamal Bruce hit the quarterback in the legs from behind.
Three yards in front of Grinnage at the 26, Edwards leaped to tip the ball in the air before grabbing it. He ran down the sideline, breaking a tackle along the way to reach the end zone for the touchdown with 3:21 left, pushing Duke’s lead to 31-20.
“I kind of blew a coverage,” Edwards said. “So I needed to make a play. So when the quarterback threw the ball, I thought `Oh my God I’ve got to get this.’ So I tipped it up in the air then I caught it. Then just ran to the end zone. But I did get fussed at for blowing the coverage on that play.”
And Edwards wasn’t done.
Dave Doeren, in his first season as N.C. State’s coach, replaced Mitchell with Pete Thomas.
Protecting a two-score lead with the Wolfpack at its own 25, Duke dropped into zone coverage disguised as man-to-man.
It fooled Thomas, who fired the pass toward Jumichael Ramos at the 50. But the ball went straight to Edwards at the N.C. State 45.
“I literally just backpedaled and he threw it right to me,” Edwards said. “All I could think was to get to the end zone again. Because when you’ve scored already in the game you kind of have this adrenaline of ‘oh I want to get there. I want to get there.’”
Edwards intercepted the pass and weaved his way through the Wolfpack defense, cutting inside at the 32 to avoid getting knocked down by his own teammate and then back to the outside at the 12 while eluding Rashard Smith’s tackle attempt, to score again.
“I stumbled around a little bit until I saw daylight,” Edwards said. “That’s when I got to the end zone again.”
Upstairs in Wallace Wade Stadium’s coaches box, Guerrieri was among the Duke coaches celebrating as the play unfolded, knowing the win was secured and they had witnessed history.
“I start to go wild because I know that at this point we are essentially icing the game,” Guerrieri said. “I’m jumping up and down in the press box and here he is bobbing and weaving. I remember Deondre Singleton runs into him as he’s returning the ball. He’s almost tackled by his own player! The guys do a great job of blocking and turning defense into offense and he scores a touchdown. By the time the play is over, my headset is completely off, wrapped two times around my left arm. It was like absolute pandemonium in the box. What an unbelievable story, an unbelievably memorable night.”
Edwards scored his final two touchdowns over a span of 16 seconds of game time.
In another oddity, he joined former Blue Devil Leon Wright, an all-ACC cornerback, as the only players in NCAA history to return interceptions for touchdowns on consecutive plays from scrimmage. Wright did it against Army in 2009, Cutcliffe’s second season as Duke’s coach.
“Go figure that,” Cutcliffe said. “How bizarre is that? Am I putting guys on defense that should be offensive players? Or should I be the coach that brings back two-way play?”
Edwards said his big game fueled him for the rest of his career. A few days after the game, Guerrieri told Edwards he had to prove that performance wasn’t a fluke by playing well consistently.
Edwards finished with five career interceptions and was named an all-American three times for his special teams play.
“I kind of put more pressure on myself to try to live up to the hype and expectation,” Edwards said. “I wasn’t just a great player one week. I don’t want people to forget about me. It gave me more emphasis to always try and do better the next week and the next week. So it sort of created a drive in me to want to be a better person every time I got out there.
Though he never returned another interception for a touchdown, he scored five more times on kickoffs before a September 2016 knee injury, suffered returning a kick at Notre Dame, ended his career.
His six touchdowns on kick returns are one shy of the NCAA career record shared by Clemson’s CJ Spiller (2006-09), Houston’s Tyron Carrier (2008-11), San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny (2014-17) and Memphis’ Tony Pollard (2016-18).
After earning bachelor’s and masters’ degrees from Duke, Edwards joined the school’s athletic administration staff in 2018.
“He’s going to continue,” Guerrieri said, “doing great things.”
SCHEDULE FOR THIS SERIES
(Dates the stories will be posted online)
MAY 24 — Duke’s DeVon Edwards scored three non-offensive touchdowns in one game, including interception returns for touchdowns on consecutive plays from scrimmage.
MAY 29 — Duke receivers Conner Vernon and Jamison Crowder are tied for the ACC career receptions record with 283 apiece. They were teammates for a time in the early 2010s.
MAY 31 — North Carolina’s Kendric Burney has the record for most interception return yardage in a game — 170 against Miami in 2009.
JUNE 1 — N.C. State’s Ted Brown still holds the ACC career rushing record, a mark he set from 1975-78.
JUNE 2 — Wake Forest’s Tanner Price has the ACC passing record by a left-handed quarterback.
JUNE 3 — A quick roundup of other interesting and important ACC football records leads with the 2011 Clemson team, which became the first in ACC history to win three straight games against ranked opponents. That team had a bevy of kids from the state of North Carolina.
FROM THE ACC RECORD BOOK
Career interceptions
1. Alphonso Smith (Wake Forest, 2005-08) — 21
2. Dre’ Bly (North Carolina, 1996-98) — 20
3. (tie) John Talley (Duke, 2003-06) — 18
3. (tie) David Amerson (North Carolina State, 2010-12) — 18
5. Five tied with 17
Single-season interceptions
1. Gerod Holliman (Louisville, 2014) — 14
2. David Amerson (North Carolina State, 2011) — 13
3. Dre Bly (North Carolina, 1996) — 11
4. Bob Sullivan (Maryland, 1965) — 10
5. 3 tied at 9
Most interceptions, ACC championship game
1. (tie) Breon Borders (Duke vs. Florida State in 2013) — 2
1. (tie) Cordrea Tankersley (Clemson vs. Virginia Tech in 2016) — 2
Most interceptions returned for touchdowns in a season
1. (tie) Marcus McGruder (Wake Forest, 2004) — 3
1. (tie) Aaron Curry (Wake Forest, 2007) — 3
1. (tie) Alphonso Smith (Wake Forest, 2007) — 3
Most intercpetions returned for touchdowns in a career
1. (tie) Alphonso Smith (Wake Forest, 2005-08) — 4
1. (tie) Randy Neal (Virginia, 1991-94) — 4
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 12:03 PM.