How No. 21 Duke football navigated an odd week to collect two wins and boost its season
As much as last Monday night offered a chance for Duke’s football team to show the country how far it had progressed, Saturday night offered a chance to show its maturity.
Rather than facing ACC standard bearer Clemson in a nationally-televised game on ESPN that drew an viewing audience of 4.4 million, Lafayette was Duke’s opponent,
Wallace Wade Stadium, on a soggy day, was less than half full, rather than the raucous crowd that was on hand to watch the Blue Devils upset the Tigers.
Duke had only three days to work as a team in between toppling Clemson for its first win over a top-10 opponent in 34 years and taking on the FCS-level Leopards from the Patriot League.
The resulting 42-7 win over Lafayette was far from perfect. But it was complete, with Duke leading by two touchdowns at halftime and rolling to an easy margin of victory.
“I just think we learned that our drive has to be internal and that’s something that we talk a lot all the time about,” Duke coach Mike Elko said. “If we allow outside things to influence what we think about ourselves, how we prepare, what we think we have to do to get ready to be successful in a game, those things will kill your season.”
Despite playing an opponent from a lower division that doesn’t have the number of athletes Duke has, the Blue Devils handled their business and didn’t make the voters who awarded them the No. 21 ranking in the Associated Press top 25 poll regret their decision.
Yeah there were some odd moments in the first half, like when Lafayette drove 75 yards for a touchdown to tie the score at 7. Or when Duke running back Jordan Waters had the ball literally ripped from his hands by a Lafayette defender for an ugly turnover.
That move practically had Waters on bended knee before Duke coach Mike Elko.
“He actually came over to me and apologized and said, `Let me keep playing, please!’” Elko said.
But, with Waters gaining a career-best 112 yards while rushing for two touchdowns, Duke scored the game’s next 35 points. The Leopards (1-1) barely surpassed 200 yards of total offense, eking past that mark late to close at 213.
Duke prepared to win a football game, gathering as a group only Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Since the ACC and ESPN assigned Duke to play last Monday night, Elko wanted to have a team meeting and film review Tuesday, which had been designated by the NCAA as a mandatory off day for the players.
But the NCAA rejected all the waivers Duke filed asking for relief from that restriction, making the short week even shorter.
Now that it’s done, Elko and the Blue Devils can take solace in what they achieved in beating Clemson, receiving a national ranking for the first time since 2018 and following that up with a resounding win, albeit over a lesser opponent.
They survived an exciting yet difficult week. Now when it happens again, they know how to navigate it successfully.
“If we do what we want to do, we’re going to have more big wins,” Elko said. “We’re going to have more tough turnarounds. We’re going to have more games where we’re the team that’s getting hunted and someone’s coming in trying to make their season off beating us.”
Another such assignment comes later this season. Duke plays at Louisville on Oct. 28, the second of two consecutive road games that includes an Oct. 21 trip to No. 4 Florida State, before the Blue Devils play Wake Forest on Nov. 2, a Thursday night at Wallace Wade Stadium.
That’s another short week that will come at a crucial time of the season. And it won’t be an FCS team waiting to play Duke.
“This was honestly like a wake-up call,” Duke linebacker Dorian Mausi said. “It took a short week to show us how much everybody is invested.”
Now Duke will face two games of the type Elko described, where Northwestern (1-1) and UConn (0-2) will look to boost their seasons by knocking the Blue Devils out of the top 25.
Duke showed maturity over the past seven days. The Blue Devils will be further tested in the coming weeks.