Mike Elko has no patience for those who think Duke football could regress to losing again
And so it returned Thursday night, the grit and determination Duke football has consistently shown over the past two seasons with Mike Elko as its coach.
A week earlier, Duke played easily its worst game since 2021, the season before Elko came to the school, in an ugly 23-0 loss at Louisville. It was the second consecutive loss for the Blue Devils, and the only time they’ve been so thoroughly outplayed in his tenure.
Thursday night, with four starters out including starting quarterback Riley Leonard, Duke battled that adversity and beat Wake Forest, 24-21, despite never leading until Todd Pelino kicked the ball through the uprights for a field goal as time expired.
Since Saturday, Elko heard too much talk about how his program had suddenly reverted to its previously moribund state. The program he inherited had lost 13 consecutive ACC games and strung together three consecutive losing seasons.
One can forgive some Duke fans, supporters and outside observers for having a negative flashback after watching Louisville thoroughly dominate Duke.
Elko, though, is not in the forgiving mood on that subject. Three times during his postgame press conference, he hammered away at the same point.
“They’re not what everybody thinks they are,” Elko said. “When you lose a game, kids don’t wither and go away. They have pride in what they’re doing and they respond and they bounce back. And so this whole thought that we went to Louisville and played poorly and that was going to be the end of Duke football, it doesn’t work like that. These kids put in so much work. They’re so tough. They fight so hard.”
Again, it was just two short years ago the Blue Devils did wither and go away while posting a winless ACC campaign that featured blowout loss after blowout loss. It was many of the same players that are winning under Elko.
The players showed they are different by persevering to beat Wake Forest on Thursday night.
The Demon Deacons outplayed Duke in a number of areas, gaining 400 total yards of offense to Duke’s 267. Wake never trailed over the first three quarters, carrying a 21-14 lead into the fourth quarter.
In addition to not having Leonard due to a toe injury on his left foot, Duke was also without all-ACC left tackle Graham Barton for the second game in a row. Its best cover cornerback, Myles Jones, missed his third consecutive game. Starting linebacker Dorian Mausi, second on the team with 53 tackles this season, didn’t play due to an upper-body injury.
Redshirt sophomore Henry Belin IV quarterbacked Duke to a 24-3 win over N.C. State on Oct. 14 when Leonard was out with a sprained right ankle. But a shoulder injury made him unavailable against Wake unless an emergency arose.
That left Grayson Loftis as Duke’s quarterback. The freshman lost a fumble and threw an interception in Duke territory in the first half Thursday night. Over the first three quarters, he’d only completed 4 of 13 passes for 29 yards.
But in the fourth quarter, he rose to the occasion in the manner that Duke, with the notable exception of the Louisville game, has regularly done under Elko.
On the first play after a Wake Forest unsportsmanlike penalty, Loftis fired a 29-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Moore to tie the score at 21-all with 11:40 to play.
For all his mistakes in the first half and inefficiency over the first three quarters, he had his team even as the game drew to its most decisive moments.
Duke’s defense, again missing two key players, turned in the next game-changing play. From the Duke 40, Wake quarterback Mitch Griffis had the ball slip from his hands as he threw a pass. Duke’s Ryan Smith hauled in the ball for an interception with 4:12 to play.
The Demon Deacons never got the ball back, partially because of their own mistakes. DeShawn Jones committed a pass interference penalty when Duke faced third and 14. He added a personal foul penalty that gave the Blue Devils the ball on the Wake 15.
But Duke made plays, too. Jaylen Coleman, a senior running back whose role was diminished by his own injuries this season, carried the ball three times for 14 yards on the game-winning drive. That was because running back Jaquez Moore was injured during the game.
Then came Todd Pelino, the sophomore kicker who missed two field goals in Duke’s 21-14 loss to Notre Dame back on Sept. 30.
With two seconds to play against Wake, he lined up for his first field goal attempt of the game and booted the ball straight through to give Duke its first lead and the only one that truly mattered.
So, no, Duke football is not lost in the wilderness again. The 38-20 loss at Florida State and the Louisville loss hurt but didn’t kill Duke’s season. The Blue Devils (6-3, 3-2 ACC) are headed to a bowl game for the second consecutive year after not qualifying from 2019-21.
They were challenged after a subpar game at Louisville. They showed they had moxie.
“We had no choice but to respond,” said Duke defensive tackle DeWayne Carter, in his third season as a team captain.”Especially, when you think about the last two weeks. We weren’t ourselves. Very uncharacteristic. We weren’t proud of how we played. So we got back this week, our mindset was getting back to being ourselves. I think we accomplished it pretty well.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2023 at 10:11 AM.