First look: Duke football closes regular season, aims for 9-win campaign, at Wake Forest
Having concluded another successful season of home football games at Wallace Wade Stadium, Duke hits the road to close the regular season with an important milestone in reach.
If the Blue Devils can beat Wake Forest, they’ll post the program’s first nine-win regular season since 2014.
Duke (8-3, 4-3 ACC) is in this position after beating Virginia Tech, 31-28, on Saturday night. That win gave Duke a 5-1 record at Wallace Wade Stadium, where the Blue Devils are 16-3 since the start of the 2022 season.
“There’s a lot of forward, positive momentum for our program,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “Just a lot of things pointing in the right direction for Duke football.”
Playing at Wake Forest (4-7, 2-5 ACC) offers a different set of challenges, though. Duke had gone from November 2022 until earlier this month without winning an ACC road game. The Blue Devils ended that hex with a 29-19 win at N.C. State on Nov. 9.
Now Duke wants to make it consecutive league road wins to allow it to finish its regular season at 9-3 for the first time since it held that exact regular-season record in 2014. The season prior, in 2013 when the Blue Devils made an ACC championship game appearance, Duke went 10-4. That is the only season with 10 or more wins in program history.
A win over Wake Forest would give Duke a chance to match the 2013 team’s win total if it can win whatever bowl game its chosen to participate in.
Key matchup: Duke passing game vs. Wake defense
Duke is relying more and more on quarterback Maalik Murphy and its passing offense to gain yards and put points on the scoreboard.
Murphy threw for 332 yards with three touchdowns in Duke’s 31-28 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday night. Murphy now has five games this season with three touchdown passes or more, part of why he’s thrown for 25 touchdowns.
Against Virginia Tech, Murphy completed four passes for 20 yards or more and has collected 17 of those plays over Duke’s last four games. He’s possessed with a strong arm and he’s using it.
Wake Forest has the worst pass defense in the ACC, allowing 281 passing yards per game. Wake’s opponents have also completed 70% of their pass attempts this season, which also makes the Deacons’ pass defense worst in the ACC in that category.
Player to watch: WR Eli Pancol
Duke’s graduate student wide receiver had an outstanding senior night game against Virginia Tech, catching three touchdown passes and amassing 188 receiving yards.
He leads Duke in pass receptions (51), receiving yards (721) and touchdown receptions (nine), surpassing Jordan Moore’s totals of 45 catches for 700 yards and six touchdowns.
After missing the last half of 2022 and all of 2023 with serious injuries, Pancol contributed mightily when this season started, catching four touchdown passes over Duke’s first three games.
Now he’s closing the regular season with a flourish, having caught 26 passes for 413 yards over the past four games. Wake Forest needs to make Pancol a focus of its defense on Saturday in hopes of slowing down the Blue Devils.
Vegas betting odds
Duke is listed as a 4-point road favorite over Wake Forest in Saturday’s game, per DraftKings. FanFuel has Duke as a 4.5-point favorite, with the over-under at 54.5 points.
Duke at Wake Forest
Teams: Duke Blue Devils (8-3, 4-3 ACC) at Wake Forest Demon Deacons (4-7, 2-5 ACC)
Where: Truist Field, Winston-Salem
Date: Saturday, Nov. 30
Time: Noon
TV: ACC Network
Stream: DIRECTV Stream, fuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, SlingTV