Can Duke football win nine games again? How the Blue Devils schedule shapes up
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Duke opens 2025 with Elon before four challenging September matchups loom.
- Head coach Manny Diaz stresses roster cohesion over early-season results.
- ACC games against N.C. State and Syracuse will help define Duke’s campaign arc.
Duke coach Manny Diaz could have a good handle on his football team by the end of September.
Then again …
After the Blue Devils’ opening game against Elon on Aug. 28, they have a September schedule that has them at home against Illinois and N.C. State and on the road at Tulane and Syracuse.
Diaz, ever the coach, said this week there was no “after Elon” approach to the schedule in his program.
“It was 3-0 and they had the ball at our 30-yard line with three minutes left in the first half,” Diaz said of last year’s season-opener in Durham.
Duke took a 26-3 win over Elon in Diaz’s first game as head coach of the Devils, then won four straight in September for a 5-0 start. The fifth win: 21-20 over North Carolina
“I really believe you don’t know your team until the end of September regardless of who you bring back, how experienced you are,” Diaz said. “It’s just a coming together of pieces and I think that’s always been true. Now, with college football, with all the roster turnover every year, I think that will be even more so.
“Does that mean you’re a finished product on Oct 1? I think we took pride in getting better last year. I thought we were a better team in November than we were in September. That being said, it normally takes four to five weeks to really get a sense of what you do best and what you have to work on.”
After a 9-4 finish last season, Diaz again is ready to see how well the pieces come together for his football team. The Blue Devils were picked sixth in the ACC preseason poll but believe they can finish higher this season and challenge for an ACC title.
Here’s a preview of Duke’s 2025 schedule.
Aug. 28, Elon
Predicted record: 1-0
Quick take: The Phoenix are coming off a 6-6 season as Tony Trisciani begins his seventh year as head coach. Elon, like Duke, picked up a quarterback out of the portal: redshirt sophomore Marco Laniez from Iowa. Running back T.J. Thomas Jr. as a freshman until an injury and defensive lineman Khamari Brown is a handful.
Duke success rate: The early betting lines have the Blue Devils favored by 33.5 points. Diaz says the Devils, who face nationally ranked Illinois in their second game, are “completely dialed in on Elon” and odds are that should be enough in the opener at Wallace Wade Stadium.
Sept. 6, Illinois
Predicted record: 1-1
Quick take: The Fighting Illini are ranked 12th in the AP preseason poll after a 10-3 season that ended with a Citrus Bowl win over South Carolina. Bret Bielema’s team, solid in all areas, now has its sights set on reaching the College Football Playoff.
Quarterback Luke Altmyer, a former transfer from Ole Miss, returns for a third season and the Illini are looking to be more productive offensively. On defense, they’d like to be more consistent and will lean on a secondary led by safety Xavier Scott, was All-Big Ten in 2024.
Duke success rate: Other than the trip to Clemson, this could rank as the Blue Devils’ toughest test of the season. The Devils won at Northwestern in their second game last year – a two-overtime thriller– and will be looking to beat another Big Ten team. What appears to be a tossup game also could set the tone for the season.
Sept. 13, at Tulane
Predicted record: 2-1
Quick take: Darian Mensah returning to Tulane with Duke will be one of the season’s best early college football storylines, no doubt, but the Green Wave seemingly have a good replacement: in Jake Retzlaff. The senior left BYU in July to join the Green Wave. Tulane also has two other QBs in the mix in Kadin Semonza and Brendan Sullivan.
Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, after a 9-5 first season, was mentioned to be a candidate to replace Mack Brown – a former Tulane coach – at UNC before the Tar Heels hired Bill Belichick.
Duke success rate: Again, it could be a tossup. Mensah will be a marked man but also could be the difference in the nonconference game at Yulman Stadium. The Green Wave built their offense around Mensah, had him transfer after his redshirt freshman season and now must find a way to stop him.
Sept 20, N.C. State
Predicted record: 3-1
Quick take: It will be Duke’s ACC opener, but the Pack will face Wake Forest in a conference game before going to Durham. The Blue Devils beat the Pack last season in Raleigh by holding NCSU to 268 yards in offense and throttling quarterback C.J. Bailey, and will be looking for another strong defensive effort.
Duke success rate: The last time N.C. State beat Duke in Durham – in 2008 – Tom O’Brien was in his second year as coach. The Pack’s last trip to Wallace Wade Stadium, in 2023, ended with a dismal 24-3 loss that might have been State’s low point of that season.
The Blue Devils figure to be slight favorites this season and likely will need to beat the Pack, again, to get where they want to go: the ACC title game.
Sept. 27, at Syracuse
Predicted record: 3-2.
Quick take: Fran Brown’s first season as coach after replacing Dino Babers was a huge success: 10-3, including a Holiday Bowl win, and a No. 20 ranking. Like Duke, the Orange were in a lot of close games – nine were decided by one score. Syracuse led the nation with 370 passing yards a game, averaged 34 points and dominated time of possession.
Gone is quarterback Kyle McCord, now in the NFL, and replacing him is Steve Angeli, a Notre Dame transfer who has been named the starter by Brown. Gone is 1,000-yard running back LeQuint Allen. The receiving cops also must be rebuilt.
Duke success rate: The Blue Devils and Orange have played just three times since 2014. Duke won both games in Syracuse, taking a 38-24 victory in 2020 in its last visit. The Devils are 4-1 in the five-game series overall, including games in 1938 and ‘39, when Wallace Wade was coach.
Oct. 4, at California
Predicted record: 4-2
Quick take: The Golden Bears’ first ACC season ended 6-7 overall and 2-6 in the conference with close losses to Miami, N.C. State, Pitt and Florida State. After the season, featured running back Jayden Ott left for Oklahoma. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza transferred to Indiana.
Freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, a transfer from Oregon, has beaten out junior Devin Brown to be QB1. Defensively, the Bears must be a better fourth-quarter team – Cal allowed 101 points in 2024.
Duke success rate: It’s been a while. Bill Murray was the Duke coach the two times these two teams played – in 1962 and 1963. Duke was a 21-7 winner in Durham in ‘62 and the game the next season ended in a 22-22 tie. It will be the Blue Devils’ first ACC football foray to the West Coast and they should be favored to bring back a win.
Oct. 18, Georgia Tech
Predicted record: 5-2.
Quick take: The Yellow Jackets were too much for Duke last season, taking a 24-14 win in Atlanta with a 412-279 edge in total offense and nearly 40 minutes of possession time. Quarterback Haynes King, who engineered the win, is back for Tech along with explosive runner Jamal Haynes and the Jackets could be ACC title contenders.
Duke success rate: The Blue Devils have had no success in the past four games with Georgia Tech, losing all four. Duke last won, 41-23, in Durham in 2019. The Devils will have the homefield edge this year in what could be a bruising game.
Nov. 1, at Clemson
Predicted record: 5-3.
Quick take: Simply put, Duke’s biggest game this season. The Tigers are the defending ACC champs, the preseason No. 1 pick in the league again this season, and will be playing at home. That’s a lot to digest and overcome, for any team.
Duke success rate: In their last 16 games with Clemson, the Devils have won just three times. But they did win the last one. On Sept. 4, 2023, Duke hammered Clemson, 28-7, in a game that didn’t seem so much of an upset. But this year’s matchup is at Death Valley and the Tigers should be looking to atone for the shocking ‘23 loss.
Nov. 8, at Connecticut
Predicted record: 6-3.
Quick take: If there’s a “trap game” for Duke, this could be it – a November nonconference game the week after the trip to Clemson. UConn is coming off a 9-4 record. The Huskies’ first winning season since 2010 ended with a 27-14 win over UNC in the Fenway Bowl. UConn coach Jim Mora Jr., in building a program, has led the Huskies to two bowls in his three seasons.
Duke success rate: The Devils, Wake Forest and Syracuse were ACC teams taking close wins over the Huskies last season. Duke, trailing 21-17 after the third quarter, scored the last nine points for a 26-21 win in Durham. It could be another tight one in the road game in East Hartford.
Nov. 15, Virginia
Predicted record: 7-3.
Quick take: Is Virginia coach Tony Elliott on the hot seat? Time will tell. In his fourth season, Elliott will have a new quarterback in Chandler Morris, a North Texas transfer. The Cavs averaged 22.7 points a game last season, 16th in the ACC, and need a significant upgrade at QB but also on the offensive line.
Duke success rate: Duke’s ACC nemesis? Whether close game or blowout, home or away, the Cavaliers have dominated the ACC series in the past decade, winning eight of nine. Duke did win the last game in Durham, 38-17, in 2022.
Nov. 22, at North Carolina
Predicted record: 8-3.
Quick take: By late November, Bill Belichick coaching in college at UNC will be aging news, although it will mark his first game against Duke and Diaz. Belichick has joked that the first two words he said as a toddler were “Beat Duke” at a time when his father was an assistant coach at UNC. He’ll likely say them again this season as a 73-year-old.
Duke success rate: The Blue Devils took possession of the Victory Bell last season after beating the Heels in Durham, and will want to bring it back with them from Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels had won five straight in the series under Mack Brown before last year’s 21-20 Duke comeback victory.
Nov. 29, Wake Forest
Predicted record: 9-3.
Quick take: It won’t seem the same without Dave Clawson coaching the Deacons. Wake Forest will have a new look under first-year coach Jake Dickert, who came to the Deacons from Washington State. Clawson’s “slow mesh” offense is being replaced by a more diverse spread-option scheme and Dickert has some returning experience on defense.
Duke success rate: For Duke, it will be hard to top last year’s game, won on Maalik Murphy’s 39-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Moore on the final play of the game. The 23-17 victory was the Blue Devils’ ninth of the season, and the first time since 2013 they had beaten UNC, N.C. State and Wake Forest in a season.
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
