What we learned about Duke football in the Blue Devils’ 45-17 win over Elon
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- Darian Mensah completed 27 of 34 passes for 389 yards and 3 touchdowns.
- Duke broke a 10-10 halftime tie with 35 second-half points to defeat Elon.
- Que’Sean Brown returned a punt 78 yards to help seal Duke’s season-opening win.
Manny Diaz’s second season as Duke coach began just as the first.
The Blue Devils played Elon in the football season opener. The Blue Devils again were heavily favored at Wallace Wade Stadium.
And again, Elon made Duke work for the victory: The Blue Devils broke away from a 10-10 halftime tie Thursday to earn a 45-17 victory.
Quarterback Darian Mensah, in his first start for the Blue Devils, showed off a live, accurate arm in the passing game. The transfer from Tulane was poised and precise in the pocket, completing 27 of 34 throws for 389 yards and three touchdowns.
Mensah twice found wide receiver Sahmir Hagans for scores and had a third to Cooper Barkate, and did not have an interception.
“He’s magical, he really is,” Barkate said. “Any play that’s called, no matter left or right, run or pass ... I mean, one of Sahmir’s touchdowns came on a little flip-out by Darian. That’s the kind of player he is. He’s magical any time the ball is in his hands.”
Duke’s biggest play came in the fourth quarter, as Que’Sean Brown returned a Jeff Yurk punt for a 78-yard score. Yurk, an All-America kicker last season, got off a 52-yarder, but Brown cut across the field and sprinted down the right sideline for the score and 38-17 lead.
“That was the final blow. That put the game away,” Diaz said.
A year ago, the Blue Devils gave Diaz a 26-3 win over Elon in the opener and was overwhelming on defense with eight sacks and 16 tackles for a loss. The Phoenix, with redshirt freshman Landen Clark making his first start at quarterback, found more openings on offense Thursday, but not enough to keep pace.
Duke’s lead was 24-17 in the fourth quarter when running back Anderson Castle, a load at 215 pounds, broke off tackle for 63 yards until finally being run down at the Elon 8. Two plays later, Mensah found Hagans for his second TD and a 31-17 lead.
What did we learn about the Blue Devils in the first game? Enough for now.
Mensah delivers in first game
Much was made of Mensah’s high-priced transfer to Duke, one that had last year’s starting quarterback, Maalik Murphy, moving on to Oregon State. A lot was said about how Mensah took charge in practices, how he quickly earned his teammates respect.
Mensah was elected a co-captain, a tangible sign of how the team feels about their new offensive leader, And he looked the part Thursday. The redshirt sophomore was decisive with his throws and had a quick release.
Mensah appeared to go through his progressions well, patiently reading the defense. He gunned a 44-yarder to Que’Sean Brown in the first half and a 46-yarder to Barkate in the second. He moved the ball around, using multiple receivers, short and long.
“Not a bad day at the office, to start,” Mensah said, smiling.
It was a good start for Duke’s new guys, and not just Mensah.
Barkate, who came to Duke after a sparkling career at Harvard, had five catches for 117 yards. He also was tough after contact, breaking tackles for 45 extra yards and taking a bit of a beating -- ”I got my back crunched a little bit,” he said.
Wide receiver Andrel Anthony, a graduate transfer from Oklahoma, made a contested 27-yard catch for a touchdown that pushed Duke’s lead to 24-10 in the third quarter.
Transfer defensive tackle Josiah Green got things started for Duke with a sack of Clark on the first snap of the game.
Freshman running back Nate Sheppard got in his first snaps at Duke and also was credited with a punt block on a Yurk punt late in the first half.
Some things to work on
The Blue Devils gave up some explosive plays in the game, enough to keep the Duke staff busy in the coming week in preparing for the upcoming game with Illinois.
The Blue Devils completely throttled the Phoenix through much of the first quarter, only to have running back T.J. Thomas break off a 44-yard run. Clark, an adequate thrower, had completions of 29 and 27 yards.
After Duke took a 17-10 lead on the Hagans TD, Thomas returned the kickoff 46 yards – a breakdown on special teams.
It was a typical opener, with warts
There were fireworks and flames before the game as the Blue Devils took the field before the opening kickoff. The Duke defense was dominant early, sacks blowing up each of the Elon’s first three possessions.
Mensah quickly whipped a 30-yard pass to Barkate on Duke’s first snap. It was just the start Duke wanted, on both sides of the ball.
But, as with most openers, there were errors.
“There’s going to be a lot you need to correct and will correct,” Diaz said. “But it’s always better to correct it when you’re 1-0.”
The Blue Devils’ Todd Pelino missed an early field goal. On another Duke possession, there was a penalty and then a dropped pass. On another, Duke running Peyton Jones slipped open over the middle but dropped a pass that would have been a touchdown.
“It was a nervy start to the game,” Diaz said. “We felt a little edge and it took us a while to settle down.”
The first half was back and forth, punch and counterpunch, ending 10-10.
“We talked a lot about not knowing a lot about their personnel or schemes,” Diaz said. “They had us chasing shadows a little bit defensively early in the game. We had come in at halftime and dial in on what they were doing and I thought made good adjustments defensively.”
Pelino did connect on a 41-yarder for Duke for a 3-0 lead, but Elon tied it on a Luke Barnes field goal.
Duke took a 10-3 lead as senior Jaquez Moore made a few shifty moves on a cutback move and scores from 32 yards. But Elon quickly answered with a 75-yard scoring drive, Clark scoring on a keeper from the 2.
Mensah unloaded a 44-yard pass to Que’Sean Brown, then a 14-yarder to Brown to the Elon 12 late in the first half. But Jaquez Moore fumbled – the only turnover of the first half.
This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 10:50 PM.
