Atop the ACC standings, can Duke football stay there? Here’s the schedule
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Duke sits atop ACC at midseason after three straight conference wins, 4-2 overall.
- Tough road ahead features top-15 Georgia Tech, Virginia, UNC and Wake Forest showdowns.
- Coach Diaz pursues ACC title and CFP path while urging week-to-week focus and improvement.
It was at the ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte that Duke’s Wesley Williams was talking in terms of a championship for the Blue Devils in 2025.
“Our standard is the championship, absolutely, and we work every day towards that standard,” the junior defensive end said. “With everything we do, every rep is championship standard.”
Such is the bravado, the hubris, in preseason, in July. A lot of teams have ACC championship hopes. By midseason, many teams have seen those hopes realistically end.
But not Duke.
After a 1-2 start that included non-conference losses to Illinois and Tulane, Duke has regrouped and responded with three straight ACC wins. At 3-0, the Devils were tied with Virginia for the ACC lead and 4-2 overall at the midpoint of their season. After beating N.C. State in Durham in its ACC opener, Duke smashed Syracuse, 38-3, on the road and then won last week at California. Duke fell behind 14-0 and then 21-7 but then dominated every aspect of play, scoring 38 unanswered points for a 45-21 road victory over the Golden Bears.
“It’s hard to be the same team every week,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said after the game. “We were under adversity early like we were against State. We know we can come from behind. We showed that once we’ve established the lead and taken control of the game, we have not relinquished it, and I think that‘s a really important skill that will benefit us going forward.”
After a bye week, the Blue Devils next host Georgia Tech, ranked No. 13 this week, in a noon start on Oct. 18. The Yellow Jackets (5-0, 2-0 ACC) face Virginia Tech in Atlanta on Saturday.
“Our goal of getting to Charlotte and our goal of getting to the College Football Playoff is still intact,” Diaz said, noting the ACC title game Dec. 6 in Charlotte. “We have five league games left and when you go 3-0 you do control your destiny, which a lot of teams in the country can’t say right now.
“Again, if we start thinking about all that stuff, we’ll get out of whack. We’ve got a bye and we need to continue to get better.”
Here’s what’s ahead for Duke in the second half of the season:
Oct. 18, Georgia Tech
Quick take: Don’t count the Jackets out of reaching Charlotte. If they beat Virginia Tech on Saturday, they’ll roll into Wallace Wade Stadium undefeated, 3-0 in the league and possibly a top 10 team, or on the fringe. It should be a matchup of two of the ACC’s best QBs: Darian Mensah of Duke and Tech’s Haynes King. Mensah is among the nation’s passing leaders and King is a dual threat who is a more dangerous runner than passer.
Duke success rate: Tech took a 24-14 win in Atlanta last year with a 412-279 edge in total offense and nearly 40 minutes of possession time. The Blue Devils, who have lost the last four in a series that dates to 1933, likely will need to flip that, to close to it, to win.
Nov. 1, at Clemson
Quick take: No one expected Clemson’s stumbling start this season, given the Tigers’ talent. After a bye week, they responded by stomping North Carolina, needing barely a quarter to put the game away in Chapel Hill in a 38-10 win last week.
Have the Tigers (2-3, 1-2 ACC) made a course correction or is UNC (2-3, 0-1 ACC) just that bad? It could be both. Clemson faces Boston College (1-4, 0-3 ACC) and SMU (3-2, 1-0 ACC) in its next two games and, like Duke, will has an open week Oct. 25.
Duke success rate: The Devils have won just three of their last 16 games with Clemson but did win the last one. On Sept. 4, 2023, Duke hammered Clemson, 28-7, in a game in Durham that didn’t seem so much of an upset. The Tigers will remember that one.
Nov. 8, at Connecticut
Quick take: A November nonconference game in the middle of the ACC schedule? Yes. It is odd timing, and it will come against a UConn team that now is 4-2, has won three straight games and is 3-0 at home after blasting FIU, 51-10. The Huskies, who lost to Syracuse in overtime early in the season, will go to Boston College on Oct. 18, then face Rice and UAB before the Duke game.
Duke success rate: A year ago, Duke trailed the Huskies 21-17 after the third quarter before surging to a 26-21 win in Durham. There’s no reason to believe a road game will be any easier against a Jim Mora Jr.-coached team.
Nov. 15, Virginia
Quick take: Talk about a turnaround season for Tony Elliott and the Cavaliers, and at just the right time for the fourth-year coach. Had it not been for a late end-zone turnover at N.C. State, the Wahoos could be undefeated. The good news for Virginia: the loss to the Wolfpack was not an ACC loss because the two schools agreed to a nonconference series.
After struggling to muster much offense last season, the Hoos scored 48 points in beating Stanford, 46 in an overtime win over Florida State, then 30 last week in a close win at Louisville. Ranked No. 19 by the AP poll, they are 5-1 and 3-0 in the ACC before going into an open weekend.
Duke success rate: 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. Given the two offenses, it could be an offensive smorgasbord this year.
Nov. 22, at North Carolina
Quick take: Who knows what to expect in this one. UNC’s first season under Bill Belichick is melting away faster than a snow cone on a humid August day and there’s no way of knowing what the Tar Heels’ collective mindset will be coming into the game. Or the crowd size.
It is a rivalry game. Duke did win it last year, ringing the Victory Bell after a 21-20 comeback victory over Mack Brown’s Tar Heels. It will be at Kenan Stadium. But will any of that matter?
Duke success rate: The Tar Heels had won five straight in the series under Brown until last season, when UNC couldn’t hold a 20-0 lead in the second half. It will be the first time Diaz has gone head to head with Belichick, for what that’s worth.
Nov. 29, Wake Forest
Quick take: The Blue Devils’ hope is to reach this game with the chance to move on to Charlotte and play for an ACC championship. There’s also the matter of the “state championship” and the Blue Devils would like to stake that claim for a second straight year by beating State, UNC and Wake Forest. It will be Senior Day at Duke, with all that comes with that. The Deacons (3-2, 1-2 ACC), under first-year Jake Dickert, have been competitive in ACC games — taking a tough 30-29 loss to Georgia Tech – and could be major spoilers.
Duke success rate: The Blue Devils have won the last three in the Big Four series and all were tight – 34-31 in 2022, 24-21 in 2023 and then 23-17 last season. That one went down to the final play last fall, Jordan Moore pulling in a 39-yard TD throw from Maalik Murphy. It’s Mensah’s turn this year.
