Team Profile: Duke Blue Devils
The new hottest team in college football
From Yahoo Sports: “Led by Manny Diaz, undefeated Duke may be this college football season's biggest surprise”
This quote just about sums up the article I'm about to write.
Duke University has been a well-known school for generations, but never because of their football team. Instead, it’s been their top-tier academics coupled with their world famous basketball - and it’s true. Duke has one of the best college basketball teams in the history of the sport, and the school itself has an acceptance rate of about 6 percent. But that’s not what this is about. This is about their football team.
Duke Football entered the 2024 season with a brand new look. They’ve made small improvements in the past, but had yet to string together a consistently strong season of football. This year, they made big changes. Duke had a tough challenge this offseason, needing to replace their HC Mike Elko, who’d left for Texas A&M, and QB Riley Leonard, who’d left for Notre Dame. To replace Elko, they brought in Manny Diaz: a seasoned coach who had spent time at Miami and Penn State in recent years. To replace Leonard, they found Maalik Murphy: a former backup QB from Texas who showed great promise. He has a massive build, standing at 6’5, 230 pounds. Murphy is an incredible athlete who entered the transfer portal because he was sitting behind the loaded QB room of Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning, and smartly realized that Duke would be a better fit. Along with Diaz and Murphy, they also completely rebuilt their coaching staff and defense. The Duke Blue Devils were a brand new team, and looked better than ever.
Duke’s football team has prided themselves on being really really gritty. Their slogan is “drag opponents into the sewer” (Yahoo). They’ve lived up to that motto so far, and it’s really shown in the 4th quarter, in which they outscore opponents 40-6 this season.
Last week, Duke went up against their arch rivals, North Carolina, with a 4-0 record. They got off to a very slow start, and trailed 20-0 at one point. However, that gritty identity that the Blue Devils take pride in started to show. They made a miraculous comeback, led by Murphy and surprise standout RB Star Thomas, who rushed for 166 yards and a TD. They eventually won the game by one point.
Duke is primed to assert themselves as a top team for years to come, and the administration is definitely on board. Duke’s President Vincent Price recently said “Duke is absolutely committed to compete at the highest level of football.’’
Duke Athletic Director Nina King shared a similar message, saying “we do not want to be left out. We feel like we are putting in the investment, whether resources or people or facilities, etc. we want to make sure our program is in the next iteration, whatever it is. We are in a good position right now. Not sure you could have said that 5-10 years ago. We will be attractive. We’ll be able to go in with that next group of schools, whoever they are and break off.”
Duke is 5-0 for the first time since 1994, and they look to capitalize on their momentum tonight against Georgia Tech.