Manny Diaz’s Duke team has been one of the early surprises of the season, and the 4-0 start has come with a little payback mixed in. The Blue Devils already checked off revenge wins against Tulane and Illinois, two teams that beat them a year ago.
Now they get another chance to settle an old score.
After a bye week, Duke heads into Week 6 looking to answer for last season’s loss to Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets came into Durham a year ago and left with a 27-18 win, using a strong finish to pull away. The game was tied at 10 entering the fourth quarter, then Georgia Tech ripped off 17 straight points to close it out.
This Duke team looks different. The defense has taken a clear step forward from last season, and Nate Sheppard is powering a rushing attack that has been hard to slow down all year.
Georgia Tech, meanwhile, is coming in at 1-3 and badly needs a win to get its season moving again. Brent Key’s group has not had an easy time adjusting to life after QB Haynes King and OC Buster Faulkner, but Duke can’t afford to treat the Jackets like a soft landing spot.
Diaz knows better than that. He understands how hard it is to win on the road in this league, and he’s not about to let his team get comfortable.
Odds courtesy of FanDuel as of 6am ET on Saturday: Duke is a 6.5-point favorite.
The over/under is 43.5. On the moneyline, Duke is -235 and Georgia Tech is +190.
This one doesn’t look like a cakewalk for the Blue Devils, even if the matchup tempts people to lean on the Stanford comparison. Duke handled Stanford with ease, while Georgia Tech lost in Palo Alto, but that kind of math doesn’t mean much once the ball is kicked.
Georgia Tech is a dangerous team precisely because it needs this one. The Jackets should come out with urgency Saturday afternoon in Atlanta, and Duke will have to match that energy.
For the Blue Devils, the formula is simple: play clean, protect the football, and avoid the kind of mistakes that can flip a game in a hurry.
Duke should win, but it figures to take all 60 minutes. Diaz will have his team ready for that.
In Other News...
Dukes Frustrating Collapse Exposed Two Problems Fans Cant Ignore
Dukes first loss of the season came in Atlanta, where a 28-25 defeat to Georgia Tech left the Blue Devils with plenty to sort through beyond the final score. Walker Eget and linebacker Luke Mergott were among the players who made their presence felt, and Duke actually handled itself well on third and fourth downs, showing enough composure in key spots to stay in the game deep into the afternoon.
Still, the details that tilted the result were hard to ignore. Penalties in the first half repeatedly put Duke behind schedule, and the inside running game never matched the kind of push the Blue Devils needed to control the flow of the game. For a team that had started clean and confident, the loss exposed two issues that will linger until Duke proves it can play cleaner and generate more consistent production between the tackles. [Read more 🡒]
Duke Let A Winnable Road Game Slip Away In Painful Fashion
For much of the afternoon in Atlanta, Duke had the kind of road game it needed to finish and move on, with Nate Sheppard doing plenty to keep the Blue Devils in front of the conversation. Playing through a foot injury, the running back carried a heavy load and turned in a standout all-around effort, finishing with 99 rushing yards, two touchdowns and 91 receiving yards as Duke tried to stay clean in the ACC race.
Instead, the Blue Devils let a winnable game unravel in painful fashion. Penalties kept handing Georgia Tech extra chances, and when Duke still had a path to force overtime, freshman kicker Gavin Strange missed the late field goal try that would have tied it. The 28-25 loss drops Duke to 4-1 overall and 1-1 in league play, a frustrating result in a game that was there to be taken. [Read more 🡒]
Duke Faces A Sloppy First ACC Road Test At Georgia Tech
Dukes first ACC road trip of the season has already had the feel of an early grind, with the Blue Devils and Georgia Tech working through a choppy first half in Atlanta. The game got underway after weather concerns tied to Hurricane Isaias, but the turf was dry and the conditions were mild once play began, and the football matched the setting only in fits and starts as both teams piled up penalties and had trouble sustaining drives.
The Blue Devils entered the break down 14-10 after two quarters, with linebacker Luke Mergott helping steady the defense and running back Nate Sheppard briefly leaving before returning. What has stood out most is how little room either offense has found on late-down chances, leaving Duke in a familiar early-season road spot where clean execution matters just as much as talent. [Read more 🡒]