Manny Diaz and Duke spent much of the night staring down the same problem that had haunted them for two straight weeks: a tight game late, a touchdown that needed to hold, and one more defensive stop to finish it off. This time, they finally got both.
Down 16-13 with fewer than 90 seconds left, Duke reached into the bag for a double pass that flipped the game. Walker Eget took what looked like a swing pass to Nate Sheppard, who was lined up behind the line of scrimmage. Sheppard sold the run, then uncorked a clean strike to Brody Keefe, who was wide open in the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown.
DOUBLE PASS FOR THE LEAD pic.twitter.com/BVNgxUQouk
- Duke Football (@DukeFOOTBALL) October 24, 2026
That score did not exactly erase the nerves. Gavin Strange missed the extra point, leaving Virginia with one last chance to force the kind of ending Duke had already lived through the previous two weeks.
But this time, the Blue Devils closed. On fourth-and-6, Beau Pribula’s final heave was picked off by Patrick Smith-Young, and that was that.
Patrick Smith Young picks off Pribula and that'll be ball game #gohoos #duke pic.twitter.com/z74sn4YX2u
- Carter Lowe (@carterjlowe) October 24, 2026
Afterward, Diaz told ESPN’s Dana Boyle that the call had been planned well before the winning snap.
"We knew it was there," Diaz said. "We actually talked about it.
We threw the play to set it up two plays before and we said we want to throw that for the win. We threw that for the win."
The setup mattered. Two plays before Keefe’s touchdown, Duke showed the same look to the other side, with Eget hitting Sheppard on a swing pass that went for 13 yards and moved the chains. That gain set the table for the shot play that followed.
Sheppard drew plenty of attention all night, even as Virginia did a solid job limiting his production. He finished with 55 rushing yards on 15 carries, but his presence still warped the defense. That space opened the lane for Keefe to get behind everyone for the decisive touchdown.
It also marked the difference at the end. Unlike the previous two weeks, Duke’s defense delivered when the game hung in the balance.
The victory sends the Blue Devils home with a 5-2 overall record and a 2-2 mark in ACC play. Boston College comes to town next on Halloween.
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Now his name is surfacing in connection with USC, where pressure is building around Lincoln Riley as the Trojans sit at 6-1 and still have a College Football Playoff path to sort through. For Duke fans, that is the uneasy part of having a coach who looks like a rising star again, because the better Diaz performs in Durham, the more likely it is that bigger jobs start calling. [Read more 🡒]
Duke Found A Wild Way To Steal A Late ACC Road Win
Duke left Charlottesville with a wild road win, and it came in a game that never looked particularly clean for either side. The Blue Devils did just enough to hang around against Virginia before a late trick play flipped the night, with running back Nate Sheppard finding Brody Keefe for a touchdown that turned a tight finish into a Duke advantage.
Virginia still had a chance to answer, but a missed extra point earlier in the sequence loomed large once Duke had the edge. From there, Patrick Smith-Young delivered the closing moment with an interception to seal the 19-16 victory, pushing Duke to 5-2 and leaving the Cavaliers searching for what might have been in a game that slipped away at the end. [Read more 🡒]