Duke opened the season the same way it has so often lately: with a win. This one wasn’t flashy, but the Blue Devils did enough to beat Tulane 17-3, leaning on a huge night from Nate Sheppard and a defense that never let the Green Wave breathe near the end zone.
Sheppard was the story from start to finish. The freshman All-American piled up a career-high 227 rushing yards and scored both Duke touchdowns, putting together the fifth-highest single-game rushing total in program history.
He was the one constant in an offense that otherwise had a hard time moving the ball through the air, and nearly 60 percent of Duke’s 381 total yards came from him alone. The workload was heavy, and at one point it even left the Mandeville, Louisiana, native with blood flowing from his nose.
Manny Diaz is going to keep leaning on him, but the physical toll is impossible to ignore.
The passing game, meanwhile, never really found its footing. Walker Eget, officially named the starter before the opener, looked uncomfortable early and never fully settled in.
He finished 13 of 26 and spent much of the night relying on his running backs to keep drives alive. Accuracy was the issue throughout, though he did flash once with a 26-yard completion to tight end Jeremiah Hasley midway through the third quarter.
After Darian Mensah’s title-winning campaign from 2025, the bar was always going to be high, and this debut showed how far Eget still has to go.
What gave Duke its cushion was the defense. Tulane never reached the end zone, and the Blue Devils’ front and back seven kept the pressure on with three sacks and seven tackles-for-loss.
A forced fumble by linebacker Luke Mergott early in the third quarter was especially important, snuffing out a chance for Tulane to build on a 39-yard play that might have set up a touchdown drive. For a team that lost Chandler Rivers and its entire defensive line to the NFL, that was a strong reminder that Duke’s defense still has real teeth.
The numbers tell the same story. Duke finished with just 131 receiving yards, while Tulane totaled 204 through the air, a gap that reflects how limited the Blue Devils were when Eget had to throw.
Duke’s first drive offered a glimpse of the formula that worked best: a 75-yard march powered almost entirely by the ground game, with Sheppard accounting for 60 rushing yards and CJ Campbell adding seven more. The penalty battle was ugly too, though Tulane made it worse with 15 flags for 104 yards, compared with Duke’s eight penalties for 53 yards.
The win also extended Duke’s run of opening-week success to five straight seasons. Last year’s 45-17 rout of Elon came with a second-half surge, and this one was nowhere near that explosive, but Tulane is a tougher test than the final score might suggest. Duke got the result it wanted, and it did it without needing everything to click.
Next up is a trip to Champaign, Illinois, where Duke faces Fighting Illini on Saturday at 3:30 pm. That game should tell a lot more about whether Eget’s opener was just a rough night or something deeper.
Either way, the passing game has to sharpen up. The foundation is there, but the Blue Devils can’t expect Sheppard and the defense to carry everything forever.
In Other News...
Manny Diaz Just Sent A Message Duke Fans Will Love
Dukes Week 1 win over Tulane gave Manny Diaz an immediate reason to feel encouraged about the direction of his program. The Blue Devils controlled enough of the game to leave with a convincing early-season result, and the defense did its part by making life difficult on a Tulane offense that never found much rhythm. With Illinois up next, the opener offered a useful first look at how Duke wants to play under its new head coach.
Diaz did more than simply enjoy the result after the game. He voiced confidence in what the Blue Devils are building, and that matters in a spot where outsiders were already ready to assume Duke might slide backward. The broader message was less about one September win than about the belief inside the room, and the next test against Illinois will show whether that confidence travels with the team. [Read more 🡒]
Dukes ACC Road To Another Title Just Got A Lot Tougher
Dukes path through the 2026-27 ACC schedule is now clear, and it looks like another season where the Blue Devils will have to navigate a league that is not offering many easy nights. The conference slate begins with Georgia Tech, and while Duke is still viewed as the favorite to win the ACC again, the broader draw brings the usual mix of danger, including Louisville, Miami, Virginia and North Carolina as teams capable of making the race tighter than it might first appear.
The pairing structure adds another layer to watch, with North Carolina remaining Dukes primary ACC partner and Virginia serving as the variable one for this season. For a program that expects to be in the title hunt every winter, the schedule is less about whether Duke will be challenged and more about how many different ways those challenges can show up before March. [Read more 🡒]
Duke May Have Found The Opening It Needs At Illinois
Duke opened the season with a win over Tulane, and now the attention shifts to a road trip to Illinois that could tell us a lot about how real this start might be. The Blue Devils did enough in Week 1 to create some optimism, and the matchup in Champaign looks like one where they can lean into what worked best early, especially on the ground.
Illinois had trouble slowing UAB in its opener, and that is the kind of vulnerability Duke will try to test with Nate Sheppard coming off a strong debut. Sheppard gave the Blue Devils a real running threat in Week 1, but if Duke wants to push for an upset, Walker Eget will need to help turn the offense into something more balanced instead of making the run game carry everything on its own. [Read more 🡒]