Three weeks ago, Duke was staring at a messy conference picture after back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina left Manny Diaz’s team at 1-2 in ACC play. Now the Blue Devils are rolling, and the turnaround has been loud: two straight wins by a combined 88-5, capped by a 41-3 rout of rival NC State. Duke sits at 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the league, riding a three-game winning streak with the best running back in the country and a defense that ranks top-five in scoring.
That surge has changed the mood around Durham, but it also sets up the toughest test Duke has seen all season. The Blue Devils head to Coral Gables to face No.
5 Miami, a team coming off a loss to No. 3 Notre Dame.
The game kicks off at noon Eastern on ABC, and it has the feel of a season-defining moment for Diaz’s group.
Miami may be the ACC’s best team, but the Hurricanes have not exactly been untouchable. Three of their last four games have been close, including near-misses against North Carolina and Florida State.
Duke and Wake Forest, meanwhile, have been the league’s most dominant teams in recent weeks, even if only one of them has already seen Miami up close. Wake Forest took a 33-20 loss in its only defeat of the season, while Duke is still waiting for its first crack at a team this dangerous.
The Hurricanes bring plenty of firepower into the matchup. Their defensive front includes Ahmad Moton Sr. and Justin Scott, and former Blue Devils quarterback Darian Mensah is part of the mix on the other side of the ball. Cooper Barkate is there too, along with a run game that can be punishing when the concepts are working.
Mensah and Barkate’s return will be a storyline later in the week, but even before that, the matchup already carries extra weight. Duke fans have had this one circled since the two stars left for Mario Cristobal’s program, and the stakes are obvious: this is a must-win for the Blue Devils’ ACC Championship and playoff hopes.
There’s a real contrast in how the two sides may be approaching it. Duke has been building toward this moment, while Miami could be walking into a bounce-back spot after the Notre Dame loss. But the Hurricanes may also be underestimating what Duke has become, especially with Nate Sheppard and a defense that has been excellent for most of the season.
Miami is dealing with injuries and coming off a hard defeat, and Duke is bringing in the best running back the Hurricanes will face all year, a player viewed as a potential Heisman Trophy contender. For the Blue Devils, this is the game they’ve been waiting for, and it could end up defining Diaz’s time in Durham while pushing the program onto the national stage as a postseason threat.
In Other News...
Manny Diaz Weighs In On A CFP Change Duke Fans Should Watch
As the College Football Playoff moves toward a 24-team format, Manny Diaz is already thinking about what the change could mean for the sport beyond just the bracket itself. The Duke coach said he does not support eliminating conference championships, arguing that a playoff should still begin inside the leagues and reward teams for what they do on the field rather than leave so much to committee judgment.
Diaz also pointed to a likely side effect Duke fans should keep an eye on: the growing uncertainty around bowl games in an expanded playoff era. If more teams are pulled into the postseason picture, those traditional December matchups could lose some of the relevance they have carried for years, even as the postseason itself gets bigger and more inclusive. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Needs One More Scoring Threat To Take Down Duke
Michigan State heads into the Championship Classic with a clear formula in mind: lean on Jeremy Fears to steady the offense, get enough production from the center spot, and keep Duke from dictating the game with its defense. The Spartans have the kind of structure that can make a high-profile nonconference matchup interesting, especially if their key pieces hold up against the pressure that comes with facing a team like Duke.
What Michigan State still needs, though, is one more scorer it can count on when the Blue Devils start taking away the primary options. An additional double-digit threat would go a long way toward making this a real test for Duke, because the margin for error shrinks quickly when the defense is this good. The question now is whether the Spartans can find that extra punch in time to make the matchup far more competitive than it looks on paper. [Read more 🡒]
Mia Minestrella's Winner Put Duke On The Verge Of History
Mia Minestrella delivered the kind of moment Duke womens soccer has built its reputation on, stepping to an overtime penalty kick and burying it in a 5-4 comeback win over Wake Forest. The seniors finish tied the programs career goal record at 47 and sent Duke into the ACC Championship semifinals, while also helping the Blue Devils reach their 500th program victory.
For a team that had to climb all the way back in one of the biggest comeback wins in ACC Championship history, the night carried more than one layer of significance. Minestrellas latest goal added to a career already packed with big moments, and it left Duke on the verge of history with the tournament still ahead. [Read more 🡒]