Duke football will be trying to get back to its winning ways after finishing with a 5-7 record overall and 3-5 in the ACC last year. Duke will start the season by Notre Dame, who is making their ACC debut. Fortunately for Duke, it only has to play one other top 25 team this year besides Notre Dame with North Carolina. The Blue Devils will avoid playing ACC-favorite Clemson this year.
The schedule
Duke has a pretty good chance to finish with a winning record this year. However, this is an all-conference game season and Duke doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to playing its own conference. With the new addition of Chase Brice transferring from Clemson, Duke has a new quarterback to cheer on this season. We’ll have to see what he’s got after being Trevor Lawrence’s backup and was coached by Dabo Swinney. I say Duke finishes with a 7-4 record this year. The four teams I think they lose to are Notre Dame, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Florida State.
Offense
Chase Brice may be the QB Duke has been looking for. When given the chance, backup quarterbacks from top 25 schools tend to play great on their new teams. I’m sure Duke fans can’t wait to see him play this weekend. I think Duke should change it up this year, and give Mataeo Grant some more touches. He finished last season with more yards per carry than Deon Jackson. He also finished the season with just as many yards with 75 less carries. Jake Bobo is looking for a bounce back year after suffering a season-ending injury last year. He should help the Blue Devils efforts to push for a winning season. They’ll need to cut down on turnovers as well. Duke may have a new QB this year, but last year’s quarterbacks only threw 18 touchdowns with 14 interceptions.
Defense
I would like to see a little more from Duke’s defense this season. The Blue Devils finished with nine interception and eight fumble recoveries. If the Blue Devils are to make a push this year, I think they would at least have to average at least two turnovers per game. One thing that should make Blue Devils fans excited, is their ability to get to the quarterback. Duke finished with 35 sacks last year and Duke fans will want to see more of that this season.
After Duke’s game against Notre Dame on Saturday. The rest of the season looks promising for them. I think Duke does bounce back from last year and have a winning season, but only time will tell.
