College football is almost here, a very exciting time for many teams around the country, including Duke. After winning the ACC Championship a year ago, there's a lot of hope that Duke will continue building on what was a very impressive year. There were times last year when it was obvious that Duke was one of the better teams in the ACC, and other times when it had a chance to even be one of the best in the country.
However, the unfortunate part is that there were also many moments when Duke didn't look like one of the better teams in even the ACC, let alone the country. It's tough to say that the Blue Devils were perfect on both sides of the football, though ESPN thinks that things could be different next year for the better.
“If you put Duke's 2025 offense, 2024 defense and 2025 special teams unit together, you would have a top-20 team, per SP+. If you put the other team together -- 2024 offense, 2025 defense, 2024 special teams -- you'd barely have a top-80 team. Diaz's first two seasons at Duke have produced a good version of everything. They've also produced a pair of nine-win seasons and an ACC title. Now just imagine what could happen if Duke does all the good things at the same time.
“Duke was a volatile team in 2025, overachieving against SP+ projections by at least 12 points five times but underachieving by at least 18 points twice. With the amount of change coming their way in 2026, however, the Blue Devils could have a very different personality,” ESPN wrote.
As ESPN touched on here, much of this will center on whether Duke can put things together at the same time. I know that we can say that about a lot of college football teams, but there have definitely been moments when Duke is really good doing one thing, bad at the other, and the opposite.
The hope is that it eventually just puts everything together and things go from there.
