Duke Shown Lack of Respect Again After Dropping in ESPN Rankings Despite Bye Week

Duke had an early bye week, something that could come back to help or hurt them. 

It'll be interesting to see how Duke responds after playing some very good football throughout the first four weeks of the season against Illinois, Stanford, and William and Mary.

Duke will take on Georgia Tech on Saturday out in Atlanta, a game that it should come away with. The Blue Devils may come out a bit slow after this bye week, but they have to take care of business if they want to keep earning respect, even if things haven't gone perfectly as planned in that department over the past couple of years. 

After winning the ACC Championship Game a year ago, it felt safe to say Duke would get much more respect entering this year. 

However, once quarterback Darian Mensah left, it didn't seem like anyone cared about Duke, at least in the national media. 

Duke is still unranked in the AP poll, a very disrespectful sign considering it's played very well to start this season. ESPN ranked it 22nd entering Week 5, but after a bye, ESPN has already dropped the Blue Devils three spots to No. 25 in its recent rankings.

“The 4-0 Blue Devils had an idle week to recover and get ready for a run of eight consecutive conference games with no weeks off. The road ahead does not look too daunting at the moment for coach Manny Diaz's squad, not with a struggling Georgia Tech up next in ACC play followed by a trio of foes -- North Carolina, Virginia and Boston College -- that all suffered losses Saturday. Even with the week off, star running back Nate Sheppard remains the national leader in rushing yards per game with 644 yards on 7.1 yards per carry and nine total TDs,” Max Olson of ESPN wrote.

At this point, it's no surprise that Duke still isn't getting the level of respect it should on both sides of the ball. As long as the Blue Devils come out and take care of business against Georgia Tech and do what's needed throughout the remainder of ACC play, things will take care of themselves. 

Manny Diaz has already said he doesn't really care what people say about his team, and it feels like that's a similar feeling throughout the program.

Duke has too much to look forward to over the next couple of weeks to months to worry about an early ranking, but I think it's flat-out ridiculous that it keeps falling.