It was an important opening night for Duke, taking down Tulane 17-3, a good program. Tulane, which has a chance to win a lot of games this season, couldn't do anything on the offensive side of the football. We have to give a lot of credit to what Duke did on defense, something Manny Diaz has pointed to multiple times over the past couple of months.
As Duke continues to prepare for the rest of the season, it will face a tough game on Saturday against Illinois. After that, we'll see some ACC action, though the Illinois game is the bigger focus for right now. Illinois is a decent program, so if Duke doesn't come out and do what's needed on offense, as it did against Tulane, it could be in for a long night. That starts with quarterback Walker Eget, who went 13 of 26 for 131 yards.
Eget didn't do what he needed to do, but understandably so. It was his first game with the program, and he doesn't sound too worried about it. In fact, he said that he was wanted at Duke, and that it meant a lot to him and showed that it was the place he wanted to be.
“Being at one school for five years, I was comfortable with everything, but I think I just wanted a new chapter in my life,” he said, per The Chronicle. “I felt like it was the end of my time [at San Jose State].”
“There's a difference between being wanted and going somewhere that you want to be, and this is a place where I really wanted to be,” Eget said. “Being able to talk to the players and the coaching staff beforehand — they wanted me to come out here, and that was something that really catches your attention right away.”
I wasn't too impressed with what Eget did during Saturday's win against Tulane, but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being.
I'm very curious to see how some things look over the next couple of weeks, and I think everybody should be as well because Manny Diaz even came out and said that he expects his offense and passing game specifically to improve. Eget obviously also understands that he needs to be better, so there are some interesting things there as well.
