It took long enough.
It still doesn't really make any sense how Duke enters Week 5 of the college football season and isn't ranked in the top 25 in the AP poll. If any other team in the country had won the ACC last year and was 4-0 to start the year with the wins that Duke has, it almost feels safe to say that said team would certainly be in the top 25. For whatever reason, Duke beating Illinois, Tulane, and Stanford, as well as a 62-7 win against William & Mary on Saturday, really hasn't meant a whole lot.
There's not much more that the program can do at this point other than come out and take care of business on both sides of the football, but the lack of respect has to be frustrating to some, even if Duke hasn't come out and said that it's too bothersome.
The guys in the locker room seem to be keeping a level head, which is a very good sign, but it's getting to a point where it's disrespectful.
At the same time, that doesn't mean everybody is disrespecting Duke.
That includes ESPN, which recently ranked Duke No. 22 in the country, which I would say isn't unfair, but it still feels like the Blue Devils should be ranked a bit higher than that, at least somewhere in the teens compared to other programs that have played the way they have this year.
“The Blue Devils were picked to finish 10th in the ACC preseason media poll after losing quarterback Mensah and wideout Cooper Barkate to Miami on the last day the transfer portal. So, Duke regrouped, believing the strength of its team would be the run game. Indeed, through four games, the Blue Devils have proved just that. Running back Nate Sheppard leads the country with 644 yards rushing, and Duke is 4-0 for the third time in four seasons.
“That is the best stretch for the program since four straight 4-0 starts from 1935 to 1938. Duke ranks in the top 20 nationally in rush defense and total defense, as the Blue Devils have identified who they want to be and how they want to approach this season,” Andrea Adelson of ESPN wrote.
Duke's season is only going to get more difficult throughout the season, but as we look at it right now, there's a strong reason to believe that it has a chance to win every single game outside of when it takes on Miami.
I don't want to say playing Miami will result in a loss, but Miami is definitely the best team Duke will play this year, at least on paper.
There's obviously a lot that can happen prior to that, and college football can always get strange, but that's the biggest game left on Duke's schedule, and perhaps by then, it will be ranked, which would be absolutely outrageous if it were to be undefeated and not ranked at that point in the middle of November.
