Can 2023 Blue Devils football outshine the iconic MBB program?
By Austin Lloyd
What are the chances of Duke FB exceeding a .750 win percentage?
Just like we would with any other team’s schedule, we are going to approach Duke’s from two angles, handling its out-of-conference games before getting into league play.
As members of the ACC, the Duke Blue Devils have four out-of-conference matchups lined up for this season: Lafayette, Northwestern, at UConn, and Notre Dame. With the Leopards and Huskies being smaller-level squads, they shouldn’t cause much trouble. As for the Wildcats, they suffered a loss to Duke in 2022 en route to an abysmal 1-11 record, so the thought of them pulling a fast one this time around—in Durham, no less—seems a tad ridiculous.
That just leaves Notre Dame, which is a huge jump on the formidability scale. I’m willing to humor the idea of the Duke Blue Devils taking this one as well, though, and for two reasons; one is them being at home and the other is the familiarity that inconsistent quarterback Sam Hartman provides them.
This all gives Duke a promising count of four wins without even considering its ACC foes, but unfortunately, some of them are going to pose the biggest threats to such success.
The eight conference opponents awaiting the Duke Blue Devils will face them in the following order: Clemson, North Carolina State, at Florida State, at Louisville, Wake Forest, at North Carolina, at Virginia, and Pittsburgh. Anyone who is aware of how each of those schools performed last year knows that they form quite a brutal path. However, said path is far from impossible to survive.