Wake Forest Football Opponent Preview: Duke Blue Devils

Coming off one of their most successful stretches in program history, the Duke Blue Devils appear to be making a bigger commitment to football.

There's more money in recruiting and the transfer portal, helped along by NIL and wealthy Duke donors.

It's a fundamental shift in the athletic department, which, historically, has favored basketball and baseball.

It also makes Duke a dangerous ACC team moving forward under coach Manny Diaz .

Wake Forest closes the season at Duke, and we'll preview that game around Thanksgiving.

But let's first take a look at Duke in 2025 under transfer QB Darian Mensah .

Is this team still an ACC contender? Or are there underlying reasons to account for a 9-4 campaign in 2024 that might not hold up in 2025? We're nearing kickoff for the 2025 college football season, and that means tune in every week with Wake Forest on SI for an extensive preview on every foe the Demon Deacons will play this season.

2025 Duke Football At A Glance Name : Duke Blue Devils Stadium : Wallace Wade Stadium, Durham, NC (capacity: 35,018) Head coach : Manny Diaz (2nd season) Offensive coordinator : Jonathan Brewer Defensive coordinator : Jonathan Patake 2024 record : 9-4 (5-3 ACC) Duke Football In 2024: The Commitment Not commitment as in a recruit or transfer rather, a commitment by Duke University to its football program.

Head coach Mike Elko left for Texas A&M, so Duke went out and hired Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz to run the program, a hire who has ACC head coaching experience (Miami).

The Blue Devils brought in Texas transfer Maalik Murphy and returned a sturdy defense.

Despite drawing the toughest schedule in the ACC, Duke went 9-4 behind three outright upsets and a 6-1 record in one-score games.

Luck had a bit to do with itafter all, no team wins 6-of-7 one-score games without some of itbut Diaz proved that Duke was a well-coached team capable of winning those games despite being out-gained on the season.

With its second nine-win season in three years, Duke decided to get serious about its financial commitment to the football program.

Duke Blue Devils Offense Preview After its best run in over a decade (26-13 over three years), Duke contributed some serious NIL money to the transfer portal.

It signed its best recruiting class in program history (first top-30 class ever!) and landed a coveted QB transfer in Darian Mensah from Tulane (2,736 yards, 22 TDs, 6 INT).

Outside of Mensah, the transfer haul was light, with just nine total, a testament to the talent Diaz already had in-house.

The standout unit on offense continues to be the offensive line.

Brian Parker returns off an All-ACC performance in 2024 as do starters Matt Craycraft (center), Justin Pickett (guard), and Bruno Fina (tackle).

This unit returns 82 career starts, a respectable amount, and Mensah's legs should help bolster both its rushing numbers and sacks allowed.

This should be one of the better fronts in the ACC.

RB Jaquez Moore missed most of last season with an ankle injury suffered early on but returns healthy for the 2025 campaign.

Junior Peyton Jones (317 yards) returns for rotational duty, but Duke loses a productive back in Star Thomas.

It must also replace over 1,600 yards in receiving production from its top two, and just two of the top seven pass catchers are back.

Andrel Anthony, an Oklahoma transfer, should be an impact player on offense as he looks for his first healthy season as a starter.

Duke's offense should be better than last year.

It ranked just 109th in points per drive due to a poor rushing attack and a team that simply couldn't convert on third and fourth down.

Mensah should do a bit to paper over some of those numbers, but it's a long climb up.

Duke Blue Devils Defense Preview Duke made its money defensively last year and for the past three years.

Diaz is a proven DC at both Texas and Penn State, turning in multiple elite units during that time.

He brought those coaching chops to Duke, and six starters are back from a defense that finished 27th in points per drive allowed.

While the top three tacklers are gone, the Blue Devils did just about everything right against most of its opponents (key word: most .

We'll tackle that later).

All-conference safety Terry Moore (71 tackles, 4 INT) returns, as does physical corner Chandler Rivers (8 PBU, 6.5 TFL!).

There's little to replace up front as three starters along the line return, highlighted by junior Wesley Williams (7.5 sacks) and Vincent Anthony (13 QB hits).

This should be another physical group capable of disrupting opposing offenses.

The biggest question mark comes at linebacker, where Duke has to replace a pair of starters.

Utah State transfer Jaiden Francois (50 tackles) enters the starting lineup as a hybrid linebacker/safety, and senior Nick Morris looks to recover a season after missing most of last year to injury.

Duke's secondary and defensive front project to be among the best in the ACC, right up there with Clemson and SMU.

Best Case Scenario For Duke A good defensive front, great secondary, sound offensive line, talented QB, and good coaching go a long, long way in this league.

Duke has all of the above.

The run game needs to improve, and the defense shouldn't miss a step in Year 2 under the Diaz/Patke system.

Mensah's mobility forces defenses to play less black-and-white and account for him at all times.

While not a true rusher, he's an elusive athlete who keeps plays alive in the backfield although he can and likely will be used as a runner when necessary.

That alone opens up more opportunities for Moore and Jones in the run game.

A few pass catchers need to step into reliable roles, as do a couple of linebackers.

Those are pieces that can be coached and developed much easier than others (say, QB or CB).

Despite likely regression inbound, Duke should turn in another bowl season.

The schedule is tricky (we'll get to that below) but there are six or seven wins able to be pointed out.

Turn a coin-flip game at home like Illinois or Georgia Tech, and Duke is staring down its fourth consecutive eight-win season.

Worst Case Scenario For Duke There are two really concerning things about this team going into 2025.

First, the fact that it won nine games despite being out-gained on the season, and it gave up 105 combined points to the two best offenses it faced on last year's slate (Miami, Ole Miss).

The second is that the schedule is significantly trickier in 2025.

That screams regression in some form.

In the non-conference slate, Duke hosts Illinois (a possible top-20 team) and visits Tulane (a CFP contender and Mensah's former team).

The Blue Devils open ACC play with NC State and then back-to-back road tests at Syracuse and Cal on opposite coasts.

There's a weird bye-game-bye stretch in October and then Duke visits Clemson (ACC favorite), UConn (won nine games last year), and rival North Carolina.

ESPN's FPI only ranks Duke's schedule 56th in the country, but it plays much tougher than that.

All six road games come in two separate four-game stretches (as in, plays three road games in four weeks twice).

There are byes before Georgia Tech and Clemson, which helps, but this schedule is really tough.

Combine one-score game and luck regression with a difficult and situationally-tricky schedule, and Duke could be in trouble here.

Missing out on a bowl would be unexpected, but 6-6 can't be ruled out.

2025 Duke Blue Devils Schedule Wake Forest Opponent Previews Week 1 - Kennesaw State Week 3 - NC State Week 5 - Georgia Tech Week 6 - Virginia Tech Week 7 - Oregon State Week 9 - SMU Week 10 - Florida State Week 11 - Virginia Week 12 - North Carolina Week 13 - Delaware Follow Wake Forest On SI on X to stay up to date on all the latest Wake Forest football news! Recommended Articles.

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