Best Teams of the 2010s

I’m not a huge fan of the All-Decade discussions. I generally find them to be clickbait – a cheap attempt to bring traffic to your site. However, I have been pretty impressed with the work that Duke Maven has done of late. Go over and check out the lists. It’s worth the time.

That got me thinking about some All-Decade stuff that would be worth putting together and I landed on a list of the best teams from the 2010s. “Best” here means the teams that had the biggest impact on the program’s legacy, not the most talented. Here’s what I put together. The order is from least best to best:

Number 5 – 2014 team. The Blue Devils couldn’t pull off another Coastal win, but did finish 9-4 with a loss in the Sun Bowl. Duke beat Wake to cap the regular season and brought the construction equipment onto the field after the game. Two missed field goals by Ross Martin against Virginia Tech kept Duke from getting to 10 wins. This team was ranked for four weeks, but an inconsistent offense kept the Blue Devils from doing more this season. A thumping by UNC after the loss to Tech didn’t help, either. Duke closed the regular season at 9-3 overall, 5-3 in conference and lost three of its last four games. The rehab of Wallace Wade began at the end of the season. This team closed out old Wallace Wade and ushered in a new era of Duke football.

Number 4 – 2015 team. DUKE WON A BOWL GAME! This team wasn’t bad despite getting a new quarterback in Thomas Sirk. He wasn’t great, but he would rise to the occasion and make big plays when he needed to. Duke finished the regular season at 7-5 and 4-4 in conference with a terrible November (sound familiar?). After losing to Miami on Halloween on an admittedly incorrect review at the end of the game, the Blue Devils fell apart. They got demolished by UNC (66-31) and then lost to Pitt and Virginia. Duke bounced back with a 27-21 win over Wake and got to the Pinstripe Bowl where they managed the program’s first bowl win in a mere 54 years. The Blue Devils won a thrilling 4 OT game against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and were ranked as high as 22 before the Miami debacle. The Tech game was something else as is shown below

Number 3 – 2018 team. I’ll admit that an Independence Bowl win doesn’t normally get ranked this high at other schools. Nor does a team that got whipped by Wake 59-7 to close out the regular season. But you have to remember just how many injuries this team had that season. It seemed like someone got hurt every day. Daniel Jones missed time and was rushed back too soon and ran a one-dimensional offense against Virginia Tech (a brutal loss). Duke also lost all-world corner Mark Gilbert to a dislocated hip against Northwestern. Cerenord, Quansah and Carter and many, many others missed time that year. I think around 15 starters missed time. TDD had a great podcast that detailed just how much time players missed due to injury. I think it came out to Duke missing about 1/3 of its team for the season.

Despite that, Duke did some good things. The Blue Devils had a 6-0 lead over eventual national champion Clemson at the end of the first quarter (who cares about the rest of the game?). Duke got ranked once and had nice wins against Georgia Tech, Miami and a third-straight against UNC when Daniel Jones just couldn’t be stopped (I was at the game and he took it to another level).

Highlights aside, this will always be a “what if” year for Duke. The bowl win was also nice, especially after the disaster against Wake. And, let’s not forget that this team gave us Deon Jackson breaking the U against Miami

Team 2 – 2012 team. 6 wins, a bowl game and Duke brought home the Victory Bell for the first time since 2003! Who cares if the Blue Devils finished with a sub-.500 record and lost 5 straight to close out the year? This season made Duke relevant for the first time since 1995 which was the last time the Blue Devils were in a bowl game. This team made going to bowls the expectation. And I loved it every minute of it. Sure, it stunk to lose 5 straight after starting 6-2, but it was a lot of fun. And I say this despite being at the bowl game, thinking Duke won it and then suffering through the horrendous loss.

Team 1 – 2013 team, obviously. ACC Coastal champs!!! What else do we need to say??? How about the DeVon Edwards game against NC State?

This season had it all. 10 wins, 6 conference wins, beating Virginia Tech at Tech in one of the ugliest games ever, beating UNC and a lot of happy moments. This is Cutcliffe’s crown jewel at Duke. It was a hell of a ride.

The 2010 decade was, by far, the best decade for Duke football. Let’s hope the next decade is even better. Go Duke!