If you guys know anything about me, it’s that I’m fairly pessimistic about Duke football. This site got started as a way for me to vent my frustrations about the program collapsing in 2019. After watching the way the team performed in 2020 and 2021, I had a lot of doubts about what this team could accomplish in 2022. Given that the core of the team remained more or less the same, I was hopeful, but realistic. My hope was that the Blue Devils would be competitive in each game they played and could snag a few wins. That, without more, would have been a tremendous accomplishment after the last 2.5 years. While I heard a lot of good things from a lot of players heading into the season, I took a “Prove it” mentality. And these guys did just that – they proved it.
Eight wins. Five conference wins. Let that last one sink in for a minute. While Duke hadn’t won eight games in a season since 2018, the Blue Devils hadn’t won five conference games since 2014. That’s a long, long time. That was the same year that Duke last produced a winning record in conference. So, while eight wins is fantastic, I’m way, way more excited about the five conference wins. Because the ability to win championships starts in divisions (well, not next year for the ACC, but you get my point), you have to win your ACC games to get to a championship. Getting over .500 in the ACC is a big deal.
What else was great about this season? Pretty much everything. Coach Elko pushed the right buttons, hired the right staff and saw Coach Johns and Coach Smith deliver on their respective sides of the ball. The offense and defense played real complimentary football and were in every game they played this year. And let’s pause to think about that. After a series of blowout losses over 2.5 years, this team came together and competed every week. That’s a big deal. The Blue Devils’ four losses this season were by a total of 16 points. Had the ball bounced a little differently, and had a garbage penalty against Chapel Hill College not been called, this team could’ve easily won 10 games. To think that this team went from 3-9 (0-8) to being a few plays away from 10 wins is hard to comprehend. But it happened, and we should all be grateful.
But my favorite part of the season had to be the final game against Wake Forest. Coming into that game, Duke had beaten a lot of teams that, and let’s be honest about this, weren’t particularly good. Temple finished 3-9 (1-7), Northwestern was 1-11 (1-8), A&T was 7-4 (4-1) in the FCS Big South, UVA was 3-7 (1-6), Miami was 5-7 (3-5), Boston College was 3-9 (2-6) and Virginia Tech was 3-8 (1-6). Now, you have to beat the teams that you’re supposed to beat, but if you want to get to the next level, you also have to beat the good teams. The Blue Devils were close a couple of times but fell just short against Pitt and Chapel Hill College. And while Georgia Tech wasn’t awful this year, that was a game that Duke should have won. And had they done so, the win would have looked better after the Jackets upset Carolina. So, there was a lot riding on the last game of the season. And the Blue Devils delivered. It. Was. Perfect.
This was a great season, no question about it. As the Elko Era progresses, I hope that we’ll get to look back on this as a the first of many great seasons.
What did you think about this season? Let me know what you think about what I think in the comments, on Reddit, or on Twitter.
As always, Go Duke!
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