Duke football is gearing up to take on #14 Ole Miss in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Thursday, January 2nd at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, FL.
The kickoff time has been moved from 7:30pm ET to 8:05pm ET after the Allstate Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame was rescheduled. The Gator Bowl will be broadcasted on ESPN.
The window for the winter cycle of the college football transfer portal puts players in weird situations, as they have to declare while their team is still playing a lot of the time if their program makes the postseason in the form of a bowl game or the College Football Playoff.
Duke hasn't been impacted by transfer portal exits as much as many other power conference teams, but it still has lost two of its impact starters on offense and now must look for other options.
Quarterback Maalik Murphy started every game for Duke this season. Spending his sophomore season at Duke after serving as a backup at Texas during his freshman season, Murphy found a lot of success.
Murphy threw for 2,933 yards, 26 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions while leading the Blue Devils to a 9-3 record. His 26 pass touchdowns set the Duke single-season record, previously set by Anthony Dilweg in 1988.
The sophomore entered the portal shortly after the end of the regular season and later committed to Oregon State. He is still unsigned, but his verbal commitment is to the Beavers.
On top of that, Duke's backup quarterback, Grayson Loftis, also entered the portal after the end of the regular season. He recently committed to Charlotte but leaves redshirt sophomore third-stringer Henry Belin IV in line to start in the Gator Bowl.
Belin has attempted one pass this season and has attempted just 33 in his entire career. In 2022, Belin appeared in one game against North Carolina A&T, completing 5-of-6 passes for 43 yards.
He appeared in four games in 2023 and made his first start against North Carolina State. Belin completed 4-of-12 passes for 107 yards, 2 touchdowns, and an interception in a win over the Wolfpack and completed 13-of-26 passes for 232 yards, 3 touchdowns, and a pick through his four appearances.
Belin will be thrusted into the spotlight today in a position where Duke is 17-point underdogs.
The Blue Devils will also be without lead running back Star Thomas, who entered the portal about a week ago.
Thomas totaled 213 carries on the season for 871 yards and 7 touchdowns while averaging 4.1 yards per carry.
After Jaquez Moore went down with injury in Duke's week two win over Northwestern that kept him out for almost all of the rest of the regular season, Thomas took the keys to the backfield and was great.
It took until about midseason for the Blue Devils to get the run attack going, but Thomas shined when they did, tallying 480 rushing yards over his final five games of the season compared to 391 over the team's first seven.
Moore did play in Duke's regular season finale against Wake Forest, logging 9 carries for 41 yards, so it seems likely he'll play today. He and Peyton Jones will take over the backfield in a tandem with the absence of Thomas.
Despite being such heavy underdogs, the Blue Devils have relied on their defense to win them games and they will need to as much as ever today being down two key offensive players.