The Duke football program kicked off its 2025 season on August 28th at home against FCS opponent Elon. After an offseason filled with high expectations coming off a 9-4 2024 season in the first under head coach Manny Diaz, Duke fans were excited to see the new pieces on the field for the first time. And well, it was a slow start. The offense found no rhythm for the entirety of the first half, and Duke entered halftime tied 10-10 with the Phoenix. A dropped touchdown pass, several missed deep balls, and a red zone fumble plagued any attempt at getting the offense to flow. However, the halftime speech for Diaz seemed to propel his guys forward to a dominant second half.
Manny Diaz told his group to "let it go" following lackluster first half
Duke tallied just 34 rushing yards in the first half, with the bulk of that production coming from a 32-yard touchdown run by Jaquez Moore. Diaz entered the locker room calm and let his guys know it's a new game entering the final 30 minutes.
"What we almost always talk about at halftime no matter what the score is, we said its 0-0," Diaz said postgame. "Nothing that happened in the first half will have any impact in terms of what was going to happen with the result of the game. So it was where you are right now in your present mindset to go and take control of the game.
"Whatever happened in the first half, let it go and let's go be us."
The Blue Devils did let it go, and the second half came with a revamped production on offense, one that Duke fans were expecting to see coming into the contest.
Duke outscored Elon 35-7 in the second half to win the game 45-17. After totaling 216 passing yards in the first half, new Duke QB Darian Mensah exploded in the second with 173 yards in the air to go along with three touchdowns. Nine different receivers caught a reception, with Que'Sean Brown leading the way, going for six catches for 93 yards.
Defensively, the Blue Devils looked as advertised, tallying 10 tackles for loss and three sacks.
With a marquee matchup next weekend against No. 12 Illinois, Diaz and his group have a lot of work to do, but that second half was a promising sight for fans to see.