Maalik Murphy breaks Duke football record amidst win

Duke football ended the 2024 regular season home stand on a good note, taking down the Virginia Tech Hokies in a thriller 31-28 on senior night. This improved the Blue Devils to 8-3 on the season and 4-3 in ACC play. Duke will also end the season 5-1 at Wallace Wade Stadium.

Quarterback Maalik Murphy had a memorable senior night despite being just a sophomore as Murphy broke the Duke football single season passing touchdowns record with 25. The record had been previously set by Anthony Dilweg, who threw 24 touchdown passes in 1988.

Murphy has had a bit of an up and down season, but he left Wallace Wade on a high note in Duke's thrilling win.

The Duke offense has struggled to get its offense going early for the majority of the season, but Murphy wasted no time getting Wallace Wade loud.

After Duke forced a Hokies punt on their opening possession, Murphy launched it 86 yards to senior Eli Pancol for a huge score on the first offensive play for the Blue Devils.

The Blue Devils then scored on their next possession with another big time play from Murphy to Pancol. Murphy found Pancol for a 77-yard touchdown this time around to put the Blue Devils up 14-0 early.

This was just the third time this season Duke scored double digit points in the first quarter as it couldn't have been a better start for the offense.

After a solid start from Murphy, he got careless with the football and allowed the Hokies to get back in the game before the end of the half to make it interesting. Murphy threw three first half interceptions leading to 17 unanswered points scored by Virginia Tech to put Duke in a 17-14 deficit.

Murphy put Duke back on top before the end of the half, finding Pancol yet again for his third touchdown of the half.

The Blue Devils have struggled to play four consistent quarters of offense all season and have found themselves letting opponents get back in games, and Duke needed to flip that script to win.

In the second half, Murphy played maybe his cleanest half of football all season. He didn't light up the stat sheet, but managed the game exactly how he needed to to keep his team ahead.

Murphy made the right plays in the second half instead of constantly looking for the big one. It was a much more methodical game and Murphy looked settled in the pocket more than he has all season. He finished the game 17-of-35 passing for 332 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions.

The Blue Devils drove down the field and scored to take a 28-17 lead, and from there Duke did all it needed to go to secure a win. It was smart and clean football and it worked in the Blue Devils favor. Duke has played out of control at times this season, mainly offensively, but limiting turnovers and making the right play got the Blue Devils the win.

Murphy was turnover-free in the second half after throwing three first half interceptions. Duke certainly didn't look its best and shot itself in the foot with mistakes on multiple occasions. The response in the second half from the Blue Devils is a great sign as the regular season closes out.

"So many momentum shifts," Duke rookie head coach Manny Diaz told the media after the game. "So many mistakes. We certainly did not play our best. I felt we were a little out of character for a lot of the night, a little emotional on senior night..But ultimately, we were resilient.

It's been about as successful of a rookie campaign as Diaz could've asked for at the helm, and he wraps it up with a gritty home win before Duke closes out its regular season and looks forward to its bowl game.

The Blue Devils will close out their regular season at Wake Forest next Saturday.