In an era of teams looking to light up the scoreboard with deep passing concepts and consistent explosive plays, it's refreshing to watch Duke every week. They bring an old-school, smash-mouth philosophy. The goal is to win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and pound the other team into submission over the course of a 60-minute, bare-knuckle brawl.
It's worked to great success through three weeks.
Duke is 3-0, putting together its most complete performance of the season in the ACC opener on Saturday. The Blue Devils routed Stanford 35-7, thoroughly dominating both lines of scrimmage and immediately taking the fight right to them.
This Duke team isn't flashy. You might be tempted to call them ugly. That's fine. They weren't going to win any popularity contests to begin with, and style points don't count for teams who aren't on the national media's radar despite a 3-0 start to the season.
This team knows exactly who it is, and it's that clear identity that helped it avoid a letdown against Stanford after last week's emotional win over Illinois.
“The identity is in body blows,” Diaz said after the game. “Dominating the line of scrimmage, which, again, is not a first-round knockout type of thing. It’s just can we dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides over 60 minutes? Stanford’s hard to run the ball against. Miami didn’t get 100 yards on them. I think we ran for 260 or something like that. Again, everybody knows you’ve got to stop No. 20 (Nate Sheppard). It’s three weeks in a row in the first half that he’s broken explosive runs.
"So I think that identity helps because we’re not trying…I think we just go to work, and I think it’s just kinda old-timey football of how to win a football game, and our guys are really, really bought into that.”
Nate Sheppard and an improved defense have keyed Duke's new identity
It's easy to be happy with a body-blow style of offense when you have a running back as good as Nate Sheppard. He's the leading rusher in college football through three weeks. After a third straight game of 140+ rushing yards, Sheppard is up to 528 yards this year, just a little shy of halfway to his 2025 total of 1132.
Big things were expected of Sheppard this season. He was always going to be the focal point of the offense following Darian Mensah's transfer. But he's been even better than advertised.
Just as pivotal as Sheppard's brilliant beginning has been a defense that is majorly improved from last year. It was a weakness in 2025. Through three weeks in 2026, it has been a significant strength.
The first half against Illinois last weekend was rough, but Duke bounced back to hold Illinois to just three second-half points in a 31-27 win. Against Stanford, they stomped out the Cardinal from the opening snap. Stanford produced just 237 yards and seven points as Duke cruised to a 28-point win.
The schedule sets up well for Duke to continue rolling. They face an FCS opponent in William & Mary next week in their final non-conference matchup of the year. A road game against Georgia Tech and a home matchup against North Carolina follow, potentially allowing the Blue Devils to get to 6-0 before a road date against Virginia, which might be the ultimate test of Duke's old-school identity.
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