Duke wasn't supposed to start this season 2-0. Not after losing Darian Mensah, Cooper Barkate, and others to the Transfer Portal. There was no chance the Blue Devils could actually improve upon last season's team. Not with what they lost.
At least, that was the narrative for the entire offseason. Pundits expected the Blue Devils to be fighting for bowl eligibility, not competing for an ACC Championship.
After two games, it's pretty clear that the narrative was bogus. Manny Diaz and Duke are 2-0, and they earned those two wins over teams that beat them last season to boot. Following up a 17-3 home win over Tulane in Week 1, Duke avenged a 26-point home loss to Illinois a season ago by knocking off the Illini 31-27 in Champaign to earn an early-season marquee road win over a Big Ten opponent.
That wasn't supposed to happen. Duke was supposed to struggle to be relevant without Mensah. It's obvious that the offseason doubt has been fuel for this team:
"All they heard the entire offseason was about who left, who left," Diaz said. "And almost the assertion that last year was as good as it ever could get. And that they couldn't do what last year's team could do. The fact that we've already beaten two programs who last year's team couldn't beat, I think that means a lot to the guys in the locker room, even the guys who were on that team. What it shows them is the program is still developing, still elevating."
Manny Diaz deserves his flowers for the job he has done for Duke football
In retrospect, it was always a silly narrative that Duke was going to completely fall off after Mensah's transfer. It ignores the reality that Diaz led the Blue Devils to nine wins in his first season as the head coach while Mensah was still at Tulane.
They won nine games again with Mensah last season. But Diaz knew they never hit their ceiling a year ago. The defense was a sieve and was the reason the Blue Devils lost five games in the regular season. That looks to have been shored up this offseason.
Following up a dominant opener where they held Tulane to just three points, Duke's defense tightened up in the second half after struggling early against Illinois, holding the Illini to just three points in the game's final 30 minutes.
And the Duke offense showed it had more juice than we saw in Week 1. Nate Sheppard is still a dominant force and arguably the best RB in college football right now. But Walker Eget, Mensah's replacement, stepped up after an uneven first start and gave Duke exactly what they needed at the QB position. If he can play like that the rest of the way, this team is dangerous.
Maybe winning a second straight ACC Championship is a bridge too far. But it's not outlandish to say that this Duke team is better than last season's version. The two wins over teams it lost to a year ago are hard to ignore.
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