The Duke football program has now lost two straight games following a 34-27 road defeat at Tulane.Despite a 1-2 start to the season, Clemson's brutal start to the 2025 campaign should give Duke fans hope for the remainder of the season. Coming into 2025, most insiders and fans around the country didn't see a world where the Tigers didn't win the ACC Championship. Following Week 3, Clemson is now 1-2 after falling to Georgia Tech, and it looks like potentially the biggest disappointment of this season. Clemson has fallen out of the AP Poll entirely after entering the campaign at No. 4, and with the Tigers beginning ACC play at 0-1, the conference is now wide open.
Duke has legitimate ACC Championship hopes following Clemson's tough start
With Clemson now established as much worse than most around the nation thought it would be, the ACC is now as wide open as it could be. Miami is the clear-cut best team in the conference, but there doesn't seem to be a true unbeatable powerhouse.
Sure, Duke is 1-2 to begin the season, but it hasn't begun ACC play yet. Duke head coach Manny Diaz talked after the loss to the Green Wave about how the Blue Devils will enter next week with a fresh record at 0-0. Duke will host 3-0 NC State in the program's conference opener on Saturday, and a win here could completely turn the season around for Duke.
The Blue Devils have one of the toughest non-conference slates in the country, but their ACC schedule isn't too grueling, which could bode for a possible momentum shift in the team's favor. Duke will only face two squads ranked in the top seven or better of the ACC Preseason Media Poll: at home against No. 18 Georgia Tech and at Clemson. With Clemson now looking much more vulnerable than originally anticipated, that could be a winnable game if Duke can clean up its offensive issues over its next few contests. Aside from the back-to-back matchups against the Yellow Jackets and Tigers, Duke's toughest ACC game is probably against NC State this weekend. If Duke can pull out a big bounce-back victory, a whole new world of opportunity opens up.
Now, Diaz and his group must take it game by game. But, with how open the ACC seems at this point, the Blue Devils securing their first ACC crown since 1989 isn't out of the cards just yet.