Duke continues its 2026 revenge tour to open the season by facing a second straight non-conference opponent it lost to last year. After opening the season with a 17-3 win at home over Tulane, the Blue Devils go on the road this week to face Illinois on the road.
The Illini will provide a much bigger challenge in Week 2. After being a solid favorite over Tulane, Duke will head to Champaign as nearly a touchdown underdog. But while most penciled this game in as a loss on the Duke schedule in the preseason, that might have been awfully premature.
Because Duke's greatest strength on offense might be lining up with a significant weakness for Illinois, if their Week 1 performance against UAB was a real indication.
UAB rushed for 194 yards and put up over 400 yards of total offense against Illinois in Week 1. If the Illini struggled to stop the Blazers' rushing offense, they're going to have an even more difficult time when Nate Sheppard and the Duke offensive line walk into town.
Nate Sheppard could be a nightmare for Illinois and could set up a Duke upset
Duke will need a little more balance against Illinois than they mustered a week ago against Tulane, but Sheppard is capable of putting the Duke offense on his back a second weekend in a row. The star sophomore ran for a career-high 227 yards in the season-opener, and he'll be looking for an encore on an even bigger stage in Week 2.
Duke's defense was totally dominant last week in support of Sheppard. Illinois will obviously bring forth a much more difficult challenge, but if the Blue Devils can limit the big plays and avoid turnovers on offense, they've got a real chance of pulling out a surprise on the road.
The key is going to be getting more out of QB Walker Eget than they did against Tulane. Duke wasn't much of a threat to throw the football, and if that's the case again this week, Illinois will sell out to stop the run and make life a lot more difficult for Sheppard.
Illinois' offense looked explosive against UAB, but Duke has a chance to severely limit the possessions in Saturday's game. That's a similar game plan that UAB had, but Duke will be able to execute it better with one of the nation's best running backs.
Sheppard should be able to find some running room against a defense that struggled to stop UAB's rushing attack a week ago. If Eget can find some balance for the offense and hit a few passes, the Blue Devils have a legitimate shot of scoring a mini-upset and starting the season 2-0.
That would be a nice message to send to the college football world that wrote this team off back in January when Darian Mensah transferred away.
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