The streak is over. After 1,455 days, the Duke football team finally won a game against an ACC opponent with a convincing 41-17 victory over Georgia Tech at home Saturday.
On senior day at Wallace Wade Stadium, the Blue Devil squad (3-7, 1-5 in the ACC) put together a win against the Yellow Jackets who, going into Saturday's action, were 3-2 in the ACC, 5-3 overall. Duke's last conference win was a 48-35 victory against Wake Forest on Nov. 13, 1999, when current fifth-year seniors were standing on the sidelines during their redshirt freshman year.
Saturday's win was fueled by a Duke offensive surge with five touchdowns and 253 rushing yards, led by Chris Douglas' career-high 218 yards. This was Douglas' third straight game rushing for over 100 yards.
Duke started off the scoring in the first quarter with a touchdown rush by Cedric Dargan following a first-and-goal situation set up by Chris Dapolito's 16-yard pass to Ben Patrick at the Georgia Tech one-yard line. Later in the first, Georgia Tech quarterback Reggie Ball threw three incomplete passes to send possession back to Duke. With a fourth-and-14 situation, Brent Garber kicked a 43-yard field goal to put Duke on top 10-0 at the end of the first quarter. Georgia Tech relied on Ball, its true freshman quarterback, for the entire game, which played into Duke's strategy.
"We tried to [throw different looks at them] with the freshman quarterback," Duke head coach Ted Roof said about the team's defensive strategy.
Duke's offensive strategy involved the same logic of keeping the Yellow Jackets on their feet, alternating the quarterback position between Mike Schneider and Chris Dapolito. Although Schneider's injuries had been an issue for the last couple weeks, he was healthy for Saturday's game, and played a pivotal role in the offense.
"[They both did] great jobs keeping things off balance," Roof said.
"[We worked on] moving egos outside. Who cares who touches it? Who cares who catches or throws it?"
Georgia Tech narrowed the Duke lead to three with a second-quarter touchdown run that included three complete passes by Ball and 21 rushing yards by P. J. Daniels. However, sparked by Douglas' 64 rushing yards in the second frame, Duke increased its lead to 17-10 by the end of the half.
"That probably disappointed me as much as anything, not being able to stop the running game." Georgia Tech head coach Chan Gailey said. "They made too many big plays in the running game for us to be effective defensively." Going into Saturday's action, Tech was number one in the ACC, and 12th in the nation in rushing defense.
While Duke continued its offensive strike in the third with a 30-yard field goal by Matt Brooks and a 12-yard touchdown rush by Douglas, momentum shifted to the Georgia Tech offense in the fourth. Tech's Jonathan Cox intercepted Mike Schneider's pass, allowing the Ramblin' Wreck to set up two first downs for a 49 yard touchdown drive, bringing the score to 27-17.
However, Duke's defense struck back when linebacker Malcolm Ruff intercepted Ball's pass and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown.
"Momentum was with Georgia Tech at that time and Malcolm made a nice zone drop and made a nice play on the ball," Roof said. "That swung the momentum back to our favor. Football is a momentum game." With new momentum, Duke finished its offensive strike with another touchdown fueled by Douglas' 27-yard run. Douglas explained his rushing total in relation to the unexpected weakness of the Yellow Jacket defense.
"It doesn't take much skill to get through the holes they were creating," Douglas said. "In one of the long runs I had, you could have driven a truck through there."
After the final touchdown, with 2:49 seconds remaining in the game, the crowd prepared for a certain Duke victory and an end to the ACC losing streak. As time ran out, students stormed the field, climbing on the goal post and tearing it down. Students then carried the goal post to the chapel en route to East Campus. On the march to East Campus, students, led by a police car, blocked Campus Drive off to traffic.
This victory was even sweeter for the seniors on the team, none of whom played in the last ACC win.
"It was a great win, especially on senior day. We have come out here for the last three, four, or five years and finally got a win at home in the last game to break the ACC streak," said senior Matt Zielinski, who had five tackles on the day.
Fellow senior Luke Bayer echoed his teammate's sentiments.
"It goes all the way back to our redshirt freshman year." Bayer said.
"It was a nice end to everything."
Despite the uncertainty of whether Roof will stay on as head coach following this year, he said he is not using this win to campaign for the job.
"I don't have any time for that," Roof said. "It's not about me. It's not about Ted Roof. It's about Duke football."
Sporting brand new "Finish 1-0" shirts, the team will travel to Clemson next weekend. The Blue Devils view the contest against the Tigers as a one game season aiming to finish 1-0, as they did with Saturday's game.
"We've got to enjoy this one and get ready to go play a good Clemson team next week," Roof said. "This [win] isn't something we want just to happen every blue moon."
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