The Chronicle's Top 10: Shaun Wilson runs past Kansas, into record books

From the field to the court, the Blue Devils provided fans and media members alike plenty of memorable moments. With 2014 coming to a close, The Chronicle is taking look back on the year's biggest stories. We kick things off at No. 10 with Shaun Wilson's record-breaking performance against Kansas Sept. 13.

Remember Friday Sept. 12? Duke football was 2-0 and nobody—Blue Devils fans included—knew who freshman running back Shaun Wilson was. Oh, how things have changed.

Then-head coach Charlie Weiss led Kansas into Durham to take on the Blue Devils with a 1-0 record and looking to reverse the Jayhawks' fortunes, but would instead become forever linked with Wilson's coming out party.

The Charlotte native was the 46th-ranked running back in his class and had joined Duke to little fanfare. Although he had turned some heads in the preseason, few outside of the Blue Devil program could have predicted his true potential.

Wilson maintained a jaw-dropping 20.5 yards-per-carry average on the day by finishing with a school-record 245 yards and three touchdowns on just 12 carries. The 5-foot-9, 180-pound running back broke off nearly identical scoring runs of 68 and 69 yards in the first and third quarters.

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By the time the dust settled, Wilson had improved his yards per carry from 9.9 to 20.9 and was named the National Freshman of the Week after leading the Blue Devils to a dominating 41-3 victory against Kansas.

Check back in with us on The Blue Zone tomorrow to see what moment we have at No. 9 on our list.