So close, yet so far away.
That was the feeling for Duke football and its fans in the closing minutes of a marquee matchup with No. 22 SMU Saturday. The Blue Devils could sense victory as they lined up for a short field goal with three seconds left in regulation. After all, they had stormed back from down 21-7 and had taken the ball away from the Mustangs a staggering six times.
Long snapper Curtis Cooper snapped the ball back to punter Kade Reynoldson, who held it for kicker Todd Pelino's chance to end the game. Five minutes and 35 seconds of game time earlier, the junior had missed a 42-yarder wide left, keeping the score tied at 21. This time, the Blue Devils made it even easier for the junior, driving the ball to the SMU 13-yard line after linebacker Ozzie Nicholas picked up a fumble from Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings for the latter’s third turnover of the fourth quarter.
With two misses, which included an extra-point try in the third quarter, Pelino had the opportunity to be Duke’s hero. Defensive lineman Jahfari Harvey had other plans, however, leaping over the Blue Devils’ Caleb Krings and blocking the would-be game-winner. Running back Brashard Smith would run for a 24-yard touchdown in overtime and Duke’s ensuing two-point try was no good, sealing an improbable 28-27 loss for the Blue Devils.
Losing a game with a plus-six turnover differential is incredibly rare in college football. In the 21st century, it has happened just one other time out of 126 total games. Somehow, none of Duke’s 21 points were off its takeaways, even as the Mustangs’ three fourth-quarter turnovers started the Duke offense at the SMU 24, 38 and 13-yard lines, respectively. Two turnovers on downs, a punt and two missed field goals were all the Blue Devils could muster off these golden opportunities to score.
Given that dubious honor, it is more than reasonable for fans and players alike to experience every emotion imaginable with this loss. It is more reasonable still to recognize this as an inexcusable blemish on an otherwise strong 2024 season.
“Sadness, anger, confusion. Whatever you can feel, they feel it,” head coach Manny Diaz said of his players.
But defensive lineman Kendy Charles expressed a very different emotion in the press conference following the loss: camaraderie.
“We just [have] to support each other,” Charles said. “We just try to control what we can control and be an encouragement to our teammates. We just gotta play better football together.”
Pelino’s rough night did not demoralize Charles either. “He’s a great player, man,” Charles said. “We gotta put him in a better situation … that’s our guy. That’s my guy.”
As Charles — a graduate student who has spent less than a year in Durham — described the brotherhood of this football team, I thought back to a column by The Chronicle’s Sasha Richie after Duke’s 38-35 loss to North Carolina in October 2022. Its theme, whether the Blue Devils are too good for moral victories, ran through my head as wide receiver Eli Pancol expressed his pride in the whole team — offense, defense and Pelino alike.
I will accept a moral victory as good — great, even — for this version of Duke football. SMU came into Saturday’s contest as an 11.5-point favorite, and a win is a win, but it leaves Durham with significant questions, especially on how it can stack up against ACC squads with a higher talent ceiling.
Meanwhile for the Blue Devils, there are wins to be salvaged in an otherwise heartbreaking loss. Quarterback Maalik Murphy played arguably his best game for Duke thus far, throwing for a career-high 295 yards and three touchdowns. Pancol had undoubtedly his greatest outing as a Blue Devil, securing 11 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown.
As for the defense, how about its six takeaways and three more forced fumbles as an added bonus? Linebackers Cameron Bergeron and Tre Freeman both forced a fumble and recorded an interception in the contest, and every Mustang not named Brashard Smith or Roderick Daniels Jr. was stymied by the signature Blue Devil defense.
That was particularly evident on an early second-half drive by the Mustangs. Jennings found Daniels for a long play, and the receiver ran 72 yards to the Duke 1-yard line after an initial touchdown call was overruled. SMU had four chances to punch the ball in at the goal line, but the defensive line and particularly Charles held firm to ensure the Mustangs would come away empty.
“All we need is an inch to defend,” Charles said of the goal-line stand. “It’s probably one of the best feelings in college football when you have a team on the goal line like that and [you stop] them.”
There’s no doubt this loss is an awful one for the Blue Devils to stomach. They could have won on the final two-point try. They should have won on Pelino’s final field-goal attempt. But football, especially Duke football, can be a cruel, strange affair sometimes.
“That’s sports. You don’t always get what you deserve,” Diaz said.
The final four games of Duke’s season are certainly not a cakewalk, especially a road contest against No. 5 Miami. However, a nine- or even 10-win season, which would match or exceed the program’s high-water mark in the last three seasons, is still in play. If the Blue Devils can match the pain of this loss with the resolve of their companionship, they certainly stand to wreak havoc on the rest of the conference — and potentially for years to come.
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