As 2024 comes to a close, The Chronicle’s sports department is reviewing the biggest moments from this year in Duke athletics.
Coming in at No. 4: With a new coach and quarterback at the helm, Duke football had one of the best seasons in program history, defeating North Carolina for the first time since 2018 and finishing 9-3.
Entering 2023, Duke football had strong expectations placed on its shoulders. Then second-year head coach Mike Elko was fresh off an ACC Coach of the Year campaign, while junior quarterback Riley Leonard had just completed one of the best individual Blue Devil seasons ever. The season got off to an incredible start with a historic upset against then-No. 9 Clemson, and Duke reached the top-20 placement of the AP poll after a 4-0 start.
But after a devastating, last-minute loss to Notre Dame, the season spiraled. Leonard played in just two contests thereafter thanks to injury, and Duke slumped to a 7-5 finish. At season’s end, the Blue Devils lost their head coach and quarterback in the span of three days to Texas A&M and Notre Dame, respectively. Numerous other players stripped Duke of even more talent by departing for the transfer portal. In other words, it was a rough end to a rough season.
To reload, the program hired former Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz as its next head coach. Additionally, it brought in transfers like defensive tackle Kendy Charles, running back Star Thomas and most notably quarterback Maalik Murphy. Program veterans like wide receiver Jordan Moore and cornerback Chandler Rivers stayed in Durham to be the first leaders of the Diaz era. Despite these moves, Duke was projected by many to be a middle-of-the-road team in the ACC for the 2024 campaign.
Just like the previous season, the Blue Devils started off 2024 undefeated through four games. Unlike the previous season, however, this start included a few gut-wrenching moments. In Evanston, Ill., Duke survived double-overtime against Northwestern to emerge victorious off an exceptional performance by Moore. The next week, the Blue Devils escaped a potential upset at the hands of UConn thanks to a late Murphy touchdown to receiver Que’Sean Brown.
Duke then faced its toughest test yet, a matchup against archrival North Carolina for control of the Victory Bell. The Blue Devils hadn’t beaten the Tar Heels since 2018, and for two and a half quarters, things looked eerily the same. Murphy could not move the ball effectively on offense, and two touchdown passes by North Carolina quarterback Jacolby Criswell granted the Tar Heels a 20-0 lead late in the third. To secure any chance at an improbable victory, Duke would need three touchdowns — and three stops.
Late in the third, a Murphy intentional grounding penalty forced Duke into a second-and-17. The sophomore quarterback checked the ball down to Thomas, who tiptoed 29 yards down the sideline to put the Blue Devils on the board, down 20-7. The defense forced a quick three-and-out on North Carolina’s ensuing drive.
On the third play of the following drive, Murphy unloaded a deep pass to Moore, which the graduate receiver miraculously caught for a 43-yard gain. A few plays later, Thomas ran the ball in to cut the away team’s lead to six. North Carolina punted on its ensuing drive, Duke turned it over on downs, and then the Tar Heels punted again to give the Blue Devils the ball with seven minutes to go at midfield.
Thomas covered 35 yards in two plays, the first off a screen pass and the second a run up the middle for a large gain. Sophomore running back Peyton Jones powered forward for five, and shredded a tackle on the very next play for a touchdown run to give Duke its first lead of the night.
In the final minute, North Carolina, down 21-20, had one more chance to get the ball into field goal range. But on third-and-10, defensive back Jaylen Stinson hit Criswell as he threw, and the ball dropped into linebacker Tre Freeman’s arms to secure the Victory Bell in dramatic fashion. As fans rushed the field, Duke secured both the second-largest comeback win in program history, as well as its first 5-0 start in three decades.
The rest of the season wasn’t quite as magnificent as the victory over the Tar Heels. In the very next week against Georgia Tech, the Blue Devils’ propensity for late-game miracles finally ran out in a 10-point loss. Diaz’s trip to his alma mater in Miami didn’t go so well for Duke, as quarterback Cam Ward and the Hurricanes dropped 53 points on the Blue Devils. Most heartbreaking was a close contest at home against SMU, where, despite a plus-seven turnover margin in favor of Duke, several miscues earned the Mustangs an overtime victory that ultimately powered their bid to the College Football Playoff.
But Diaz’s crew also secured major achievements in spite of these road bumps. Following its bye week, Duke defeated Florida State for the first time in program history after 22 straight losses. In a Nov. 9 road contest, Murphy totaled three touchdowns to take down N.C. State, completing a sweep of the Research Triangle. Three weeks later against Wake Forest, Murphy and Moore connected on a walk-off touchdown — the first-ever in program history — to claim Duke’s honor as the best of North Carolina’s college football teams. Ultimately, the Blue Devils finished 9-3, the program’s best regular-season clip since 2014. They earned a spot in the Gator Bowl against Ole Miss, a sign of how far the program had advanced in the last three seasons.
As it had the previous year, the transfer portal has brought significant change for the program. Murphy departed to join Oregon State, while Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah was brought in to power the 2025 iteration of the Blue Devils.
In the end, Duke football’s season was one to remember for the Blue Devil faithful. While it wasn’t perfect, the team found a way to win more often than not. Nowhere was that more true than in its win over archrival North Carolina, where the Blue Devils’ model of perseverance emerged tried-and-true.
Read more
HORSEPOWER: Duke football forces 6 turnovers but falls in overtime 28-27 to No. 22 SMU
STATE CHAMPS: Duke football connects on last-second touchdown throw to defeat Wake Forest 23-17
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