Duke

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ACC · Manny Diaz, year 3 (20-9) · Wallace Wade Stadium · 40,004 · 16,113 avg in 2026

The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#68 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #45 (+6.6) · FPI #40
The marketDuke by 9.5vs Stanford · our model 76% Duke · a number, not a pick

LastW 31–27 at Illinois · Sat Sep 12 · Nate Sheppard 147 rush yds, 1 TD, 41 rec yds

Nextvs Stanford · Sat Sep 19 · 4 pm ET · Wallace Wade Stadium · Duke by 9.5 · series 1-3, lost the last 3 · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist statureNational Program II#58 all-time– holding
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 81-71 12 seasons
Best season 9-4 2024
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'20'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 12 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 9-4 '15 8-5 '16 4-8 '17 7-6 '18 8-5 '19 5-7 '20 2-9 '21 3-9 '22 9-4 '23 8-5 '24 9-4 '25 9-5

Duke's 2014–2025 record is 81-71. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.532
Ranked seasons (AP)
4/12
Best AP finish
#20

Program outlook

Duke won the ACC in 2025. Not a division title on a tiebreaker, not a bowl consolation — the full conference championship, 27-20 in overtime over Virginia, the program's first outright league title since 1962. The academic basketball school from Durham now has to figure out what comes after something like that.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

Wallace Wade Stadium sits a short walk from Cameron Indoor Arena. For most of Duke's modern history, that proximity was the whole story — the basketball building drew the national attention, the football building drew the modest Saturday crowd. Manny Diaz, in his second season, changed the geography of the argument. Back-to-back nine-win campaigns and an ACC trophy in the trophy case: Duke football is now a thing the rest of the league schedules around.

The offseason in Durham has been quiet in the way that a program with a contract extension through 2032 earns. Diaz signed through 2032 after the title. The Sun Bowl followed the ACC championship, 42-39 over Arizona State. The institutional question — whether an academic-first private school with the conference's strictest admissions standards can sustain this altitude or whether the league adjusts and brings the program back to earth — is the open ledger item heading into 2026.

What 2026 will actually answer is not whether Duke can win the ACC again but whether this is a program in a new phase or a two-year lightning strike. The conference has tape now. Opponents know the scheme. Recruiting under the strictest GPA bar in the league stays hard. The house-money era still feels like a gift — the question is whether Durham has learned to budget for it.

On the field

Diaz's Duke runs disciplined, fourth-quarter football — a program that out-executes in the fourth quarter and wins games it has no talent margin to win. The scheme is pro-style structure with enough tempo to punish defenses that don't adjust. Recruited under strict academic requirements, the roster is built on precision and scheme fit over raw athleticism. The Wallace Wade crowd is not loud by Power conference standards — but they watched their team win an overtime ACC championship game, and that changes the ambient expectation.

program outlook · as of 2026-06-14

All-time record · Duke

Duke has won 48% of its games since 1890 — 55% at home, 41% on the road.

539-558-29 all-time · 108 seasons · 1890–2026

Home 307-232-22
Away 221-315-7
Neutral 11-11
1 g 1890s
49% 1920s
78% 1930s
64% 1940s
61% 1950s
53% 1960s
41% 1970s
42% 1980s
30% 1990s
16% 2000s
50% 2010s
54% 2020s

Coaching Era · Duke

Manny Diaz

Manny Diaz in year 3 of the rebuild. The methodology is taking shape.

Era Manny Diaz · 2024–presentPrev: Trooper Taylor (interim) (2023)OC: Jonathan BrewerPrev OC: Kevin Johns (2022–2023)DC: Jonathan PatkePrev DC: co-Lyle Hemphill / co-Tyler Santucci (2023)
The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →
3 years · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

The 1942 Rose Bowl in Durham

The only Rose Bowl ever played outside Pasadena, moved to Duke after Pearl Harbor

The 2025 ACC Championship

Duke beats Virginia 27-20 in overtime to win the league outright for the first time since 1962

Sun Bowl 2025

A 42-39 bowl win over Arizona State to cap a 9-5 championship season

Moment of the season — so far · Duke · 2026

Won 17-3 vs Tulane

Week 1 of 2026. The early statement — the game this season gets measured from, for now.

Decisive Margin

NFL Draft Pipeline

2024–2026

Duke has sent 6 players to the NFL Draft since 2024 — one of them in the first round.

Developing. Pipeline emerging.

6 picks · 1 in round 1
#26 Graham Barton Center · 2024 · Tampa Bay
#95 DeWayne Carter Defensive Tackle · 2024 · Buffalo · #44/302 final season
#119 Wesley Williams Defensive Edge · 2026 · Jacksonville · #89/420 final season
#63 all-time · 8 first-round picksthe talent factory →

More in this tab

Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 2-0

Duke is 2-0 and unranked in the season's first weeks.

Even or better through the season's first weeks. The resume is still forming.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Manny Diaz2024
  • Hired Trooper Taylor (interim)2023
  • Mike Elko departs16-9, 2 seasons
  • Trooper Taylor departs (interim)1-0, 1 season
  • Hired Mike Elko2022
  • David Cutcliffe departs77-97, 14 seasons
  • Hired David Cutcliffe2008
  • Ted Roof departs6-45, 5 seasons
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

Duke’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2015 · Scottie Montgomery2016–2020 · Zac Roper2021 · co-Jeff Faris / co-Re'quan Boyette2022–2023 · Kevin Johns2024–2026 · Jonathan Brewer
Defense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2017 · Jim Knowles2018–2021 · co-Ben Albert / co-Matt Guerrieri2022 · Robb Smith2023 · co-Lyle Hemphill / co-Tyler Santucci2024–2026 · Jonathan Patke
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Cameron Crazies (Adjacent)

since 1986

more

Cameron Crazies — the basketball student section — define Duke fan identity more than football. Duke football lives in the orbit of basketball's national brand; the football fanbase tunes in for the games, but the cultural anchor remains Cameron Indoor.

Wallace Wade Stadium

since 1929

more

Wallace Wade Stadium (33,000-seat capacity, the smallest P5 stadium by capacity in some seasons) hosted the 1942 Rose Bowl when wartime relocated the game from California. The horseshoe-shaped venue with old-school college-football aesthetics is a stark visual contrast to modern mega-stadiums.

Mike Elko Era

since 2022

more

Mike Elko's 2022 hire transformed Duke football's competitive profile. The 2022 9-4 season and 2023 8-5 (before Elko departed to Texas A&M) were Duke's best stretch in a decade. Manny Diaz inherited 2024 and continued the cultural shift.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2014-2025): 6-2

Most recent: 2025 — win 42-39 (home). Last 5 postseason: 4-1.

20252024202320222018
Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/cfb moments

1.2k
[Postgame Thread] Duke Defeats UCF 30-13
Dec 2022 · r/cfb

All-time top community posts · ranked by upvotes

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