Spencer Romine is back, but will it make a difference for an offense that never arrived in the first place?
As the football team heads to its personal house of horrors Saturday at Virginia (3-2, 2-1 ACC), offensive ineptitude is one of a dozen question marks dogging coach Carl Franks, who remains winless in his first season at Duke.
"Virginia is a team that Duke has not played well against of late," Franks said in what might have been the understatement of the year.
Make that the understatement of two decades, since it was 1981 when the Blue Devils (0-4, 0-1) last won in Charlottesville. Franks was a junior tight end on that team.
It's the longest losing streak for Duke at any ACC stadium.
"We hate those guys," Duke defensive back Darius Clark said. "So we have to let it be known that... yeah, we're 0-4, but we're coming out to mean business."
In all, Virginia has won 13 of the last 16 meetings between the two teams. But no loss was more cruel than the Blue Devils' last trip to Scott Stadium, when an infamous salute by lineman Chris Combs handed the Cavaliers a 13-10 victory.
Tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter and desperate to snap an ACC record-long losing streak, Combs sacked UVa quarterback Aaron Brooks on a crucial third-down.
"[Combs] wants nothing more than to get this victory," Clark said. "We're coming out with a vengeance. A victory over them would mean a lot."
But to overcome the curse of The Salute, the Blue Devils need to find answers to some glaring questions.
For example, will a running back please step forward to rescue a feeble ground attack (51.0 yards per game) that ranks 113th out of 114 Division I teams?
B.J. Hill, who set a school record with 798 rushing yards as a freshman in 1998, has just 87 yards on 31 carries (2.8 yards per carry) after four games. Junior Duane Epperson has replaced Hill in the starting lineup, but his 2.9 yards per carry aren't much better.
The third option, senior Letavious Wilks, has a whopping 11 yards on nine carries.
"We're going to have to do some things to help improve that, if we're going to have a chance the rest of the year," Franks said, putting it mildly.
One bit of positive news is the return of Romine, who will start Saturday for the first time since separating his shoulder in the Blue Devils' season opener at East Carolina.
In Romine's three-game absence, Bobby Campbell and Kevin Thompson did little more than keep the seat warm, combining for a 37.8 completion percentage, five interceptions and just two touchdowns.
But the toughest question to answer this week might be the most obvious: Is there any way to stop Virginia running back Thomas Jones?
Jones, the second of three consecutive Heisman Trophy candidates the Blue Devils will face (Georgia Tech's Joe Hamilton comes to Durham next week), is averaging nearly three times as many rushing yards (140.6) as the entire Duke offense.
"It seems like he gets better every single game," Duke's Nate Krill said. "He is an incredible player.
"He does [everything]; that's why he is so good. He can do the shake-and-bake moves, and he can also pound it all over you."
Duke has actually handled Jones well, holding the explosive back to 81 total rushing yards in the teams' last three meetings.
Franks, who has never experienced a five-game losing streak as a collegiate coach, insisted that his team is not giving up on a season that is already falling well short of preseason expectations.
"I know our guys care," Franks said. "They've got some heart and they've got some soul."
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