On Saturday, in front of a homecoming crowd of 17,314, Duke was dominated in a game that will not be forgotten.
Wake Forest (4-3, 2-2 in the ACC) shutout the Blue Devils (2-5, 0-4) in the first half 42-0 and cruised to a 42-13 victory. Wake Forest was led by Chris Barclay's three touchdowns and a career-high 163 rushing yards. Remarkably, Barclay did not take one hand-off during the second half.
One day after the disaster, Duke head coach Carl Franks was fired.
"I don't know where we went wrong," Franks said after the game. "I don't know if it was coaching, or whether it was playing. It was probably a combination of the two."
The tone of the contest was set during the first drive of the game. The Demon Deacons went on an 85-yard, 10-play drive in which Barclay was unstoppable, gaining 71 yards and scoring a touchdown on seven carries.
"We had a terribly difficult time stopping the run," Franks said. "We were getting cut off up front, and didn't press the line of scrimmage. Several times there were some huge seams."
Besides allowing 256 yards on the ground, Duke committed two costly turnovers later in the first half which turned into 14 points for the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest linebacker Kellen Brantley forced Blue Devil freshman quarterback Mike Schneider to fumble on a bootleg during Duke's second drive of the game. The bouncing ball was picked up by a Demon Deacon defender at the 43 yardline and returned to the Duke one yardline. On the next play, Barclay pounded the ball into the endzone.
Wake Forest scored another touchdown on an errant toss by Schneider. On a short pass over the middle, Schneider threw the ball over the head of his intended receiver and into the arms of Brantley, who returned the ball 64 yards for a touchdown.
"Playing with a freshman quarterback, he continues to make some learning mistakes," Franks said. "But don't get me wrong, he's not the reason for all this, I'm just saying he made a few mistakes... We know going into the game that Wake Forest is plus-six in turnover margin. We know they get a lot of fumbles and interceptions. We knew we had to take care of the football, but we didn't do it."
To add insult to injury, Schneider injured his non-throwing shoulder with 9:58 left in the game while trying to evade the pesky Demon Deacon pass rush. Senior quarterback and opening-day starter Adam Smith took over for the rest of the game.
"Fortunately we don't have to live with this one as the last game of the year," Franks said. "So hopefully we can come back and show the real Duke football team at some point in time."
It wasn't a question of heart, according to Franks. But it was clear that the Blue Devils were overmatched physically.
"You practice all week, you know their schemes," senior defensive tackle Matt Zielinski said. "But you don't know their intensity. It's hard to practice their intensity."
Duke wide receiver Khary Sharpe held his head high after the loss.
"Every game we know we're competitors," Sharpe said. "We know we are going to be competitive against whoever we're playing. We don't care who we're playing. If we are playing the world champs in the NFL, we are going to go out and try to compete. Going into this game we definitely felt like Wake was a team we could play with."
Next week, defensive coordinator and interim head coach Ted Roof will debut as head coach when Duke hosts high-scoring NC State at Wallace Wade Stadium.
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