At least for the season's first four games, the Blue Devils' longest trip will be a short one-the new pregame "Devil Walk" from the Duke Chapel to Wallace Wade Stadium. And they won't trek much farther the rest of the season.
Duke will play seven of its 12 games at home this fall, including a crucial, opening four-game stretch that could very well influence the final record of new head coach David Cutcliffe's first season in Durham.
The Blue Devils' home matchups against James Madison, Northwestern, Navy and Virginia won't mark the first time that Duke has played four home games in a row-that last occurred during 2006's winless season-but it will be the first time in program history that the team has opened the season with four home games. But beyond historical significance, the opening stretch of home dates should provide a quartet of contests that will provide tough tests, yet could all be classified as eminently winnable games.
Duke will face a James Madison team in the opener that had its 8-4 season last year ended by Appalachian State in the Division I-AA playoffs, but the Dukes haven't beaten a Division I-A team since downing Navy back in 1990.
Duke's 20-14 win at Northwestern last season snapped a 22-game losing streak, but the Wildcats are an experienced team with 17 returning starters and shouldn't be expected to go down easily.
Up next is Navy, a team that gave Duke a heartbreaking 45-42 loss last season in Annapolis but which also lost head coach and triple option mastermind Paul Johnson to Georgia Tech in the winter.
An off week will give the Blue Devils a quick break before a Sept. 27 matchup with Virginia in Duke's first ACC game of the year. Virginia was one of the conference's surprise teams in 2007 with a 9-4 final mark, but the Cavaliers have a major question mark at quarterback after the suspension of starter Jameel Sewell for the season due to academic ineligibility.
Thirty-six days after opening the season in Durham, the Blue Devils will hit the road for the first time in October to face Georgia Tech in Atlanta Oct. 4. The team's final bye of the season will provide a quick break before the season ends with seven consecutive games. Miami will visit Wallace Wade Oct. 18, returning for the first time since Oct. 21, 2005, when a late interception of a Thaddeus Lewis pass inside the red zone helped the suspension-plagued Hurricanes escape with a 20-15 win.
The Blue Devils' second stint on the road starts Oct. 25 with a trip to non-conference foe Vanderbilt and a Nov. 1 game at Wake Forest. The Commodores downed Duke 45-28 in their last meeting in 2005, but this year's team is relatively inexperienced with only nine returning starters. Wake Forest, whose rapid ascent in the ACC standings in recent years is a model that Duke and Cutcliffe hope to emulate, is led by quarterback Riley Skinner and cornerback Alphonso Smith.
Duke will return to Durham Nov. 8 to face Triangle rival N.C. State in the teams' first showdown since 2003, then head out for a final two-game road trip against the two teams picked to finish first in each of the ACC's two divisions-Clemson and Virginia Tech.
A 2004 upset win over the Tigers gave Duke its last win over a conference opponent, but Clemson's strong team and home-field advantage will pose a tough test for the Blue Devils when they travel down I-85 Nov. 15. Virginia Tech's recent history against Duke has been nothing short of dominant, with the Hokies winning by no fewer than 29 points in each of their four wins over Duke since joining the ACC.
The regular season winds to a close for the Blue Devils with their Nov. 29 tilt against North Carolina for the Victory Bell trophy. Duke has narrowly lost each of the past two meetings against the Tar Heels largely because of miscues in the kicking game, but a win in the final game of the season would give Duke control of the Victory Bell for the first time since 2003 and draw Cutcliffe's first season to a solid close.
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