Duke football one win from bowl eligibilty

But Duke is aiming for a lot more than one more win

“As soon as we get to six, we’re going to want seven.”

That was Mike Elko talking to the media Monday afternoon. Elko was talking of course about the six wins necessary to achieve bowl eligibility.  Note that that he didn’t qualify this. No, “if we get to six.” And it wasn’t a slip either. Elko made it very clear that he, his staff and his team have prioritized getting to a bowl from the very beginning and expect to reach that threshold this season. No coach-speak here.

“It has been a goal that we have talked about from day one and we have never hidden the fact that an ACC football team should be going to bowl games. We have talked about that from day one and we've talked about it that way in our locker room. It is an expectation for our program. It is something that you aren't always going to reach, but it is an expectation for our program every year. Hopefully we can go out and get it done as soon as possible, but it's not going to be this big celebration when it happens either. It is just going to kind of be what we are about.”

R. J. Oben is a defensive end, a veteran and he says Duke is doing what it needs to keep the bowl talk in the background and focus on this week’s game against Boston College.

“I’d be lying if I said that hasn’t been at the top of mind. We’ve been so far from this the last few years. Everyone in the locker room has that feeling. Looking back to our freshmen year [2019] we were four and two at a certain point in the season and obviously things didn’t go in the right direction. You’ve got all these bowl-game predictors and the media gets on what game are you going to go to and all that. Not trying to look at that and thinking about knowing my opponent and what can I do to make sure that’s going to happen. If we want to assure ourselves of the post-season, we have to do everything we can in the moment. Just thinking about that will push us in the right direction.”

Boston College has struggled this season. But they did beat Louisville and Louisville did beat Wake Forest, so using the transitive property BC is better than Wake Forest.

Okay, I know, it doesn’t really work that way. But BC does have some weapons, most notably Zay Flowers, one of the best wide receivers in the country. Starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec was injured in their 13-3 loss to Connecticut and was replaced by true freshman Emmett Morehead

Elko said that he expects Jurkovec to start but Duke’s preparation will remain the same.

“I think they are both very similar. Him and Morehead are kind of similar quarterbacks. Phil has played a lot more football and is a lot more experienced, but I don't think there's a tremendous skill-set difference between the two. I fully expect Phil to be the quarterback and be out there Friday night. He's a tough kid and I am sure he is going to want to go.”

Elko noted that Flowers was one of several talented BC wide receivers and that BC does a great job of moving them around. The key for Duke is knowing where they are and making the right reads.

Oben said the key to keeping the ball away from Flowers is to pressure the BC quarterback.

“It’s a huge deal. The best way I can help them and the rest of our D-line can do is to make sure it doesn’t get to that point, to make sure the QB is always affected and not able to get those throws off. Those [long] routes take time to develop and obviously when you don’t give the routes time to develop and you get to the quarterback it puts us in the best position and we’ve been concentrating on that.”

There’s good news and bad news on the injury front. Running back Jaylen Coleman has been practicing and dressing out but not playing.

“The challenge has been when we get him to Saturday, just is he healthy enough to play at the level we need him to play at to take the other back off the field,” Elko said. “Last week he suited up, so he made it through pre-game last week against Miami and suited up, we just didn't feel the need to get him in.”

Elko added that he is “optimistic” that Coleman and defensive end Anthony Nelson will be able to go Saturday.

The bad news? Wide receiver Eli Pancol is out for the season. Jontavis Robertson, Malik Bowen-Sims and Darrell Harding, Jr. are all candidates to be next man up.

Harding is a senior who caught 12 passes last season. He’s 6-4, 220 pounds and should be able to make those contested catches that Pancol made.

But Harding only has three catches this season.  

What’s missing?

 ”Darrell is a great kid,” Elko said “and works extremely hard, but we would just like to see him a little bit more consistent executing what we are trying to get done.”

Place-kicker Charlie Ham also will miss the game for personal reasons.

True freshman Todd Pelino filled in admirably for Ham at Miami and will get the nod again.

“I am very proud of the kid,” Elko said. “You know he's a freshman and it's not the ideal way to go into your first game as a kicker. He handled it really well and made all his kicks.”

How was Pelino so ready?

 “Every Tuesday we go out to practice, and we do split PATs and field goals and we put the ones on one half of the field and the twos on the other half. Our ones get the same number of reps as our twos, and it's been like that every week all year. That doesn't mean that he has to take those reps seriously. It doesn't mean that he has to get himself in the right mental focus to play, but he did, and it is a credit to the kid, and he goes out and helps us win a football game.”

Duke is coming off an impressive road win over Miami, one in which Duke rushed for 200 yards and forced eight turnovers.

Tight end Nicky Dalmolin is up 25 pounds from last year to 240 and said he takes pride in his improved run blocking. He said blocking isn’t just the offensive linemen.

“Obviously my weight has contributed to my having success in that and also it’s everyone on the offense. I think I’ve taken a lot of pride this year in trying to improve that aspect of my game.”

The keys to beating BC?

“We’ve got to play fast,” Dalmolin said. “We’ve got to start faster than them. We’ve got to take care of the football and attack on offense.”

Dalmolin said that Duke has worked its way into position to achieve bowl eligibility.

“I know that we practice harder than any team in the country. That takes our game to a new level. Practicing as hard as we do makes games easier.”

So, it’s November and Duke football is on a roll and playing for something meaningful.

“The team is really, really excited,” Dalmolin said. “We have a lot of juice to play in November. Playing meaningful football in November is huge. Everyone is really pumped up. We deserve to be here and I think we’re going to make the best of it.”