If this is the Mike Elko era, sign me up. Duke jumped on Temple early Friday night in Wallace Wade Stadium and never let the Owls back in the game.
The final was 30-0 and it wasn’t really that close.
No, seriously. I was an old-fashioned whupping.
“I was quietly confident going into it,” Elko said. “I thought we had a really good week of preparation. I thought our kids were locked in.”
Were they ever.
Duke took the opening drive and moved 75 yards in four plays, most of them coming on a 52-yard Riley Leonard to Jordan Moore pass in which Moore picked up lots of YACs; that is yard after catch for newbies.
Jaylen Coleman took it in from a yard out and the PAT put Duke up 7-0.
Charlie Ham extended Duke’s lead to 10-0 with a 30-yard field goal.
Duke further extended the lead to 17-0 on its first drive of second period, 72 yards culminating in a four-yard pass from Leonard to Moore.
Duke extended the lead again, a four-play, 86-yard drive that made it 24-0, with 7:08 left in the half. Leonard connected with Sahmir Hagans for the final 39 yards
At this point Leonard was 13 for 13, for 215 yards, while Temple had one first down and 35 yards total offense.
Leonard hit his first 15 passes before missing.
“I knew what I was doing every single play,” he said. “We had a perfect scheme drawn up every single play. Hats off to my receivers. The stats look great but I would throw a screen pass and they would run for 20 yards.”
Charlie Ham missed field goals from 50 and 32 yards and the teams went into the locker room at 24-0.
Ham shook it off and made a 37-yarder and it was 27-0 in the middle of the third and a 39-yarder early in the fourth made it 30-0 and then shook it back on and missed a chip shot in the middle of the fourth after a circus catch by Eli Pancol in the end zone was overturned.
Duke’s defense pitched the school’s first shutout against an FBS school since Steve Spurrier’s last Duke team defeated North Carolina 41-0 in 1989.
That was in Chapel Hill. The last time Duke held an FBS school scoreless in Wade was 1978, a 3-0 win over Wake Forest in Mike McGee’s last game in Wade.
Duke forced two turnovers, held Temple to 179 yards total offense and never let the visitors get close to the end zone.
Linebacker Dorian Mausi said his defense controlled the edge, ran downhill and got lots of people who “rallied to the ball.”
Leonard ended the game completing 24 of 30 passes for 328 yards and led Duke with 90 rushing yards.
And Duke didn’t turn it over. Not once. New coach, new system, new quarterback, new running backs, opening day, no turnovers.
“That’s really clean,” Elko said. “For us to do it that way, given the recent track record, that’s awesome.”
That’s it for now. I’ll be back
Outstanding debut, the first half was so much fun!
Defense was stifling, offense was dynamic. Great start to the season.