DURHAM – You could tell Duke’s football team was spent in its last game, nine days ago in a 24-14 loss to Georgia Tech.

In the same vein, coach Manny Diaz can tell his team has been reenergized after having some time off in the past week.

“If you would just close your eyes on our practice field yesterday and today, you would’ve been able to hear the difference and tell that we’ve come off a bye week,” Diaz said on Monday afternoon.

“Not that we practiced poorly before the bye,” he continued. “But there’s definitely a renewed energy and enthusiasm amongst our football team.”

Duke went into its game at GT having won its first five games and touting a plus-100 scoring differential in the past 2½ seasons. The Blue Devils went to the fourth quarter in Atlanta with a four-point lead and gave up two touchdowns.

It was a loss to a Yellow Jackets team that prides itself, much like Duke has, on being a physically durable team. And it was a GT team coming out of an off week.

The Blue Devils are coming out of their own off week looking to capture some of the same rewards GT used against them. Florida State comes to town for a Friday night game, also coming out of an off week.

Diaz said that going into the game at GT, the Blue Devils never practiced with shoulder pads on.

“We couldn’t put shoulder pads on that entire week just because we were trying to get guys to the game,” he said. “So, I think our ability to get back to our normal practice routine … and just do real football things helps our chances.”

While Duke benefited from rest and a reset of sorts, the off week doesn’t always wind up as the advantage people think it is.

College football teams coming out of off weeks this season are 49-56. The against-the-spread record is only slightly better, at 51-53-1 — the one tie being GT’s 10-point win over Duke. (all according to TeamRankings)

One clear benefit for Duke would be the healthy returns of a few players who have missed games, or at least significant chunks of them.

Running back Jaquez Moore has only played one snap (against UNC) since an injury early at Northwestern; linebacker Nick Morris Jr. was injured against Elon and hasn’t played since; nickel Cameron Bergeron only played 21 snaps at GT because of an injury.

Diaz said Duke is “still working through” which players who have been injured will be able to play against the Seminoles.