Duke notches bowl eligibility by staving off BC

It’s the symbolism and not necessarily the destination that matters in Duke’s sixth win of the season, a 38-31 conquest at Boston College on Friday night.

The expectation from Day One, first-year coach Mike Elko explained this week, was for the Blue Devils (6-3, 3-2 ACC) to reach a bowl game. Actually getting to the minimum win total was still to be celebrated — all the while knowing that this isn’t the end of the road.

“Just a monumental night for our program,” Elko said on Friday night. “For us to come from where we were 10 months ago to here, bowl-eligible with three to go, is just a testament to everybody in our program and our university.”

That commenced a long list of thank-yous rattled off by Elko, to everybody from Duke president Vincent E. Price to athletics director Nina King to associate athletics director Art Chase to his coaching staff to the strength to the support staff.

And then it was time for the players to get their due.

“What they’ve done the last 10 months to change the image of this program and change the direction of this program cannot be understated,” Elko said. “They’ve bought into everything we’ve asked them to do and they’ve played their hearts out.”

The last time Duke was bowl-eligible was 2018, when the Blue Devils won eight games with Daniel Jones at quarterback.

Six wins thus far doubles Duke’s win total from a season ago; it also eclipses the number of combined wins from the last two seasons, when Duke went 2-9 and 3-9.

When Elko speaks of the direction of the program shifting, perhaps it’s best to remember that not only did Duke lose its last eight games a year ago, it lost the last six by an average margin of 36.5 points.

“I’ve been here the past four years … and we’ve struggled to become bowl-eligible, so that’s big for us,” said defensive tackle DeWayne Carter, who had two sacks against the Eagles. “Especially because in the beginning, nobody believed in us. And still throughout the season, we have a lot of doubters.

“It’s all been about proving ourselves right. So it’s monumental in the sense that we keep proving ourselves right and believe in ourselves.”

As great of an overall feeling as the end result elicited Friday night, that didn’t come without complications.

Duke couldn’t quite put away BC (2-7, 1-5), which was led by first-time starter Emmett Morehead’s four touchdown passes and 330 yards filling in for the injured Phil Jurkovec.

The Blue Devils did enough, though, to maintain a two-score lead until BC kicked a field goal in the waning seconds.

Darius Joiner’s onside kick recovery sealed the Blue Devils’ sixth win of the season — perhaps fitting that the transfer from Western Illinois secured it, given his arrival has been a factor in turning Duke around.

“I’m trying to just elevate the mentality and make it a winning program,” Joiner said back in August at the team’s media day. “I’m not used to losing so coming here, I’m not losing. It’s not an option to lose, in my mind.

“Every game is a winnable game for me and my team.”

Duke, guaranteed of a 13th game this season, can now approach the final three games of the regular season following Elko’s word after the Miami game of, “let’s go get greedy in November.”

The Blue Devils have confidence that their offense is capable of doing what it wants as long execution is there, and the best evidence of that Friday night was the effectiveness of the Blue Devils’ rushing attack.

Duke’s 147 rushing yards in the first half was already more than BC had allowed in five of its eight games this season, and matched how many Louisville had in BC’s lone ACC win. Duke finished with 232 yards on the ground, the most allowed by BC this season.

“The offensive line just continues to dominate,” said quarterback Riley Leonard, who led Duke with 96 rushing yards. “They’re a real smart group and we had answers for everything that they brought us.”

The halftime lead was 24-14 for Duke after a late first-half touchdown by BC, so the first few minutes of the second quarter were important for the Blue Devils.

In those first few minutes of the third quarter, Duke’s defense notched a three-and-out — one of five in BC’s first eight possessions — and the Blue Devils went 63 yards in six plays, culminating in a 24-yard touchdown burst up the middle by Jaquez Moore.

“Coach Elko talks a lot about complementary football,” Leonard said, “and that’s what we tried to do on the offensive side. When they cut the game to a tighter split, our offense responded.”

Moore added a 2-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, what turned out to be Duke’s last points of the game as BC mounted its rally.

A couple of key plays in the fourth quarter were a third-down sack by linebacker Shaka Heyward, and later a fourth-down sack by Joiner.

Duke entered the night with the worst third-down stop rate in the ACC, but held BC to 4-for-14 on third downs.

“We knew they had a lot of talented players in the skill positions and a guy who could sling it,” Carter said. “Even though he didn’t play tonight, the backup played really well. So we just knew what we had to do, our coaches draw it up for us each week and they’re very good at what they do.”

Duke marched 90 yards on the first possession of the game — in spite of a penalty on the opening kickoff and a false start before the second snap. Leonard sprinted in for a 60-yard touchdown run, his ninth touchdown on the ground this season.

Both of BC’s first-half touchdowns came on the first play after a pass interference call in the end zone against Duke — both of them coming on third downs that negated incompletions.

BC knotted things up with a six-play, 72-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Zay Flowers. That was after Tony Davis was called for pass interference against Joe Griffin.

The Eagles went 75 yards for a touchdown in the last few minutes of the first half, with Morehead hitting Griffin for a 2-yard fade. That was after freshman Chandler Rivers was flagged for pass interference against Flowers.