Preview: Blue Devils focused on selves

Kansas is the best team Duke will have played this season.

Insert your basketball jokes here.

The Blue Devils’ task in continuing this unbeaten start at the beginning of Mike Elko’s tenure as coach goes through Lawrence, Kan., against a similarly 3-0 Jayhawks team.

It’s a big game – but Elko wants his team to remember it’s just the next game.

“I told them this (Monday) and I truly mean this, there are no big games. There’s just the next game,” Elko said. “You trust in your preparation, you trust in what you do, you trust in the work that you put in, you prepare the right way and you go out and you execute, and that’s football.”

So far, so good in those categories. Duke hasn’t trailed in a game this season and if you want evidence of the preparation paying off early, look at the leads of 24-0, 21-0 and 21-0 to start each game.

It’s not a minimization of what Kansas has accomplished to this point, nor what Duke has done, for Elko to say it’s not a big game. It’s simply a reflection of where he wants his team’s focus.

“We’re going to focus on us,” Elko said. “We’re going to focus on our game, what we can do to be successful, how we can go about being successful and get into the right mental state to do that ourselves.”

It’s fun to look at this as the Champions Classic of the Gridiron. Two of the true bluebloods in college basketball enjoying rare strings of wins on the football field.

It’s more than that, though. It’s two teams who have started the season hot and are looking to hold success for longer than just until basketball season starts.

Kansas has announced a sellout – fitting for one of the four games across the country pitting two unbeaten teams against each other this weekend.

For Duke, it’s a big game because it’s the next game.

“We only get 12 of these guaranteed, so every one is as precious as the next one,” Jordan Moore said. “We know that we have to make plays on offense, defense has to make plays. But I mean, this game we’re treating like another game.”

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Here’s a primer on what you need to know for Saturday’s game:

Time: Noon.

Location: David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

TV: FOX Sports 1.

Announcers: Eric Collins (play-by-play), Devin Gardner (analyst).

Forecast: Sunny, high-70s/low-80s, winds around 5 mph.

Series; last meeting: Duke leads 2-1; Duke won 52-33 in 2021.

Records: Duke 3-0; Kansas 3-0.

Stat to watch: 51.0 points per game | 14.3 points allowed per game.

As you could probably guess, the first number is Kansas’ high-scoring offense and the second is Duke’s revamped defense.

Kansas has the No. 5 scoring offense in the country, ahead of top-10 teams like USC, Oklahoma State and Ohio State. Duke’s defense is tied for 24th in scoring defense – its company there includes Baylor, Ohio State and Tennessee.

The Jayhawks have scored in every quarter but one – the first against West Virginia – this season; Duke’s quarterly numbers aren’t quite that impressive, but Duke has recorded seven shutout quarters.

Both numbers are a little skewed – Kansas notched a rare two-score OT win by scoring against West Virginia, and then recording a pick-6 to end the game. Duke’s 43 total points allowed includes the two fourth-quarter touchdowns against North Carolina A&T, when the competitive part of the game had ended.

Matchup to watch: Duke wide receiver Jalon Calhoun (No. 5) v. Kansas cornerback Mello Dotson (No. 3).

This is a good-on-good matchup and truthfully, as much as you watch this matchup you should also watch how Duke’s other receivers match up against the Jayhawks.

Calhoun is Duke’s top wide receiver with 19 catches for 198 yards – and that’s with only one catch for no gain against N.C. A&T. He’s made a clean ascension, seemingly, from No. 2 option to No. 1 after Jake Bobo’s departure.

Dotson is Kansas’ top cornerback, having allowed just 35 yards on five catches in coverage this season, according to Pro Football Focus. He’s much improved from last season, when he had a missed tackle rate of 28.3% (this season he’s missed one tackle in 12 attempts) and allowed 201 yards on 18 catches.

The other side of this coin is that while Dotson has been successful in coverage, Kansas has not. West Virginia’s JT Daniels threw for 365 yards and three touchdowns, with Bryce Ford-Wheaton notching an 11-catch, 152-yard, two-touchdown performance. Houston’s Clayton Tune last week threw for 272 yards and rushed for another 63; running back Ta’Zhawn Henry had five catches for 107 yards.

Quote of the week: “I really enjoy road games more than I do home games because it’s the feeling of being an underdog, going on the road and taking somebody’s soul. I feel like that’s a better feeling than really, kind of protecting your house – going and spoiling somebody’s house … that’s a feeling that’s great.

“When you do that, that’s a great feeling when we’re back on the plane, laughing and giggling all the way back home.” – Duke safety Darius Joiner

Opposing offensive player to watch: Jalon Daniels, quarterback (No. 6).

It can feel like a cop-out to pick the QB for this spot … unless he’s that dynamic, which Daniels is.

Georgia Tech’s Jeff Sims is probably the only quarterback on Duke’s schedule who can rival the athleticism and running threat that Daniels has proven to be.

In addition to completing 67.1% of his passes (47 of 70) for 566 yards and a seven-touchdown, one-interception clip, Daniels has been Kansas’ leading rusher in the last two games. He had 85 yards on 12 carries against West Virginia, and then 123 yards and two touchdowns against Houston (also on 12 carries).

Duke’s challenge will not only be holding up in coverage, but it’ll be a matter of pass-rushers keeping the pocket intact and a spy or two corralling Daniels if he breaks contain.

Joiner made an interesting point about perhaps being better prepared to face an electric runner at QB because of fall camp practices.

“Jordan Moore, one of the greatest athletes we have on the team, was at quarterback all camp,” Joiner said. “So I feel like … it’s prepared us for what we’re going against now and we’ve just got to think about what we’ve been doing and the work that we’ve put in.”

Opposing defensive player to watch: Lonnie Phelps, defensive end (No. 47).

Phelps has been a menace to opposing offenses and will be a primary focus of Duke’s pass protection.

Three of his four sacks this season came in the opener against Tennessee Tech, but his pressure rate has been steady – four in the opener, three against WVU and five against Houston.

Phelps is a 6-3, 245-pounder who’s in his first season at Kansas after transferring from Miami (Ohio). He had 9½ sacks for the RedHawks last season.

Young Blue Devil to watch: Brandon Johnson, nickel (No. 30).

If there’s a turnover for Duke’s defense to create, Johnson is likely to be around the ball.

The second-year defensive back has had a direct role in three of the last four takeaways for Duke’s defense, notching an interception and fumble recovery against Northwestern and forcing a fumble on a sack against N.C. A&T.

It’s not just about the turnovers for Johnson, though.

The Newton, N.C., native has 10 tackles, three pass break-ups and two TFLs this season. Receivers he’s been covering have been targeted 13 times and they have five catches – a 38.5% completion rate.

Prediction: The opening stanza of this game is so intriguing.

Does Duke get out to another hot start? Is that exactly where Kansas wants to be? If Duke doesn’t start hot, do the Blue Devils then adjust and find a rhythm?

Aside from that, it feels like this game might turn into a track meet with a lit-up scoreboard.

Kansas is the best team Duke will have played this season, so it figures this could be the first time we see the Blue Devils trail on said scoreboard. It’s not like Duke has coasted through three games – just two of them – but if you’re a believer that you don’t learn a team’s true identity until it falls behind (I am), then this probably is the game you find out Duke’s identity.