Time comes for new era at Duke

DURHAM – Expectations for Duke’s football program are mostly low for those who aren’t inside the Blue Devils’ program.

Riley Leonard loves reading those.

“I love seeing Duke football, projected worst in the ACC. I love seeing Riley Leonard, worst quarterback in the ACC,” Leonard said. “I honestly just read it and laugh because people don’t know the work that we’ve put in as a collective group.”

Some of the low expectations could be understood and expected. Duke is 1-17 in the ACC across the last two seasons, and last season was capped with six straight blowout losses in league games.

Where Duke was, though, is not going to determine the Blue Devils’ goals under first-year coach Mike Elko.

“We’re not going to ever sell our goals short,” Elko said. “Our goal is to go to a bowl game, our goal is to beat our in-state rivals, our goal is to play in the ACC championship. (Those are) our goals, we’re not going to change them.

“That’s not to mean that it’s going to debilitate us if we don’t reach them. But we’re not going to shoot for anything less.”

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

Time: 7:30 p.m.

TV: ACC Network

Announcers: Wes Durham (play-by-play), Roddy Jones (analyst), Taylor Davis (sideline).

Forecast: Partly cloudy, low-80s (if this is wrong, blame weather.com).

Series; last meeting: Duke leads 1-0; Duke won 56-27 in the 2018 Walk-Ons Independence Bowl.

Records: Temple 0-0; Duke 0-0.

Stat to watch: Turnovers.

It’s probably too far to say you’ve had your head under a rock if you aren’t aware of Duke’s turnover woes in the past few seasons …

So we’ll just say Elko and this staff have zeroed in on that as one of the quickest ways to improve a team.

We don’t know much about how turnover prone Leonard is because of his small sample size, but we do know that offensive coordinator Kevin Johns is going to have him throwing the ball quick and early. The Blue Devils are likely to have a lot of quick-hitting passes early as a means of settling Leonard into the game.

And shorter passes usually equals less of a chance for turnovers.

On the other side of things, Duke’s defense generating a few takeaways would go a long way in swinging the balance to the Blue Devils’ side.

Matchup to watch: Temple QB D’Wan Mathis vs. Duke’s new-look secondary.

Mathis is a Georgia transfer who played in seven games for Temple last year, throwing for 1,223 yards and six touchdowns. The bulk of his production came in his first three games (762 yards, five touchdowns), and Mathis scuffled before an injury ended his season in November.

Duke’s secondary features two transfers who are likely to start (Darius Joiner and Datrone Young) and a freshman who’s set to receive ample playing time (Chandler Rivers).

It’s a unit that struggled last season, but also one that had a lot of turnover in personnel.

Opposing offensive player to watch: Adonicas Sanders, wide receiver (No. 5).

If the name is vaguely familiar, it’s because Sanders has been a bit of a Duke tormentor at Georgia Tech for the past few seasons.

Sanders grad transferred to Temple after five seasons at Georgia Tech, where he had 65 catches for 834 yards and four touchdowns.

Six of those catches, going for 166 yards and two touchdowns, came against Duke – including the game-winning score in the final minute of Georgia Tech’s 31-27 win in Durham last year.

Temple is trying to boost a passing attack that averaged only 177.3 yards per game last season and lost two of its top three receivers (Randle Jones, 40 catches and Jadan Blue, 30 catches).

Sanders is one of 19 players on Temple’s roster who’s transferred in from a Power 5 program. That includes former Duke offensive lineman Peace Addo, who is not in the Owls’ depth chart.

Opposing defensive player to watch: Alex Odom, safety (No. 25).

Third for the Owls for tackles last season and the top returner, Odom is a high school running back who’s transitioned nicely into an impact safety.

He had 57 tackles last year, 3½ TFLs and three pass break-ups.

Young Blue Devil(s) to watch: Defensive end Vincent Anthony Jr. (No. 19), cornerback Chandler Rivers (No. 0; both freshmen).

The kids are going to be … well, we’ll see.

Anthony and Rivers are the only two freshmen who enter the season guaranteed to play more than four games – though Elko said running back Terry Moore is on the verge of being in that category, too.

Anthony and Rivers both enrolled in January and throughout fall camp looked like they could hold their own against older players.

As a hometown product from Durham’s Jordan High School, Anthony figures to have a lot of family and friends in the crowd for his debut. The 6-6, 240-pounder had 127 tackles, 19 sacks and seven blocked kicks in his last two seasons at Jordan.

Rivers isn’t quite a hometown product, coming from Beaumont, Texas. He’ll be in the rotation at cornerback for the Blue Devils, and you could also see him at nickel. His high school career saw him pile up over 300 tackles, 25 interceptions, 40 pass break-ups and 11 fumble recoveries.

Don’t forget about: Nicky Dalmolin, tight end (No. 81).

The focus on bringing along Duke’s receivers and their consistency has perhaps taken attention away from Dalmolin, who could be a valuable piece of the Blue Devils’ passing attack.

At 6-4, 239, Dalmolin is the largest target Duke has among starting receivers. He had 15 catches for 121 yards last season as a reserve behind Jake Marwede, who was a senior.

Prediction: If you’ve got a handle on how this game shakes out, please share.

This is the fourth time since 1982 that two first-time head coaches are meeting. Both teams are coming off of 3-9 seasons in which they had long losing streaks to end their seasons, both marred by non-competitive final scores.

Duke should have the advantage; the gamblers certainly think so, with the Blue Devils up to a 9-point favorite (per BetOnline).

There are bound to be mistakes for each team; that’s the nature of openers, especially for first-time head coaches.

Seems like this will boil down to which team can bounce back quicker from the mistakes.