Not long after Duke’s 35-7 win over Stanford on Saturday, the Blue Devils were back on message.
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Even through the Blue Devils have started this season 3-0, there has been much talk about playing with a “chip on the shoulder” each week and feeling, in a word, disrespected. That’s the collective mindset that has been locked in.
The Devils appear to perceive slights at every turn. They were ranked 10th in the ACC preseason poll. Last year’s ACC champions did not receive a single vote in the AP preseason poll for 2026.
Duke coach Manny Diaz joked about the Blue Devils having the last media interview slot in the ACC Football Kickoff in July, hardly befitting the team that won the big trophy sitting just outside the room. More so, he noted the league’s change in the tiebreaker to set the ACC title game was the “Duke Tiebreaker Rule” after the Blue Devils made it into the championship game via the tiebreaker against Virginia last December.
“You hear that now there will be more deserved teams in the championship game,” Diaz said then. “I want to push back against that narrative. I think it’s not just false, I think it’s insulting.”
After beating Virginia for the ACC title, the Blue Devils added a bowl victory for another 9-win season. But quarterback Darian Mensah left for Miami. The team’s leading receivers left. Some defensive stalwarts left. Portal pickup Walker Eget, Mensah’s replacement at quarterback, was coming back from knee surgery.
The consensus from the outside: Duke would drop back into the pack in the ACC.
“It’s frustrating, but we love it,” tight end Jeremiah Hasley said Saturday after the thumping of Stanford in the Devils’ ACC opener. “I think to be disrespected, we thrive in that moment, and having a chip on your shoulder and making every game personal, I think, is what we need in this program.”
Every game? The Blue Devils host William & Mary next week and will be heavy favorites. It’s a nonconference game against an FCS opponent. The Tribe lost 52-27 to Fordham on Saturday.
Question: Can the Devils take that one personal?
“Every game is personal,” Hasley replied. “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. We know how we have to approach each and every day, regardless of who your opponent is.
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“We didn’t play our best today on offense or on defense. So with the chip on our shoulders, we need to do better. And it starts with William & Mary.”
Adding to the “lack of respect” bent has been a couple of opposing players displaying some unwise bravado before playing Duke.
Before the season opener, a Tulane defensive player said stopping the Devils was simply a matter of stopping running back Nate Sheppard.
Sheppard’s response: 227 yards rushing in a 17-3 win.
Stanford linebacker Brandon Nicholson offered Sheppard some pregame praise as the nation’s leading rusher but confidently boasted that no one could run on Stanford’s defense.
Sheppard had 154 yards, and Duke 268 total.
“I wouldn’t say anything if I was them, but they keep doing it,” Sheppard said after the game.
Sheppard had three touchdowns Saturday. The defense allowed one touchdown. There were a few too many penalties for Diaz’s liking, but it was a solid team win.
After the game, Diaz was asked if this has been a fun team to coach.
“It has been an extraordinarily fun team,” he said. “I think the team feels it’s a really fun team. There’s a connectivity to this team that’s really unusual. It’s the combination of the guys in the locker room, it’s a little of what we went through in the spring. And what brings you together more than shared suffering?
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“They’ve been able to forge an identity off that.”