Through four weeks of the college football season, only four ACC teams remain undefeated, and one of them plays football in Durham.
The Duke Blue Devils defeated Middle Tennessee on Saturday, a 45-17 triumph that featured four turnovers and a two-touchdown game from tight end Nicky Dalmolin.
The fourth straight win puts Duke alongside the Miami Hurricanes, Louisville Cardinals, and Pittsburgh Panthers as the last of the ACC unbeatens (although Louisville has only played three games due to an early bye week).
The Blue Devils haven’t entirely cruised through lower-level opponents, either. Duke traveled to Northwestern and took down the Wildcats in overtime two weeks ago, one of the few Power Four road wins on the conference resume in 2024.
Under first-year head coach Manny Diaz, the team sits 21st in ESPN’s strength of record calculations, which measures how impressive a team’s win-loss record is given its strength of schedule.
The Hurricanes have blown out all four of their opponents so far this season, averaging 52.3 points per game on offense, and the Cardinals took down Georgia Tech to open their ACC schedule this weekend. Pittsburgh, the other surprise among the four teams listed, overcame a 21-point deficit on the road against Cincinnati before scoring two touchdowns in the final five minutes against West Virginia the following week.
Duke tries to remain a part of the exclusive club when the Blue Devils host the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday.