The Duke Blue Devils started the [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] era with a victory last Friday, a 26-3 win over Elon that featured eight sacks and a career-high 291 passing yards for [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag]. In the eyes of USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith, that was enough to prove some level of competency.
Smith released his updated bowl projections on Tuesday, and the Blue Devils made the Gasparilla Bowl against South Florida.
Smith actually put the Blue Devils in that same exact game ahead of the season, but he pitted Duke against the Florida Gators. After a 41-17 thumping at the hands of Miami, however, there’s obviously a lot less optimism about the Gators reaching the six-win benchmark.
At the start of the season, six wins felt like the exact measuring stick for Diaz’s first season. Despite a tough conference schedule, the Blue Devils got a four-game head start that included two FCS schools and Middle Tennessee. A 3-1 record should be the expected minimum after four weeks.
However, the first week of college football has already thrown a wrench in Duke’s math. Florida State, the defending conference champion, lost its first two games of the season and looks abysmal in the trenches. Georgia Tech, one of the teams who beat the Seminoles, features one of the nation’s most potent rushing attacks. Virginia Tech, a team that seemed poised to make waves with quarterback Kyron Drones, lost to Vanderbilt on the road.
Despite new questions about which games on the schedule are actually the most realistic victories, the projected win total in Durham should remain somewhere around six. Anything less would be disappointing, and anything more would be a warm welcome for Diaz. Smith seems to have confidence in the Blue Devils reaching that benchmark.