The Duke football team exceeded expectations all year, overcoming multiple fourth-quarter deficits en route to a 9-3 regular-season record, but the lasting image from its final game will be a fire extinguisher.
After Ole Miss’s fourth and fifth offensive touchdowns in Thursday’s TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, the Rebels’ linemen hoisted a child onto their shoulders in the center of their sideline crowd. The little boy shot a fire extinguisher straight into the air, obscuring the entire bench in white foam against Jacksonville’s night sky as the team danced around him.
Fifty-three yards away, all the Blue Devils could do was watch.
Mississippi quarterback Jaxson Dart mitigated the Duke defense all day with scrambles, pocket movement, and quick releases. He finished with 447 yards of offense and four passing touchdowns in the Rebels’ 52-20 victory, denying Duke its second 10-win season in school history.
On the Rebels’ eighth play of the game, Dart hung in the pocket and took a direct hit from Duke linebacker Tre Freeman. The only problem? He’d gotten the ball out a split-second too early, layering a seam shot to tight end Dae’Quan Wright for a 30-yard gain into the red zone.
Mississippi didn’t score any points on that possession thanks to a disastrous trick play that resulted in a fourth-down interception, but on the second Ole Miss drive, Dart hit former South Carolina wide receiver Antwane Wells Jr. in stride on a slant route. Wells turned and found nothing but grass in front of him without a Duke safety on the far side of the field, leaving an easy path for the 32-yard touchdown.
The Rebels marched down the field again just two minutes later, picking up 66 yards on 11 plays before a 1-yard plunge from Ulysses Bentley IV. On the fourth possession, Dart scrambled right on a third-and-19 prayer and found a path to the sideline, shaking off two tacklers to move the sticks with his legs.
On the Blue Devils’ side of the aisle, the Duke offense struggled to move the ball under quarterback Henry Belin IV. Starter Maalik Murphy and sophomore backup Grayson Loftis both hit the transfer portal after the regular-season finale, and Belin had only thrown one pass through the first 12 games.
Duke failed to capitalize on good field position after that early interception, trying and failing a fourth-down attempt of its own from the Rebels’ 32-yard line. The Blue Devils didn’t create a new set of downs until the final two minutes of the quarter.
Belin finally got moving midway through the second, picking up 51 yards on a trio of passes to Que’Sean Brown and senior star Jordan Moore. On Duke’s first play in the red zone, Belin scrambled desperately to his left and looked doomed for a short run. At the last second, however, he flipped his hips and rifled the ball back across the middle of the field to a wide-open Javon Harvey in the end zone to pull back within 10 points.
Dart, of course, answered with a 21-yard over-the-shoulder pearl to Wright four minutes later to make it 24-7. He ended the first half 22-for-29 with 250 passing yards and 46 rushing yards, and the Rebels outgained Duke 340-130 before the break.
If any hopes of a Duke comeback persisted through to the second half, Rebels cornerback Isaiah Hamilton quickly put them to bed midway through the third quarter. Belin tried to force the ball to running back Peyton Jones out in the flat, but Hamilton outmuscled the sophomore for the ball and ran it back 50 yards for yet another touchdown.
The rout, in every sense of the word, was on. The two Rebels touchdowns that preceded the sideline firefighting display only padded the margins, and even a Sahmir Hagans kick return for a touchdown in the final two minutes couldn’t lessen the blow.
Despite the disappointing finale, head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag]’s first season with the program is one of the best in Duke history. The Blue Devils clinched their fourth nine-win season since 1941 and swept its three in-state rivals for the first time since 2013. They’re 26-13 since 2022.