Tag: Elon Phoenix

Former Notre Dame basketball assistant gets his revenge as Elon upsets the Irish

This wasn’t the best showing for the Irish

(This story was updated to add new information.)

It was the homecoming that Elon head coach [autotag]Billy Taylor[/autotag] envisioned, as his Phoenix defeated Notre Dame men’s basketball on Friday evening, 84-77.

Taylor has long been away from South Bend as a coach, as he was with the team from 1998-1999 before moving on and eventually getting a lead position. The Phoenix came into the game as heavy underdogs, but that didn’t shake them as they shot a blistering 57.1% on the night.

Notre Dame just couldn’t buy a bucket late in the game, as Elon held the Irish scoreless for almost the final two-minutes of the game before a basket when the game was virtually over. Nick Dorn led the Phoenix with 24 points while Markus Burton paced the Irish with 25.

The loss is the first for Notre Dame this season, as they now sit at 4-1, while Elon moves to 3-2. This defeat will hurt the Irish’s chances to make the NCAA Tournament, as this will be considered a bad loss.

Notre Dame gets back on the court on Tuesday, as they host a ranked Rutgers team in Las Vegas.

Dec 22, 2023; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Elon Phoenix head coach Billy Taylor disputes a call against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the first half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

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Duke football releases mic’d up video of quarterback Maalik Murphy in first Blue Devils game

Maalik Murphy wore a microphone for his first game as a Duke Blue Devil, and the team released a video of his best quotes on Wednesday.

Duke quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] threw for 291 yards and two touchdowns in his Duke debut last Friday, and the former Texas Longhorn also wore a microphone as he took in a game at Wallace Wade Stadium for the first time.

The Blue Devils social media team released a video on Wednesday that compiled Murphy’s best moments on the microphone against Elon.

The video sure looks like Murphy’s getting used to his offense and his new teammates. He could be seen joking around with backup quarterback Henry Belin IV and describing Elon’s defensive gameplan to running back Al Wooten II, showcasing a command of the game that should encourage Duke football fans.

Murphy also sounds like he has a good sense of humor. At one point, Elon defensive end Ethan Grace hit Murphy right as he let go of a pass. Murphy hit the ground hard on the play, but he had a quip ready for Grace once he popped back up.

“If you wasn’t 235 (pounds), I would have felt that,” Murphy said with a smile.

https://twitter.com/DukeFOOTBALL/status/1831443267038409202

Murphy gets his second crack at the playbook this coming Friday against Northwestern.

ESPN FPI drops Duke football below projected six-win threshold after Week 1

Despite a 23-point victory over Elon on Friday, ESPN FPI no longer thinks the Duke Blue Devils will win six games in 2024.

The Duke football team got the season off to a decent start last Friday with a 26-3 victory over Elon, but ESPN FPI wasn’t very impressed by [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag]’s first game.

As of Monday morning, with all but one Week 1 game complete, the Blue Devils dropped 11 spots down to 63rd in the FPI rankings. After beginning the season with a projected win total of 6.0, barely enough to qualify for a bowl game, ESPN Analytics dropped that number to 5.9.

Part of that pessimism likely stems from Duke’s slow start against the Phoenix. Elon missed a field goal that would have tied the game late in the second quarter, and the Blue Devils didn’t score a touchdown until the final minute of the first half.

Another aspect of the slight slip stems from Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, two of the more winnable games on the schedule, overperforming out of the gate. The Yellow Jackets upset a top-10 Florida State team while the Demon Deacons beat North Carolina A&T 45-13, both jumping more than 10 spots in the rankings.

Duke hopes to start 2-0 with another Friday game this week, this time against Northwestern.

Duke football leads FBS in sacks after dominant Week 1 game against Elon

After a dominant eight-sack game against Elon on Friday, the Duke Blue Devils currently lead the FBS in sacks.

As of Sunday morning, no college football team has more sacks than the Duke Blue Devils.

With only two games left on the Week 1 slate, no FBS team matched Duke’s eight sacks from Friday night’s victory over Elon. Junior edge rusher Vincent Anthony Jr. was one of just 23 players with multiple sacks on opening weekend, and nine different Blue Devils recorded at least 0.5 sacks.

The Blue Devils defense also racked up 16 tackles for loss, tied for the most among Power Four programs. Only East Carolina finished with more for the weekend, and only 22 programs reached double-digits in their opening game.

Head coach Manny Diaz preached the importance of negative plays all offseason, and the former Penn State defensive coordinator should know. The Nittany Lions led the country with 49.0 sacks as a team last season, three more than any other Power Five program.

Duke’s star-studded defense hopes to keep the momentum rolling against Northwestern next Friday.

Duke wide receiver Eli Pancol catches first touchdown pass since 2021

After multiple season-ending injuries over the last two seasons, Duke wideout Eli Pancol caught his first touchdown in three years on Friday.

For the first time in nearly three years, Duke wide receiver Eli Pancol caught a touchdown pass on Friday night.

During the Blue Devils’ season-opening victory over Elon, quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] rifled a short pass to Pancol in the late fourth quarter for the team’s third touchdown of the day.

Pancol, a sixth-year senior, first took the field in a Duke uniform back in 2019. However, an injury forced him to miss the last four games of the 2022 regular season. He then missed the entire 2023 campaign after a lower-body injury in the preseason, meaning the Elon game was his first regular-season action in 22 months.

The touchdown drought extended back even farther. Despite a career-high 347 yards in 2022, Pancol never added six points to the board. His last touchdown catch came against Virginia Tech on November 13, 2021, a whopping 1,021 days.

Pancol also had a 55-yard catch over the middle of the field in the second quarter, racing all the way into the red zone and breaking multiple tackles to set up a touchdown. He finished Friday’s game with seven receptions for 81 yards.

https://twitter.com/DukeFOOTBALL/status/1829704927335121195

Duke football cruises to an easy victory over Elon in season opener

Thanks to a new career-high from quarterback Maalik Murphy, the Blue Devils beat Elon 26-3 on Friday to start the 2024 football season.

The first game of the [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] era got the Blue Devils off on the right foot on Friday, defeating Elon 26-3 for an opening win.

Diaz previously served as the Penn State defensive coordinator, and his team showed their prowess on that side of the ball early and often. The Duke defensive line ended opening night with eight sacks, including three in the Phoenix’s first two drives, and 16 tackles for loss.

The Blue Devils even blocked a punt on special teams, albeit after a botched snap from their opponents. Elon’s offense gained 29 total yards of offense on its first 19 plays, and the Blue Devils only gave up 140 yards for the night.

While Duke’s defense pitched a near-perfect game, the offense looked a little more mercurial.

In his first game with the program, quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] came out firing with five completions in his first six passes, marching the Blue Devils into the red zone with ease. All of the offseason conversations about how offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer wanted to play up-tempo, aggressive football seemed prescient.

However, Duke had to settle for a field goal, and the offense stalled a little from there. Murphy and his teammates kept trying to connect downfield and kept coming up empty, and he completed just four of his next nine passes.

Elon had a field-goal attempt to tie the game in the closing minutes of the first half, but the 49-yard effort came up short and bounced off the crossbar. Two plays later, Murphy found veteran receiver Eli Pancol over the middle of the field for a 55-yard catch-and-run into the red zone. Running back Jaquez Moore got the ball on the ensuing snap, cutting outside the tackle box and into the end zone for the team’s first touchdown.

Despite that opening score, Duke struggled to run the ball for most of the night. Moore and New Mexico State transfer Star Thomas combined for 25 yards on 13 carries over the first two quarters, and the Blue Devils finished with 59 yards on 27 attempts.

That score did somewhat remove the lid from the Blue Devils offense, however, and Murphy and Brewer didn’t look back from there. After a field goal on the first drive of the second half stretched the lead to 13, Murphy and his wideouts finally synced up downfield when he found [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] for a 48-yard gain down to the 1-yard line.

The long connection emphasized a dominant night for Moore, who could become Duke’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Jamison Crowder in 2014. That third-quarter highlight put him over 100 yards for the night, and he finished with 112 yards on seven receptions.

Murphy got his first touchdown pass in a Duke uniform on the next play, a bootleg pass to tight end Jeremiah Hasley that made it a 19-0 game.

The redshirt sophomore threw another touchdown in the final five minutes, a short dart to Pancol. He finished his first Blue Devils game with a career-high 291 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception after completing 26 of his 40 passes.

Duke now has a week to prepare before its second game of the season, a Friday road trip to Northwestern.

Maalik Murphy throws first touchdown pass in a Duke football uniform

Watch Maalik Murphy’s first touchdown throw with Duke football from Friday’s season-opener against Elon.

Duke quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] threw his first touchdown pass with the Blue Devils against Elon on Friday night.

The former Texas transfer completed five of his first six passes in the season opener, but it took him until the third quarter to throw one into the end zone.

He nearly got the first score in impressive fashion, finding star wideout [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] for a 47-yard gain down the sideline on a play that was initially ruled a score.

However, replays confirmed that Moore’s knee came down a yard short of the goal line. Not that the ruling delayed Murphy long. On the very next play, offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer dialed up a play-action bootleg for his new starting quarterback, and the Blue Devils captain rolled out to his right and found a wide-open Jeremiah Hasley for the score.

Murphy left that drive, with six minutes left in the third quarter, well over the 200-yard mark through the air. Duke tried to add on a 2-point conversion, but an incompletion kept the Blue Devils lead 19-0.

https://twitter.com/DukeFOOTBALL/status/1829694678536798528

Jaquez Moore scores first touchdown of the Duke football season

Duke running back Jaquez Moore rumbled into the end zone in the second quarter on Friday, the Blue Devils’ first touchdown of the year.

It took nearly two full quarters, but the Duke offense finally found the end zone for the first touchdown of the year on Friday.

In the final minute of the first half against the Elon Phoenix, Blue Devils running back Jaquez Moore took a handoff from the 7-yard line. He bounced to the outside before following a block from wide receiver Eli Pancol, finding a crease into the painted grass.

The score opened up a 10-0 lead, the same advantage Duke took into the locker room. Moore finished the first two quarters with eight carries for 21 yards, leading the Blue Devils backfield in both categories.

Pancol deserved a lot of credit for the touchdown drive. First-year starting quarterback Maalik Murphy found him over the middle for a 55-yard catch-and-run on the previous play to set the team up in scoring position, Pancol’s second catch of the game.

Duke finished the first half against Elon with 174 total yards of offense, more than doubling the Phoenix’s 80.

Staff predictions for Week 1 matchup between Duke football vs Elon

With the 2024 Duke football season getting underway on Friday night, check out the Duke Wire staff predictions for the season opener.

At long last, the 2024 college football season is here in Durham.

After the Blue Devils lost their head coach and starting quarterback to the transfer portal this offseason, former Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and Texas transfer Maalik Murphy will lead the team into an expanded ACC.

Diaz at least coached within the conference before, helming the Miami Hurricanes from 2019-21, but Murphy has only started two games at the college level. With so many new names, such as Old Dominion wide receiver Javon Harvey and Youngstown State linebacker Alex Howard, there’s no meaningful way to talk about Duke before the on-field product is revealed.

Has that stopped us from trying? Of course not. But it does mean that, once Friday’s kickoff rolls around, all of the offseason notes about this roster can finally get shredded and replaced with cold hard tape and evidence.

In the meantime, however, here’s one last effort from our staff to predict what team Blue Devils fans will watch this season.

Ryan Haley, Duke Wire site editor

Manny Diaz praised Elon during his first Monday press conference of the year, a team that made noise in the FCS last season, but the Phoenix are still an FCS team coming off a 6-5 record.

I think the big winner from Friday night will be first-year offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer. The offensive stars said the team wants to push the tempo and attack downfield this season, and while that may lead to a few early misfires, I think the splash plays generated in the second and third quarters make everyone forget about the miscues by the end of the night.

With Eli Pancol healthy again, the wide receiver room is deep, and I think four players could end the year with 30 receptions or more. While Duke returned to national prominence with 17 wins over the last two seasons, this is not last year’s offense and it won’t win the same way as last year’s squad, and the team will establish that early.

With a new offensive line featuring two transfers on the left side, there might be some growing pains early, and some footwork issues on last year’s tape mean Maalik Murphy might whiff on a few layups, but I think the blueprint of aggression and tempo wins out by halftime and gets Bull City excited.

Duke 35, Elon 10

Bryant Crews, Staff Writer

We are finally here, and it is time for football. This will be my first season covering Duke football for Duke Wire, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Duke has a lot of interesting storylines to sift through as the Blue Devils begin another era with a new coach. Instead of Mike Elko, it’s Manny Diaz who landed the job over the offseason.

He has already done some incredible things (see: Maalik Murphy and flipping edge rusher Bryce Davis, the highest-rated recruit in program history, from Clemson.)

Now Diaz gets to prove himself on the field. Gone is All-ACC talent Graham Barton, now the starting center for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Starting quarterback Riley Leonard departed for Notre Dame, as did edge rusher RJ Oben.

On Saturday, I expect Duke to start the Diaz era with a bang. Look for Murphy to find Jordan Moore a few times and, ultimately, I see Moore finding the end zone. With Jaquez Moore set to take over starting running back duties after Jordan Waters transferred to NC State, I think Moore will get a score on Saturday, too.

Defensively, Duke will see Diaz’s specialty come to life. I think the secondary is set for a big year, and I think we see an interception from someone in the secondary alongside eight tackles from linebacker Tre Freeman.

All told, Duke should cruise by the third quarter.

Duke 38, Elon 13

Duke softball sweeps Sunday doubleheader to finish off unbeaten weekend at home

The Blue Devils extended their win streak to 13 games after beating Villanova and Elon by 20 combined runs to finish the Duke Invitational unbeaten.

The Blue Devils finished the Duke Invitational with back-to-back wins on Sunday, first defeating Villanova 11-5 earlier in the afternoon before shutting out Elon for a 14-0 run.

The Wildcats, whom Duke beat on Friday to begin the weekend in Durham, actually got off to a decent start offensively. Each of Villanova’s first three batters reached base safely, including an RBI double from catcher Ally Jones to open the scoring.

With two outs in the second, Villanova chased Duke starter Sophie Garner-Mackinnon from the mound with a two-out homer from leadoff hitter Tess Cities.

Despite the three runs in the first two innings, though, the Wildcats still weren’t leading. The Blue Devils put up four runs in the bottom of the first, including a two-run shot of their own from junior Ana Gold.

The bomb was Gold’s sixth of the year and her third of the weekend, and she has a team-leading 22 RBIs through the Blue Devils’ first 14 games.

Senior Claire Davidson scored the third run almost single-handedly, singling and stealing second before racing all the way home after a fielding error.

The third inning and the top of the fourth passed without any runs, with Duke reliever Lillie Walker holding the line to keep the Blue Devils’ lead intact. No team has been able to hold the Duke offense down very long, however, and it scored multiple runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings to cement the final margins. Davidson and Aminah Vega added the final two runs with solo home runs at the buzzer, the final two hits of the game.

If you track the trend of “Duke scored seven runs in the final three innings of its first game,” the Blue Devils’ offensive performance against Elon won’t shock you in the slightest. Duke scored 14 runs in the first three innings against the Phoenix powered by a seven-run explosion in the first.

Three of the first four Blue Devils at the plate reached base after a single and two walks before Kelly Torres drew another walk for the game’s first run. Gisele Tapia and Francesca Frelick immediately followed that with back-to-back base hits, each bringing home two runs.

Frelick’s two-RBI single capped off one of the best weekends you’ll ever see on the diamond. Frelick entered the home tournament with one hit, a solo home run against Army, in her first 12 at-bats of the season. Over her four games in Durham this weekend, she went 6/9 at the plate with another home run and nine RBIs.

The real star of the Elon blowout win was shortstop Jada Baker, who ended every at-bat with a run on the board. First, she batted Frelick home in the first with a single into left field. In the next inning, she had runners on first and second and again laced a base hit into the outfield to bring home another run.

With two runners in scoring position in the third inning, Baker roped one up the middle to bring both Blue Devils around to score and end her three-hit, four-RBI day.

Those two runs were Duke’s last of a productive afternoon, and pitcher Dani Drogemuller never let the Phoenix off the mat offensively. The graduate student surrendered just four hits in her five-inning performance, striking out six batters in the shutout.

After a five-game weekend, Duke gets a full workweek off. They’ll take the diamond again on Friday against Syracuse, the start of a three-game weekend series.