Tag: jordan moore

Jordan Moore makes impressive bobbling touchdown catch against Connecticut

The Blue Devils struck first against Connecticut on Saturday when star wide receiver Jordan Moore managed to haul in a bobbling catch.

The Duke football team put the first points on the board against Connecticut on Saturday night when [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] found star wideout [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] for a touchdown pass on the opening drive.

Murphy rifled the four-yard pass toward Moore in the end zone, and the hearts of Blue Devils fans in attendance skipped a beat as the ball initially ricocheted off of Moore’s chest and back into the air. The senior managed to corral the ball again, however, and the Blue Devils got their first touchdown of the day.

After back-to-back 100-yard games to start the season, Moore caught two passes for 49 yards on the opening drive against the Huskies. If he averages 112.7 yards over Duke’s final 10 games, he’ll break the school record for single-season receiving yards.

Murphy, for his part, completed all five of his passes for 59 yards on the opening drive. The connection gave him his sixth touchdown pass of the season, also putting him on pace to threaten the Duke record books. No Blue Devils quarterback has thrown more than 24 touchdown passes in a single season.

Staff predictions for Week 3 matchup between Duke and Connecticut

Duke is gearing up to take on Connecticut on Saturday, check out our Duke Wire staff predictions for the game.

It took more than four quarters for the Duke football team to walk away with a win in Week 2, but the Blue Devils bring nothing but momentum back to Wallace Wade Stadium.

After a slow start, quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] completed 17 of his last 23 passes and threw touchdowns on both of Duke’s overtime possessions, leading a frantic comeback effort to keep his new team undefeated. Wide receiver [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] kept his march to 1,000 yards going with a second consecutive 100-yard game, this time corralling 11 passes for 121 yards, and linebacker Alex Howard finished with 14 total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss.

Now, the Blue Devils play another basketball powerhouse in Connecticut. While the Huskies blew out Merrimack for a 63-17 victory last weekend, they got their doors blown off against Maryland in Week 1 and sport an 11-28 record since 2021.

Can Manny Diaz’s squad keep it rolling for a third straight win? Here are our predictions.

Ryan Haley, Duke Wire site editor

The big question for this game is whether the fourth quarter and overtime version of Maalik Murphy was him settling into the offense or just a hot streak against favorable defensive looks.

Offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer finally found a way to speed up the game on those final four drives, and Duke gained 165 of its 343 offensive yards on those four possessions. After spending the first three quarters making delayed reads and firing indecisive balls into traffic, Murphy looked sure of himself and diagnosed the right option on almost every dropback. It felt like the approach boiled down to ‘Look at Jordan Moore first on every play,’ and that should probably be the starting point moving forward.

It’s reasonable to assume that the comeback victory gives the former Texas Longhorn an injection of confidence in the pocket, but his first seven quarters were a bit too up-and-down for that to be a sure thing.

Connecticut showed a much-needed sign of life against Merrimack in Week 2, but the Huskies still don’t feel very fearsome after the 50-7 loss to Maryland. I’ll choose to be optimistic about Murphy’s development, especially against this secondary, and he keeps going downhill on Saturday.

Duke 38, UConn 13

Bryant Crews, Staff Writer

Duke’s thrilling win against Northwestern on the road is the stuff that should galvanize a team to go on a run of incredible football. Who knows if that ends up being the case, but for Saturday against a UConn team that just put up 63 points on Merrimack, Duke needs to come out a lot faster than they did in Chicago.

One would imagine a major point of emphasis this week in Durham is the run game. Duke looked putrid running the ball. Maryland ran for almost 250 yards on this same Huskies team. There are plays to be had there.

In the end, I think Duke’s just got too much talent at the skill positions to lose. Maalik Murphy tosses three more touchdown passes, Jacquez Moore adds another on the ground and we see Henry Belin IV get some action.

Duke 41, UConn 28

Jordan Moore is well on pace for the best season by a Duke wide receiver in a decade

Through two games, Duke wide receiver Jordan Moore is on pace for one of the most productive wide receiver seasons in program history.

Coming into the 2024 season, the biggest questions for Duke wide receiver [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] revolved around how much of a mark he could leave in the school record books.

In 2023, just his second season playing the position, he finished with 62 receptions, 835 yards, and eight touchdowns to lead the Blue Devils in all three categories. With new offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer indicating that he wanted to throw the ball more this fall, it felt like Moore could be the first wideout since Jamison Crowder in 2014 to reach the 1,000-yard barrier.

Through two games, it feels like Duke football fans might have aimed a little too low.

Moore caught 11 passes for 121 yards against Northwestern on Friday, his second consecutive 100-yard game to start the season. After Week 2, the senior has 18 catches (tied for the most in the ACC) for 233 yards (the fourth-most in the conference).

It’d be a tall task with some of the ACC defenses on the schedule, but projected over a 12-game regular season, Moore is on pace for 108 receptions and 1,398 yards. That would tie Crowder’s single-season catch record and barely break his yardage record of 1,360, both set in 2013.

Moore would only need 1,150 yards this season to finish second on Duke’s single-season leaderboard, meaning he could average 91.7 yards per game over the final 10 contests and still reach that mark. He’d need to average 112.7 yards per game to break Crowder’s single-season record.

The senior also seems like a sure bet to reach the program’s top 10 in career receiving yards. With 1,724 yards to his credit already, he’s currently 13th on the all-time list. He needs 574 more yards to pass Corey Thomas for 10th in school history, and breaking Crowder’s record would move him all the way into sixth.

Staff predictions for Week 2 matchup between Duke and Northwestern

Duke is gearing up to take on Northwestern on Friday, check out our Duke Wire staff predictions for the game here.

Duke football plays under the Friday night lights again in Week 2, this time on the road against Northwestern in a battle of the brainiacs.

The Wildcats came to Durham last season, and the Blue Devils chased them out of town with a 38-14 win. Running back [autotag]Jaquez Moore[/autotag] managed 61 yards on the ground in just 10 carries, and star wideout [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] amassed 56 receiving yards on five catches.

Now, one year later, those two are the focal points of the Duke offense. Moore reached triple-digits against Elon in Week 1, a 47-yard catch in the third quarter adding an exclamation point to his 112-yard game. Despite some struggles in the ground game, Moore scored the team’s first touchdown of the season.

Both teams bring a new quarterback to this year’s edition, though. [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] threw for 291 yards and two touchdowns in his Duke debut last week. Can he up his game against a Big Ten pass defense?

Here are our staff predictions for the Week 2 contest.

Ryan Haley, Duke Wire site editor

It’s a bit early to call anything on Duke’s schedule a must-win, but this comes as close as a September game can. With Georgia Tech emerging as one of the more complete teams in the conference and Wake Forest transfer quarterback Hank Bachmeier looking exceptionally productive in his Demon Deacons debut, even the weaker games on the conference slate look like fistfights.

Manny Diaz needs all the help he can get to reach six wins, and a 4-0 start would give him great odds. This game is the biggest hurdle to clear of those four, however, and it’s a total mismatch in the trenches for Duke. The Blue Devils averaged less than three yards per carry on the ground last week, and Miami (Ohio) ran for 40 yards on 24 attempts against the Wildcats in Week 1.

So this game will come down to two things: Duke’s defensive line and Maalik Murphy. Luckily, one of those things looked exceptional in Week 1 and the other looked promising.

The Blue Devils compiled eight sacks as a team, leading the entire country, and the Wildcats already averaged less than six yards per attempt. Northwestern quarterback Mike Wright, previously from Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, is mobile enough to escape pressure but historically doesn’t perform well under it, and the Duke front seven is fast enough to keep him from reaching the second level super often.

Northwestern’s pass defense came away with two interceptions last week, raising their total to 15 in 14 games under head coach David Braun. Murphy is a confident passer, but he fired some questionable balls into double coverage against the Phoenix. If Duke loses this game, it’s because he does that again and gets punished for it multiple times, which is well within the range of outcomes. If he only turns the ball once, however, the Duke defensive line and Jordan Moore prove to be too much for the Wildcats.

Duke 17, Northwestern 13

Bryant Crews, Staff Writer

Week 2 of the Manny Diaz era is upon us, and after a relatively stress-free 26-3 win in its first game of the 2024 season, Duke turns the page and turns up the competition.

Diaz and his squad head to the Windy City to take on the Big Ten’s Northwestern Wildcats. Duke and Northwestern will face off in an out-of-conference game for the eighth time over the last ten seasons.

While the Duke offense’s performance in game one wasn’t perfect, they had some opportunities to showcase transfer quarterback Maalik Murphy and their many returning receiver options.

Northwestern is better than Elon, and stylistically, they present a different challenge. They will look to dominate the line of scrimmage and win by running the ball.

Duke’s losses on defense from the previous year will make themselves known this week, but I think Duke has enough offensive talent to overcome it.

Murphy will throw for at least two touchdowns, Jacquez Moore will rush for a touchdown, and we will see a second-half turnover or stop that helps seal the deal for the Blue Devils as they win their first road game this season and move to 2-0.

Duke 24, Northwestern 17

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

Duke football names 2024 captains led by Maalik Murphy and Jordan Moore

Duke football named its four captains for the 2024 season on Friday, including new quarterback Maalik Murphy and star wideout Jordan Moore.

Duke football announced its four 2024 captains on Friday, led by new quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] and star wide receiver [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag].

Murphy, who spent the past two seasons with Texas before transferring to the Blue Devils this winter, recently beat out returning sophomore Grayson Loftis for the starting job. He started two games for the Longhorns last season, throwing for 477 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions in the two victories.

Moore, who received some votes for ACC Preseason Player of the Year, led the Blue Devils in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns in 2023. Two years after he transitioned from quarterback to wideout, he’s expected to threaten Duke’s first 1,000-yard receiving season since 2014.

Offensive guard Justin Pickett and defensive tackle Aaron Hall were also named captains. Pickett has played in 23 games over the past two seasons, including seven starts in 2023. Hall, a Durham native, played in 13 games last season and set career highs with 26 total tackles and 1.5 sacks

Duke and its captains get the 2024 season underway against Elon on August 30.

Two offensive stars for Duke football make Reese’s Senior Bowl watch list

The Reese’s Senior Bowl released its watch list for the 2025 edition of the event on Wednesday, featuring two Blue Devils offensive stars.

The Reese’s Senior Bowl released its 2025 watch list on Wednesday, naming a bunch of rising seniors around the country who could vault themselves into NFL draft consideration.

Two stars of the Duke offense, wide receiver [autotag]Jordan Moore [/autotag] and running back [autotag]Jaquez Moore[/autotag], made the list.

The watch list joins a lengthy list of accolades for Jordan, who also earned three votes for ACC Preseason Player of the Year and made the watch list for the Maxwell Award given to the nation’s most outstanding player.

After transitioning from quarterback to wide receiver ahead of the 2022 season, Moore led the team in all three major receiving categories last season. He compiled 62 receptions, 835 yards, and eight touchdowns, including three scores in one game against North Carolina.

The other Moore, Jaquez, gets the chance to be Duke’s lead back in 2024. He picked up 674 yards last season, averaging 5.8 yards per carry and scoring six touchdowns.

Jordan Waters, who led the Blue Devils with 819 yards on the ground, transferred to NC State, and while former New Mexico State back Star Thomas joined the program through the transfer portal, Moore is still expected to lead the backfield.

Jordan chases Duke’s first 1,000-yard receiving season in a decade and Jaquez chases similar landmarks on the ground when Duke’s season gets started against Elon on August 30.

Duke wide receiver Jordan Moore finishes eighth in ACC Preseason Player of the Year voting

The ACC released its preseason all-conference football team on Thursday, and Duke wideout Jordan Moore earned some Player of the Year votes.

The ACC released its preseason all-conference football team on Thursday, and while no Blue Devils made the roster, one Duke football star found his way onto the release.

The conference asked the 170 media members voting on the preseason polls to name their ACC Player of the Year, and Duke receiver [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] finished eighth with three votes.

Moore, a former quarterback prospect who made the switch to wideout before the 2022 season, led the team in all three major receiving categories last year. He scored three touchdowns against North Carolina and picked up at least 80 yards in six games.

He finished the 2023 season with 62 receptions, 835 yards, and eight touchdowns.

Miami quarterback Cameron Ward earned ACC Preseason Player of the Year honors after he finished with 71 votes. UNC running back Omarion Hampton finished second with 38 first-place votes, the only other player with more than 15.

Duke football releases video of Maalik Murphy and Jordan Moore connecting on deep ball

The arrival of August means Duke plays football this month, and the Blue Devils passing attack seems to be in midseason form based on this highlight.

The 2024 Duke football season gets underway later this month, and the new-look Blue Devils passing attack looks sharp on social media.

The team released a clip of [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag], the transfer quarterback from Texas, hitting star wide receiver Jordan Moore deep downfield for a diving completion on Friday.

The duo hasn’t played together in an official game yet, but they showed off their chemistry during this spring’s Blue & White Game. Murphy found Moore for the game’s only touchdown, another deep shot that saw Moore outwrestle star defensive back Chandler Rivers for the ball.

Moore led the Blue Devils in receptions, yards, and touchdowns last season, and his excellence earned him a spot on the Maxwell Award Watch List. He looks primed for Duke’s first 1,000-yard receiving season since Jamison Crowder in 2014.

Murphy hasn’t officially earned the role of starting quarterback yet, as he and returning sophomore Grayson Loftis both made the trip to ACC Football Kickoff under the assumption that either could win the role. Manny Diaz, the first-year Duke football coach, said the team believes it can win with either quarterback under center.

The Blue Devils get their 2024 season underway against Elon on August 30.