The College Football Playoff selection committee released its first rankings of the year on Tuesday with five ACC teams in the top 25.
The College Football Playoff selection committee released its first rankings of the 2024 season on Tuesday night, and the Miami Hurricanes predictably led the five ACC teams included in the top 25.
The undefeated Hurricanes, who scored five second-half touchdowns to beat the Blue Devils 53-31 on Saturday, start the playoff cycle in fourth behind the Oregon Ducks, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Georgia Bulldogs.
While the Clemson Tigers spent much of the season in position for an at-large berth in the 12-team field, Louisville beat them in their own stadium last weekend to knock Dabo Swinney’s team all the way down to 23rd. Without a strong run to the conference title, Clemson is likely out of contention.
The SMU Mustangs, on the other hand, are very much not out of contention. SMU beat Duke in overtime just two weeks ago after blocking a 30-yard field goal on the final play of regulation, but a dominant 48-25 victory over the previously undefeated Pittsburgh moved them up to 13th.
While the Hurricanes would be the only team from the conference in the projected playoff bracket as of Tuesday, another upset or two could bump SMU into an at-large spot.
Pittsburgh starts the playoff cycle at 18th while Louisville moved itself up to 22nd after its big win.
After a crazy Week 10 slate, a new ACC team emerged as the biggest threat to the Miami Hurricanes atop the conference.
For most of the 2024 college football season, ACC fans believed that the Miami Hurricanes and Clemson Tigers were on a crash course for the conference championship game.
Miami owned the most productive offense in the country thanks to Heisman Trophy frontrunner Cam Ward, and the Tigers (with two national championships under their belt since 2016) had looked absolutely unstoppable since their Week 1 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. Other teams around the conference looked impressive, but there was a clear top two. Right?
Well, not so much after Saturday.
The Louisville Cardinals left Death Valley with a 33-21 victory over Clemson, leaving tattered dreams of the College Football Playoff bracket in their wake. While the Hurricanes shifted up one spot to No. 4 in the newest AP Poll, the Tigers slid all the way down to No. 19 with a second loss on their resume.
The Clemson loss left an opening in the ACC power vacuum, and the SMU Mustangs vaulted forward to fill it with a 48-25 victory over the previously undefeated Pittsburgh Panthers. In their first year as members of the conference, the Mustangs have now won their first five ACC games with wins over Louisville, Duke, and Pittsburgh on their ledger, and it helped them climb seven spots to No. 13 in the new AP rankings.
The 2024 U.S. Open champion has been busy since his victory at Pinehurst No. 2 in June. Whether it’s playing on the LIV Golf League, various media appearances or recording content for his YouTube channel, DeChambeau has been everywhere, and the U.S. Open trophy has accompanied him for many of the journeys.
On Saturday, DeChambeau took the U.S. Open trophy to the SMU football game against Pittsburgh, a ranked matchup featuring two of the top teams in the ACC this season. He was honored during the game, but the highlight came when DeChambeau was shown with the trophy in the student section.
Professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau rides onto the field in a Mustang car with two SMU cheerleaders and the US Open trophy before the game against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Imagine going to a football game with your friends, and all of the sudden you look up and it’s one of the best golfers in the world holding a major championship trophy while celebrating a touchdown.
Eli Pancol finished with 11 receptions for 138 yards and a touchdown against SMU for a Duke team that desperately needs a top option.
Duke receiver Eli Pancol needed less than two seconds to get open in overtime against the SMU Mustangs.
The Blue Devils started their first overtime possession in need of a touchdown, and quarterback Maalik Murphy never looked like he debated where to go with the football. For the 14th time on Saturday, he hit the back of his drop and tossed the ball in Pancol’s general direction.
The fifth-year wideout blew right past SMU defensive back Jaelyn Davis-Robinson on a go route, and thanks to the air Murphy put under the throw, he jumped over the Mustangs corner to come down with the needed score.
While Murphy and Pancol couldn’t connect on the potential game-winning 2-point conversion, the receiver’s monster game against SMU highlighted something Duke football fans knew the team needed: a go-to outside target.
Entering the 2024 season, everyone in Durham knew the passing offense would run through senior Jordan Moore. The former quarterback led the team with 62 catches, 835 yards, and eight touchdowns in 2023, and he earned some ACC Preseason Player of the Year votes. Everyone presumed he’d become the school’s first 1,000-yard receiver in a decade.
After Moore started the season with back-to-back 100-yard performances, everything seemed to be proceeding as scheduled. Pancol caught four touchdowns in the first three games, but Moore was among the ACC leaders in every category.
In Week 3, however, Moore briefly left the game after a hard landing on a jump ball against Connecticut. While Moore returned to the field that night and has still caught a pass in every game this season, the star wideout has clearly been on some snap limitations. He’s caught 11 passes over the past five games after 23 receptions through Week 3, and he only played 12 snaps against the Florida State Seminoles in Week 8.
The passing offense, through a combination of increased competition and Moore’s absence, took a noticeable dip as it tried to replace his role. Other names stepped forward, from redshirt freshman Que’Sean Brown’s 11 catches against Connecticut to tight end Nicky Dalmolin’s first 100-yard game against Middle Tennessee, but Murphy’s aerial stats felt Moore’s absence.
Weeks 1-4
Weeks 5-8
Pass Yards/Attempt
7.11
5.44
Comp. Pct
64.6%
50.6%
Pass Yards/Game
256.0
161.3
Touchdowns/Game
2.75
1.00
On Saturday, however, the Murphy from September flickered back into the picture. The former Texas Longhorn threw three touchdowns for the first time since Week 4 en route to a career-high 295 yards, nearly half of which came from Pancol.
The 6-foot-3 Pancol looked dominant in multiple different ways against SMU. Eight of his 11 catches went for a first down, including a few passes he caught short of the sticks before breaking tackles to move the chains. He won downfield as well, bringing in a 22-yard over-the-shoulder shot on the game-tying touchdown drive before his overtime score.
He finished the game with 138 yards, and for the first time since Week 3, the Blue Devils felt like they had a reliable three-level threat on the perimeter.
Between a late-season injury in 2022 and a season-ending injury while preparing for the 2023 campaign, Pancol had missed 17 of Duke’s previous 18 games before the opener against Elon. He hadn’t played football since December 28, 2022, and he hadn’t caught a touchdown since November 13, 2021.
Offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer doesn’t think it’s an accident that the veteran Blue Devil looked better after he spent more time on the field.
“Eli’s such a strong football player,” Brewer said during his Monday press conference. “He has such confidence in what he’s doing right now. It’s probably him coming back from all the injuries and then now he’s starting to get his legs into playing.”
Through eight games this season, Pancol leads the team with 36 receptions, and his six touchdowns are second among ACC wideouts. Both of those numbers are already career highs, as are his 446 receiving yards. If he plays a potential bowl game, his pace sets him up for 58 receptions and more than 700 yards.
When Pancol spoke after the game himself, however, he focused more on the team’s overall offensive success. The Blue Devils finished with 393 yards of offense, their third-most in a game this season, and bounced back in a strong way after a difficult 180-yard showing against Florida State.
“That’s the team that I knew we had,” Pancol said after Saturday’s game against SMU. “In practice, that’s how we play, so I’m glad we got to put that out there for everybody to see.”
With the undefeated Miami Hurricanes next on the schedule, Pancol and his fellow receivers will need to step up again. The Miami secondary has allowed 6.0 yards per pass attempt, second only to the Blue Devils among ACC teams, and even with a positive Moore update on Monday, Duke will need reliable people to target.
No matter how many snaps Moore plays, however, Murphy will have at least one safe option on Saturday.
“There’s a little bit of security that Eli’s going to get open,” Brewer said.
Despite a close overtime loss to SMU in Week 9, three Duke Blue Devils were named to Pro Football Focus ACC Team of the Week.
Despite falling to the SMU Mustangs by one point in overtime this weekend, a handful of Duke football stars still shined bright. Included among them were the three players named to the Pro Football Focus ACC Team of the Week on Sunday.
Linebacker Tre Freeman III led the way on the National Team of the Week after he forced a fumble and picked off a pass. He finished with six total tackles, and his fourth-quarter interception set the Blue Devils up for a go-ahead field goal attempt. Wide receiver Eli Pancol and cornerback Chandler Rivers joined him on the conference squad.
Pancol caught 11 passes for 138 yards and one touchdown, including a 25-yard scoring grab in overtime when he won a contested catch over a Mustangs defensive back. He also snagged the game-tying 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter.
On Rivers’ side of things, the star cornerback had two solo tackles and two assisted tackles. Most notably, though, he made a diving interception in the final five minutes to give the offense a chance at victory in regulation. It marked two weeks in a row that Rivers snagged an interception after he returned one for a touchdown against the Florida State Seminoles in Week 8.
Duke linebacker Tre Freeman made the PFF National Team of the Week on Sunday after he finished with six tackles and an interception.
Duke fell to the SMU Mustangs 28-27 in overtime during Week 9 of the college football season, but several Blue Devils shined to help the team come within a play of the upset. Most notably, linebacker Tre Freeman was named to the Pro Football Focus National Team of the Week on Sunday.
The junior recorded six total tackles, two solo and four assisted, against the Mustangs. He contributed to Duke’s six turnovers twice, forcing a fumble near the end of the first half before intercepting a cross-body throw from SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings in the final 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. The latter takeaway set up the offense in Mustangs territory, and if not for a missed 42-yard field goal, it would have provided Duke with the winning margin.
Freeman joined Liberty’s Joseph Carter as one of two linebackers on the national team. Freeman also, inherently, made the ACC Team of the Week for the same position. North Carolina Tar Heels edge rusher Kaimon Rucker was the only other ACC defensive player to make the national list.
Through eight games this season, Freeman has recorded 50 tackles (25 solo, 25 assisted), 3.0 tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks, two interceptions, one pass deflection, and one forced fumble.
Duke offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer confirmed what fans saw with their own eyes on Saturday: the 2-point play was almost perfect.
In case any Duke football fans needed a reminder of how close the Blue Devils came to upsetting the SMU Mustangs on Saturday night, offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer made the margin very clear during his Monday press conference.
Brewer said he and the offense worked on the play design for the climactic 2-point attempt as early as the third day of offseason practice. Eli Pancol, who caught a 25-yard touchdown pass on the previous play to set up the conversion, and tight end Jake Taylor ran a mesh concept, running crossing routes at each other from opposite sides of the field in hopes of getting at least one defender lost in the traffic.
“It’s pretty much what you would want to call versus a man coverage,” Brewer said. “We just didn’t execute. We didn’t have guys rub the mesh the right way and set up the mesh the right way.”
Murphy, who needed to scramble to his right after the SMU defensive line broke into the pocket, tried to find Pancol, but with Mustangs cornerback Jaelyn Davis-Robinson running with the wideout in stride, the ball sailed just past Pancol’s reach for an incompletion.
“It’s those details, those small details, that come back to haunt you because it’s the difference between probably about a foot. If he (Pancol) has a foot of separation between the defender and himself, he probably catches the ball and we win the game.”
Brewer, in his first year at the helm of the Duke offense, made it very clear which party deserves any blame for the mistake.
“It’s one of those things that showed up earlier in the game and we didn’t get it corrected,” he continued. “And that’s on us as coaches.”
Manny Diaz said on Monday that he wanted the Duke football team to focus on self-inflicted errors from the SMU loss rather than bad luck.
For a sport played on a massive field, it’s funny how often football games get settled by a matter of inches.
Duke came within one play of beating the ranked SMU Mustangs multiple times on Saturday night, and a few bad breaks got in the way of their upset effort. The Blue Devils’ 30-yard field goal attempt on the last play of regulation, which would have won the game, got blocked when Mustangs defensive end Jahfari Harvey jumped over the line and got his hand up in time.
Duke later opted for a 2-point conversion attempt on the first overtime possession, and quarterback Maalik Murphy’s pass to Eli Pancol sailed by for an incompletion. A replay angle on the broadcast showed more contact from SMU defensive back Jaelyn Davis-Robinson than fans would have liked.
Just don’t expect Duke head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] to blame the loss on either of those two plays.
“You should never rationalize away a loss,” Diaz said during his Monday press conference. “Because what’ll happen is, given the unusual set of circumstances that happened on Saturday night, you’ll try to find something that’s outside of your control as to why you lost.”
Diaz, who was hired by the Blue Devils this offseason after spending 2022-23 as the Penn State Nittany Lions defensive coordinator, said the film showed mistakes from the offense, defense, and special teams that could have changed the outcome.
“Everyone who had a role in the game on Saturday night could have played better and could have ensured our victory,” Diaz said. “That’s us taking accountability, that’s us taking control.”
The Duke Blue Devils didn’t receive a vote in Sunday’s updated AP Poll after their 28-27 loss to the SMU Mustangs.
After a brief appearance with a few votes last week, the Duke Blue Devils were nowhere to be found in the updated AP Poll on Sunday.
Duke fell behind the SMU Mustangs by 14 points midway through the third quarter on Saturday night, but a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Maalik Murphy tied the game with less than ten minutes remaining. Despite the defense intercepting SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings twice and forcing another fumble on the closing three possessions, part of a six-turnover day for the Blue Devils, two missed field goals doomed Duke to overtime.
Kicker Todd Pelino actually had a 30-yard attempt to win the game in the final three seconds, but Mustangs defensive end Jahfari Harvey jumped over the line and got his hand up for a deflection. Murphy threw another touchdown in overtime, but a failed 2-point conversion ended the upset effort.
SMU moved up two spots to 20th as they remained one of four ACC teams in the rankings. The Miami Hurricanes broke into the top five after their 36-14 victory over the Florida State Seminoles, and the Clemson Tigers (11th) and Pittsburgh Panthers (18th) also appeared.
Despite Saturday’s last-second loss to the SMU Mustangs, Duke football still received a few votes in the US LBM Coaches Poll after Week 9.
USA TODAY Sports released the updated US LBM Coaches Poll on Sunday, and the Duke Blue Devils (6-2, 2-2) clung to a spot in the Receiving Votes section despite their overtime loss to the SMU Mustangs.
Duke received three votes, putting the team in an unofficial tie for 33rd with the Virginia Tech Hokies and Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Blue Devils had a 30-yard field goal attempt on the final play of regulation that would have won them the game against SMU, but Mustangs defensive end Jahfari Harvey broke through the line for a game-saving deflection. After exchanging touchdowns during the first overtime period, head coach Manny Diaz opted to go for a potential winning 2-point conversion, but quarterback Maalik Murphy’s pass sailed past Eli Pancol’s outstretched arms.
SMU also entered Saturday’s game with a 6-1 record, and the Mustangs moved up two spots to 20th in a tough reminder of what could have been for Duke.
The Miami Hurricanes, still undefeated through eight games, remained in the No. 5 spot as the top-ranked ACC team in the poll. The Clemson Tigers shuffled up one spot to eighth on a bye week, and the undefeated Pittsburgh Panthers bumped up three spots to 17th after a blowout win over Syracuse.
Check out the complete US LBM Coaches Poll below:
Rank
Team
Record
Points
1
Oregon Ducks
8-0
1,349 (53)
2
Georgia Bulldogs
6-1
1,270 (1)
3
Penn State Nittany Lions
7-0
1,239
4
Ohio State Buckeyes
6-1
1,160
5
Miami Hurricanes
7-1
1,136
6
Texas Longhorns
7-1
1,096
7
Tennessee Volunteers
6-1
987
8
Clemson Tigers
6-1
942
9
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
7-1
853
10
Iowa State Cyclones
7-0
846
11
Texas A&M Aggies
7-1
806
12
BYU Cougars
8-0
786
13
Indiana Hoosiers
8-0
741
14
Alabama Crimson Tide
6-2
619
15
Kansas State Wildcats
7-1
533
16
LSU Tigers
6-2
530
17
Pittsburgh Panthers
7-0
495
18
Ole Miss Rebels
6-2
475
19
Boise State Broncos
6-1
459
20
SMU Mustangs
7-1
346
21
Army Black Knights
7-0
278
22
Washington State Cougars
7-1
160
23
Missouri Tigers
6-2
114
24
Illinois Fighting Illini
6-2
89
25
Memphis Tigers
7-1
76
Dropped Out
No. 24 Navy; No. 25 Vanderbilt
Receiving Votes
Colorado 75; Tulane 27; Louisiana 14; Vanderbilt 13; Navy 10; UNLV 7; Arizona State 5; Virginia Tech 3; Duke 3; Arkansas 3; Louisville 2; James Madison 2; Michigan 1
