First look at 1-2 Duke going into Week 4 matchup

Duke has lost back-to-back games against Illinois and Tulane in falling to 1-2 this season.

Duke hosts NC State at 4 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2, and the Blue Devils lone win of the season was against Elon in the season opener. NC State improved to 3-0 with a 34-24 comeback win at Wake Forest.

Duke topped NC State 29-19 last year with quarterback Maalik Murphy throwing for 245 yards and two touchdowns and one touchdown. Duke coach Manny Diaz parted ways with Murphy, who is now with Oregon State, and landed redshirt sophomore Darian Mensah of Tulane.

Mensah’s impact

Mensah played at his old school Tulane on Saturday in New Orleans, though it sounds the Green Wave didn’t return too many players who had played with him. Tulane won 34-27 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated, but to Duke’s credit, it played to the final minute and needed a recovered onside kick and touchdown to potentially tie the game.

The onside kick went all the way out of bounds, and that comeback dream ended. Mensah’s final numbers were good in going 30-of-51 for 313 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. 

Mensah gets a lot down on roll out passes, or when he scrambles to buy time. He isn’t interested in running with the ball if he can make the throw instead. He had 60 rushes last for Tulane, and 12 in three contests this season.

Mensah played well, but something felt lacking. Or perhaps it was the glaring aspect that his replacement at Tulane proved to be better — BYU transfer Jake Retzlaff.

Will NC State incorporate quarterback runs?

Retzaff has a complicated situation where he wasn’t arrested, but went through a civil lawsuit at BYU. He was accused of rape and strangulation, but the suit was dropped. He did admit to consensual sex and that led to a seven-game suspension for violating BYU’s honor code. Retzlaff transferred to Tulane late this summer.

Retzlaff threw for 245 yards and rushed for 111 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries. He showed why he’s one of the top quarterbacks in college football and that leading to BYU to a 11-2 mark last year wasn’t a fluke.

Retzlaff was the master of running the read option and making the defensive ends or outside linebacker make some choices. NC State sophomore quarterback C.J. Bailey is a capable runner and has rushed 21 times for 84 yards and three touchdowns, but at 6-6, he’s a different kind of running quarterback.

Bailey got the bulk of his rushing yards with six carries for 44 yards and two scores in the 35-31 comeback win over Virginia. He had nine carries for 83 yards and three touchdowns last year in the 30-29 win at Georgia Tech on Nov. 21, 2024.

Bookend defensive ends

Former Durham (N.C.) Jordan High defensive end Vincent Anthony is now a 6-5, 250-pound senior, and one of the better players in the ACC.

Junior defensive end Wesley Williams, who is 6-3 and 265 pounds, should be on NFL scouts radars. The duo anchor the defense, but the Blue Devils defense struggled and fell behind 24-3 with 1:54 left in the second quarter.

Anthony has 12 tackles, five sacks and one forced fumble this season. Three of the sacks came against Illinois. He had one tackle in last year’s game against NC State. He’s one of the few players on the Duke roster that NC State also offered.

Williams has eight tackles this season, but has yet to get a sack. He had 48 tackles and eight sacks last year for Duke, including five tackles and one sack against the Wolfpack.

Rangy sophomore safety DaShawn Stone leads Duke in tackles with 20, and he’s from Asheville (N.C.) Reynolds High. Senior safety Caleb Weaver is second on the team with 19 tackles.

Variety of offensive weapons

Sophomore wide receiver Que’Sean Brown might be small, which affected his recruitment, but the listed 5-8, 165-pounder has become a key target for Mensah. The former Kernersville (N.C.) East Forsyth High standout has 13 receptions for 191 yards.

Former Harvard senior star Cooper Barkate has 14 catches for 272 yards, including five grabs for 117 yards against Elon.

Freshman running back Nate Sheppard provided a spark with five carries for 75 yards against Tulane, plus four catches for 21 yards and a score. Duke rotated four running backs with steady senior veteran Jarquez Moore, bruising Appalachian State sixth-year transfer Anderson Castle and junior Peyton Jones. Moore had split carries with Jordan Waters in 2022 and 2023, but got hurt last year.

Senior kicker Todd Pelino is 5 of 8 this season with a long of 47, and he’s 46 of 60 with a long of 53 in his career. However, special teams were a roller coaster Saturday. 

Duke suffered a self-inflicted wound with a penalty that pushed Pelino’s field goal attempt backward, and he missed the 44-yarder in the first quarter. Then Duke botched a hold on a 51-yard field-goal. attempt in the second quarter. The hat trick of field goal issues is that Pelino had his 41-yard field goal blocked in the third quarter. Pelino finished 2 of 4 on field goals.

The fourth special teams mistake was star cornerback Chandler Rivers was called for a 15-yard roughing the punter penalty that gave Tulane a first down.