How about those Blue Devils? What a win it was for Duke last weekend, a 13-10 win at No. 14 Virginia Tech.
In scoring their first win in eight trips to Blacksburg, the Blue Devils broke a 42-year losing stream to ranked teams on the road. They became bowl-eligible for the second year in a row, a first for a program that played its inaugural game in 1888 – 14 years before the first college football bowl game was played. They also bounced the Hokies, a team they hadn’t beat since 1981, out of the poll.
They did it with defense, picking off Virginia Tech senior Logan Thomas four times, including one with less than five minutes remaining. Monday, junior linebacker Kelby Brown was named Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week after registering 14 tackles (four solo, one for loss) and a fourth-quarter interception.
They were outgained 387 to 198 and collected just 91 yards on the ground, were 0-for-11 on third downs and turned the ball over as many times (four) as the Hokies, but escaped.
This confounding team, which lost 58-55 to Pittsburgh earlier in the season and fell behind 22-0 to a 2-6 Virginia team before scoring the final 35 points, just made the ACC Coastal race a lot more complicated.
Heading into the season, Virginia Tech-Miami on Nov. 9 was thought to be the game to decide the division. Despite losses to Pitt and Georgia Tech, it looks like Duke will have its say in the race, with a tiebreaker against the Hokies and a home date with the Hurricanes Nov. 16.
Miami is the current Coastal leader, but losing to the Hokies could damage those hopes. Also potentially painful: a tough closing schedule, which includes five opponents with a combined record of 25-13. Miami is at No. 3 Florida State (7-0) on Saturday (8 p.m., ABC), then hosts Virginia Tech (6-2), visits Duke (6-2), hosts Virginia (2-6) and closes the regular season at Pitt (4-3).
Despite the loss to Duke, the Hokies can knock Miami down a peg with a win in two weeks, provided they handle Boston College on Saturday. After Miami, they close the season with a bye sandwiched between Maryland and a season-ending game at Virginia.
All eyes on Tallahassee: The college football world will be watching FSU-Miami on Saturday, the battle of in-state rivals who will meet as unbeatens for the first time since 2003 and just the eighth time in their histories. The last time the 'Canes and 'Noles, each 7-0, were perfect this late in the season was 1991. That year, they were a combined 18-0 before Miami won a 17-16 thriller in Tallahassee.
According to the ACC, this is the second time in league history a pair of team with 7-0 or better records face off (1997, when FSU and North Carolina were both 8-0). It’s also the second top-10 game for the ACC this year (Clemson-FSU) and the league’s first year with multiple top-10 games since 2004.
Another note: the ACC is the only conference in the land with three teams in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll (No. 3 FSU, No. 7 Miami and No. 8 Clemson) and the BCS standings (No. 3 FSU, No. 6 Miami and No. 9 Clemson).
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