Team Capsule: Duke

Team: Duke

Location: Durham, NC

Total Enrollment: 14,832

Conference: ACC

Home Stadium: Wallace Wade Stadium (40,004)

Head Coach: David Cutcliffe (10th season, 52-61, 25-47 in ACC)

2016 Record: 4-8 (1-7 in ACC)

PPG: 23.3 (109th)

PAPG: 28.2 (66th)

Best Win: Despite going 4-8 on the year, Duke actually had two pretty good wins out of those four, defeating Notre Dame and North Carolina. The best win has to be the 38-35 win in South Bend over Notre Dame in September though.

Worst Loss: A 34-20 home loss to a really bad Virginia team after defeating Notre Dame on the road put a huge damper on the season. Coming into that game Duke was 2-2, and had a great chance to beat UVA and Army to get to 4-2.

Vegas Over/Under: 5.5 (Under -150)

Duke is effectively the same team this year as they have been the past 2-3 years (unless you believe some crazy media types who think QB Daniel Jones is a long-shot Heisman candidate), but the schedule is a bit tougher than it has been.

A 5.5 O/U puts the Blue Devils in the same position that Wake Forest is in, meaning there is not a lot of room for slip-ups if it wants to get back to a bowl game.

The passing game should be very good for Duke this year with Jones and a lot of experienced wide receivers, but the defensive side of the ball has some question marks in the secondary.

Duke would like to win at least 3 out of its first 4 games with NC Central, Northwestern, Baylor, and @ North Carolina on the the schedule. The middle part of the schedule has some tough tests, but also brings a toss-up road game at Virginia that could be a “make or break” game.

The schedule closes out with a game in West Point at Army, a home game against Georgia Tech, and a road game in Winston vs. Wake Forest.

The most likely path to 6 wins is: NC Central, Northwestern, Baylor, @Virginia, @Army, and then one of Pittsburgh/Tech/@Wake.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Blue Devils get to 6 and back to its 4th bowl game in 5 years.