Duke football tops Tulane on Sheppard’s big night. Observations from the opener

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It took longer than expected for Duke to get started Saturday in their football opener against Tulane.

Severe weather in the area held up the opening kickoff for 90 minutes. The Blue Devils and Green Wave could only huddle in their locker rooms and wait, both teams anxious to get on the field and get the 2026 season started at Wallace Wade Stadium.

“We were trying to stay calm and stay relaxed, but we were definitely ready to get out there,” sophomore running back Nate Sheppard said.

On the strength of a big day from Sheppard, the Blue Devils rumbled to a 17-3 victory for Duke’s fifth consecutive win in a season-openers. Sheppard’s bruising runs and a stingy defense was the difference in the matchup of the 2025 ACC and American Conference champions.

Sheppard ran past and through defenders, finishing with 227 yards on 35 carries and scoring twice. His 14-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown run was the clincher after the Green Wave had changed quarterbacks — turning to junior Kadin Semonza — and had shown a little more offensive punch.

“That’s an identity win,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “It’s an identity win in how we played to our strengths. We knew who we were. We were able to impose our will on a football team. Whipped them on both lines of scrimmage, which I think was massive.

“But there’s another piece to it, too. It’s the identity of Duke football. In college football, your tactics can change year to year, but your identity of really your core, of who you are, doesn’t. The tactics might change but the ‘how’ doesn’t change, and tonight was a testament to that.”

And Sheppard’s running?

“Just pounding the rock,” Diaz said.

The Green Wave, 11-3 last season, beat the Blue Devils, 34-27, in New Orleans a year ago. That spoiled the return of quarterback Darian Mensah, who had transferred to Duke from Tulane after the 2024 season.

It was a new cast this season with Mensah leaving for Miami and Walker Eget taking over as Duke’s starting quarterback. Eget, a graduate transfer from San Jose State, had a mostly workmanlike night — 13-of-26 passing for 131 yards — but made good decisions with the ball and did not have a turnover.

The Blue Devils went 75 yards on the first possession of the season for a 7-0 lead, using up nearly 10 minutes, before Sheppard crashed his way to a 9-yard scoring run.

The rest of the game would be mostly an offensive slog. Duke’s Cosme Salas kicked a 22-yard field goal on the last play of the first half for a 10-0 lead. Tulane got a 37-yarder from Jackson Courville early in the fourth quarter to make it a 10-3 game.

Redshirt freshman Dan Mahan, who did not play a snap last season, made his Duke debut at quarterback in the fourth quarter for a running play that came up just short of a first down. Eget was back in on the next play, but Mahan later returned to the game and was tackled and flipped on another running play.

The Green Wave burned the Devils with quarterback keepers a year ago — Jake Retzlaff with four running TDs — but Semonza and Tulane starter Zeon Chriss-Gremillion did not pose a threat against the Duke defense. Tulane closed with 258 yards in total offense and was 3-14 on third-down conversions.

“I think we played very selfless on defense. Guys were happy for each other,” linebacker Nick Morris, Jr. said.

Observations from the game:

Teams that win the opening coin toss routinely defer their decision and elect to take the ball to start the second half.

Not Duke on Saturday. After sitting out the pregame delay, the Blue Devils won the toss, took the ball and promptly scored with it, going 75 yards in 17 plays and 9:53.

“The first drive was massive. We took game control,” Diaz said. “After a 90-minute delay, you never know who you’re going to respond. We knew we wanted to take the ball.”

Offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer couldn’t have scripted it much better. Other than the first play, that is.

Eget threw a quick pass to Sheppard in the left flat that Sheppard couldn’t handle. He did manage to pick up the ball before being tackled, which was fortuitous in that it was ruled a backward pass and a live ball. It was a 9-yard loss but Duke maintained possession.

Sheppard took it from there with 11 carries for 51 yards as the Blue Devils pounded the ball down the field. Duke converted on all five third-down plays in the drive that Sheppard ended with his 9-yard TD run.

Duke’s opening drive and first-half play was a preview of its offensive approach for this season – a lot of Sheppard with the ball, a lot of running downs.

Sheppard, who ran for more than 1,100 yards as a freshman last season, is a blend of speed and power. On one play in the first half, burst off tackle for a 47-yard run, showing off that speed. Later he took a short pass and barreled into three or four defenders, smashing his way to a 13-yard gain that set up Salas’ short field goal to end the half for a 10-0 Duke lead.

Duke showed multiple formations, trying to keep the Green Wave guessing on defense. Mostly it ran. Sheppard had 139 of his yards rushing in the opening half.

Sheppard said he had not had 35 carries in a game since he was a junior in high school in Mandeville, Louisiana. He wasn’t complaining.

Luke Mergott with the strip, Nick Morris Jr. with the fumble recovery.

That was a third-down play for the Blue Devils that likely never would have happened a year ago. It was a season-ending injury to Morris that put Mergott on the field in his spot.

Duke had a lot of injuries at linebacker last season, and none more impactful than losing Morris in the N.C. State game. Duke missed his emotion, his experience and leadership.

But Morris is back this season and the depth at linebacker is impressive, allowing for a nice in-game rotation Saturday that Morris, Mergott, Kendall Johnson, Bradley Gompers and Elliott Schaper get on the field.

After the Green Wave changed quarterbacks to start the second half, Semonza hooked up with Destyn Hill on a big-gainer over the middle. But Mergott’s pursuit resulted in a strip of the ball from behind and Morris fell on the fumble at the Duke 17.

“We really faced two different offenses from the first half to the second half,” Diaz said. “To be able to adjust, and it was like totally flipping the script on the plays we were seeing, and do their jobs and not allow a touchdown, what a proud moment for all those guys.”

Opening games usually are filled with penalties and Duke and Tulane had their share as the Green Wave were hit for 15 penalties while the Blue Devils finished with eight.

False starts, holding, pass interference, illegal formation, chop block … Saturday’s game had a lot of different infractions and kept the penalty flags flying.

On one play in the third quarter, a Tulane pass play resulted in six flags being thrown by the eight game officials.

The officials, after collecting their flags, huddled and talked. And talked.

Finally, it was announced that after “further discussion” the Green Wave would be assessed a penalty for an illegal blindside block on the play.

Coaches have been known to hold their breath when watching their special teams in openers. One bad snap, a blocked kick, a long return … anything can happen and often does.

In Duke’s case, Salas missed on a 32-yard field goal. But that was the only real special teams gaffe by the Devils.

Salas converted a 22-yard field goal on the final play of the first half for the 10-0 lead. Punter Kade Reynoldson had a 62-yard kick on his first punt of the season. The coverage teams did their job well enough.

Duke sophomore Andrew Pellicciotta handled the punt returns in the opener and was somewhat fearless, returning four kicks while taking some big shots.

This story was originally published September 5, 2026 at 8:22 PM with the headline “Duke football tops Tulane on Sheppard’s big night. Observations from the opener.”