Duke football dominates Stanford. Observations from an ACC opening win
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Stanford traveled 2,800 miles to spend a long afternoon in Durham.
The Duke Blue Devils, opening ACC play, took charge early and never trailed, earning a 35-7 victory Saturday at Wallace Stadium while also setting some program history.
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Duke’s fifth consecutive win in its ACC opener was a first for the Blue Devils, the 2025 ACC champions. After wins over Tulane and Illinois, Duke’s off to a 3-0 start in 2026 with an offense built around dynamic running back Nate Sheppard and an aggressive defense that uses its depth well.
Sheppard, the nation’s leading rusher in FBS, again was the workhorse for the Blue Devils. The sophomore absorbed a few big hits and delivered a few, gaining 154 yards on 23 carries for two touchdowns and adding a third TD on a short pass from quarterback Walker Eget.
A week after a 31-27 comeback win on the road at Illinois, the Blue Devils returned for homecoming and handed Stanford its 12th straight road loss, the worst in its program history.
“We’ve struggled in two years with expectation,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “We’ve struggled with being the favorite. We’ve struggled with at times playing tense.
“We really challenged our guys this week in just being the best version of ourselves and just be us. We had a tremendous week of preparation, and the thing I’m most proud of is we just played. I sensed no tightness, no afraid to make a mistake (play).”
Eget wasn’t as sharp as he was against the Fighting Illini but tested the Cardinal long and short and used all of his receivers on a warm afternoon. The transfer from San Jose State set a career high against Stanford last year with a 473-yard passing day for SJSU, but finished with 202 yards on 14 of 22 passing Saturday.
Eget had his first turnover of the season – an interception in the first quarter. The Blue Devils opened the game by recovering an onside kick and quickly reached the Stanford 2 before Eget’s fourth-down throw was picked off by Stanford safety Darrius Davis.
That didn’t slow down the Blue Devils very long as they took a 14-0 lead, expanded its margin to 21-7 in the third quarter and kept adding to the lead in the second half.
The Blue Devils had a little fun along the way. Wide receiver Kavon Simmons scored on a reverse, running 16 yards around right end when he could have passed to an open Eget, who wisely stayed out of the way as Simmons cruised to the end zone.
Freshman running back Jayvian Tanelus had the sideline excited with a 5-yard run for his first touchdown in the fourth quarter as the Devils emptied the bench.
Duke’s defense did a good job of keeping quarterback Davis Warren from getting into a steady rhythm. The transfer from Michigan did guide the Cardinal (1-2, 0-2 ACC) to a touchdown in the final seconds of the first half, hitting wide receiver Caden High for a 5-yard score, but Stanford mustered little offensively in the second half as Duke dominated time of possession.
Diaz said the defensive play was a “second-half masterclass” that sucked the life out of Stanford’s offense.” That came, he said, after not tackling well in the first half.
Some observations from the game.:
Some people just don’t learn.
Before Duke’s opener against Tulane, Green Wave linebacker Dickson Agu said the key to beating the Devils was stopping Sheppard. Duke then won as Sheppard erupted for 227 yards rushing, then said Dickson’s comments were disrespectful to the others on Duke’s offense and was “bulletin board material.”
One would think that once would be enough. Not so. Stanford linebacker Brandon Nicholson this past week noted the Cardinal defense stuffed Miami’s Mark Fletcher – held to 40 yards on 13 carries. His comment on the Duke game: “Nobody’s going to run against our defense.”
Sheppard ran for 154 yards. Duke had 268 yards rushing, getting 5.7 a carry.
“I saw the quote on Wednesday and then the video, and the type of arrogance he had when he said it …” Sheppard said Saturday.
Duke’s special teams’ chicanery is enough to add an extra layer of game preparation for opposing teams.
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A year ago, the Blue Devils used a fake field-goal play to beat North Carolina – Todd Pelino with the mad dash around left end to set up the winning score. Punter Kade Reynoldson also pulled off a successful fake punt for a play as Diaz joked the Aussie kicker was tired of so much being made of Pelino’s play (and Reynoldson was the holder who set the Pelino play in motion).
A week ago, Duke used a fake punt to help shift the momentum in the game at Illinois, with Sheppard taking a direct snap and bolting 15 yards.
The Blue Devils won the opening coin toss Saturday and elected to defer and kick off. The Devils then pulled a shocker on Cosme Salas’ onside kick that was recovered at the Duke 47.
“The way we started the game with a surprise onside set the tone of how we were going to play, and I think we carried that through over 60 minutes,” Diaz said.
The Blue Devils opened up the playbook a little more and got wide receivers Jared Richardson and Jaivon Solomon some touches and more involved in the offense.
Richardson, a transfer from Penn, had a 17-yard grab in the first half that was his first reception of the season. A 16-yarder in the third quarter came in the Duke drive for a 21-7 lead.
Solomon also had a big catch in that possession: a 32-yard, over the shoulder grab of an Eget pass down the left sideline.
Eget, in his first season, has relied on tight end Jeremiah Hasley and wide receiver Jonah Burton for key throws under pressure and ha been in sync with those two. But seven Duke players had receptions Saturday as Hasley had a team-high five.
“I think we knew it was coming,” Diaz said. “We knew the receiver room could play. I think that room will have a lot of confidence after today and only get better, which will make us more dynamic on offense.”
The Eget-to-Hasley connection converted a fourth-and-3 play for 15 yards late in the third quarter. On second down at the Stanford 16, Simmons was looking to throw on an end-around play but kept running for the touchdown and 28-7 lead.
“You can see we’re beginning to click,” Hasley said.
Just when you think you’ve seen every conceivable penalty that can be called, there’s another one.
The Blue Devils ran a first-half play Saturday that quickly had a flag flying in the offensive backfield.
Duke had both Eget and backup quarterback Dan Mahan in the game for a trick play. Mahan wound up with the ball, running right before going out of bounds.
The penalty, as announced: the Blue Devils had two players wearing coach-to-player communication equipment – Egan and Mahan. Make it an illegal substitution penalty.
Not that it derailed the Blue Devils’ drive. Sheppard quickly broke off a 32-yard touchdown run for a 14-0 lead.
This story was originally published September 19, 2026 at 7:26 PM with the headline “Duke football dominates Stanford. Observations from an ACC opening win.”
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