Duke football head coach Mike Elko (Jaylynn Nash-USA TODAY Sports)

Duke Football Earns Funny Mention on 'Saturday Night Live'

Duke football isn't a joke, at least not of the "they're laughing at you" variety anymore.

Author:
Matt Giles
Oct 15, 2023 6:20 AM EDT

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This 2023 Duke football team defeated a top-10 opponent (then-No. 9 Clemson) at home in Week 1. In Week 5, the Blue Devils hosted ESPN's College GameDay for the first time in program history, albeit in their lone loss, at the hands of then-No. 11 Notre Dame in the final minute of their Week 5 showdown.

Then, on Saturday night, No. 17 Duke improved to 5-1 (2-0 ACC), one victory away from securing bowl eligibility for the second time under second-year head coach Mike Elko following the program's three straight sub-.500 campaigns, by hushing the visiting unranked NC State Wolfpack, 24-3, in Wallace Wade Stadium.

In doing so, Elko's Blue Devils, increasingly dominant in games they're the favorite to win, ensured their third primetime ABC matchup: at No. 4 Florida State, 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

With all of that unprecedented primetime Duke football publicity in mind, it should be no surprise that the program's name popped up (at the 3:09 mark in the posted video below) during a Saturday Night Live segment — poking fun at Deion Sanders, the embodiment of "Primetime" — not long after the Blue Devils prevailed over NC State.

It happened in the following Colin Jost "Weekend Update" interview, with fellow SNL star Kenan Thompson impersonating Colorado football's "Coach Prime" as unshaken by his upstart Buffaloes' blown 29-point lead in a home loss to Stanford on Friday night (the third defeat in their past four outings following a surprising 3-0 start):

Kenan's "Coach Prime": "Colin, we unstoppable, man. We only lost three games. I can't even think of a team that's lost fewer than that."

Colin: "Well, there's Texas."

"Prime": "OK."

Colin: "Alabama."

"Prime": "Great program."

Colin: "Ole Miss."

"Prime": "Them too."

Colin: "Utah."

"Prime": "Yeah."

Colin: "Duke."

"Prime": "REALLY?"

Of course, as Colin Jost continued reeling off to Kenan Thompson's character, there are many more.

Sure, the quick jab at Duke football above is primarily funny at the expense of the well-documented past struggles compared to the school's worldwide fame and overwhelming success inside the basketball arena.

At the same time, though, it's yet another sign of national respect that Elko's bunch is earning by rapidly rewriting the football script in Durham.