Duke Football Top Moments of the Decade: No's 10 and 9
Duke football had one of the biggest turnarounds in college football this past decade, going from a team that was arguably the worst in Power Five, if not Division I, to a perennial contender for bowl games.
Obviously, that trip to respectability had several important milestones, and we decided to track them with our top 10 football moments of the 2010s.
Today, we start the list with a win over a rival and a victory over a top 25 foe that helped shift the program revival into high gear.
10. Duke picks off Surratt:
The 2017 Blue Devils opened the season with wins over NC Central, Northwestern and Baylor. That brought on a trip to Chapel Hill in the earliest game (date wise) in Duke-UNC series history. Duke had regained the Victory Bell the previous season and was hoping to return from UNC still in possession of the trophy. Duke also sought its fourth win of the year after a disappointing 4-8 mark the season before.
UNC scored on a 45-yard touchdown pass nine seconds before halftime, then UNC quarterback Chazz Surratt ran 56 yards for a score in the third quarter to put the Heels up, heading to the fourth.
Duke took the lead with a one-yard touchdown run by Shaun Wilson with 6:09 left, capping a 74-yard drive.
Surratt was driving UNC for a potential game-winning score when cornerback Bryon Fields picked off his pass and returned it 61 yards to clinch the win, 27-17.
9. Duke drops ranked Hokies:
The Blue Devils returned to a bowl game for the first time in nearly 20 years in 2012, but there were still plenty more streaks of futility that needed to be snapped. The Blue Devils took care of one of them at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg on Oct. 26, 2013.
Coming off a 22-point comeback win over Virginia (that just missed a spot on this list) the week before, Duke headed to a road game against No. 16 Virginia Tech.
The stats weren’t good. Duke was 0-for-11 on third down and were outgained by the Hokies by 189 yards. Virginia Tech held the ball for nearly 19 minutes longer than the Blue Devils. But Duke knocked off the Hokies, 13-10, winning their sixth game of the season to qualify for a second straight bowl.
It was Duke’s first win over Virginia Tech since 1981, the Blue Devils’ first over a ranked opponent since 1994 and the first road win over a ranked team since 1971.
