Notre Dame Preparing For Trip To No. 17 Duke

Notre Dame knows it will face another stiff test after its 17-14 loss to Ohio State when the Fighting Irish travel to No. 17 Duke this weekend. The Blue Devils caught the college football world’s attention right away when they knocked off then No. 9 Clemson 28-7 in their season opener on Labor Day.

Duke (4-0) has gone on to win its next three games over Lafayette, Northwestern and UConn by a combined 121-28 tally. They currently rank No. 4 in the nation, behind Michigan, Ohio State and Oklahoma, in scoring defense while allowing just 8.75 points per game.

It’s one of many areas former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Mike Elko’s Blue Devil defense excels in. Elko sports a 13-4 record at Duke after taking over last year.

"He’s always done a good job,” Irish head coach Marcus Freeman said of Elko this week. "I was at Kent State when he was at Bowling Green and his defenses did a great job. I followed him at Wake Forest, followed him when he was here. His defenses have always been well coached. The thing that you respect is how hard they play. They’re aggressive. They play extremely hard and they’re sound. They’re not exotic. They don’t do crazy things on defense but they play fast and they play hard and they tackle well. So, I have a lot of respect for him as a football coach and the defenses he’s been a part of. So, it will be a great challenge for our offense on Saturday.”

Among Duke’s notable national defensive rankings: No. 2 red zone defense, No. 9 turnover margin, No. 16 total defense, No. 20 turnovers forced. They are also a solid, but not spectacular, No. 47 in pass efficiency defense, while ranking lower in run defense (No. 68) and No. 75 with 8.0 total sacks.

The Duke offense revolves around quarterback Riley Leonard. The dual threat junior has passed for 778 yards and just two touchdowns while completing 67% of his passes. He is also their second-leading rusher with 238 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

"He is a talented individual that really...obviously all offenses to through the quarterback, but the things he presents in the run game, the challenges he’s going to present,” Freeman said of Leonard. "He’s a big, physical, tough runner, too that you know what, he’s accurate in the pass game for what they need him to do. So, it’s a huge challenge for our team. Biggest one yet.”

The 6-4, 212-pound Leonard averages 8.2 yards per carry and has only been sacked once due in large part to his mobility. Duke running back Jordan Rogers leads the team with 258 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.

While Leonard’s 67% completion percentage is good, Duke’s 11.9 yards per completion ranks No. 74 (in comparison, Notre Dame’s 15.0 ranks No. 16).

This week’s game will see ESPN’s College Game Day on location for the second straight week for a Notre Dame game. It will be the first time ever that the venerable show has visited Duke. Freeman has never been to Duke but plans to have his team prepared for its second trip to North Carolina in three weeks.

"We’ve played in hostile environments so we have to make sure we have a good plan for the crowd noise and what it will be about,” Freeman said. "But this thing’s going to be about us. We have to continue to remind ourselves that. We game plan for an opponent but Notre Dame has to execute at the level that we need Notre Dame to and that’s our focus and that’s my focus and that’s got to be what our team is focused on.”

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