Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Duke and Wake Forest to Clash in Winston-Salem

Duke (6-5, 3-4 ACC) travels to Winston-Salem, N.C., to close out the regular season against Wake Forest (3-8, 1-6 ACC) on Saturday, November 21. Kickoff at BB&T Field is set for 12:30 p.m. The ACC Network will broadcast the game with Tim Brant (play-byplay), Dave Archer (analyst) & Roddy Jones (sideline).

Saturday will mark the 96th meeting between the two schools, with Duke leading the series, 56-37-2. The series began in 1889 with a 32-0 Wake Forest win. The Blue Devils have won three straight in the series after Wake Forest had posted 12 consecutive victories from 2000-11. Duke won last year’s tilt, 41-21, in Durham.

The Blue Devils have won 12 of their last 15 road games dating back to the start of the 2013 season. Among ACC teams, Duke (12-3) has the top ledger in that time span, followed by Florida State (11-2), Clemson (10-4), Virginia Tech (10-5), Pittsburgh (10-6), North Carolina (7-7), N.C. State (7-8), Georgia Tech (7-9), Boston College (6- 8), Miami (6-9), Syracuse (4-11), Wake Forest (3-15) & Virginia (0-14).

Dating back to the 2013 season, the Blue Devils are 23-8 in their last 31 regular season games. The only schools with more wins during that stretch are Ohio State (29), Florida State (29), Alabama (28), Baylor (28), Michigan State (28), Clemson (26), Wisconsin (25), Oregon (25) & Oklahoma (24).

With a 10-point outing last week at Virginia, K Ross Martin became the third player in ACC history to reach 400 career points, joining Florida State’s Dustin Hopkins (466) and Clemson’s Chandler Catanzaro (404). Martin has 407 career points to his credit on 73 field goals and 188 PATs, and enters the week with 97 points on the year and just three shy of posting the third 100-point campaign of his career (106 in 2012 & 107 in 2014).

WR T.J. Rahming enjoyed last week’s trip to Charlottesville, Va., by establishing Duke freshman singlegame records for pass receptions (12) and receiving yards (190). Nine of the 12 receptions covered 10+ yards with eight producing first downs and two covering 40+ yards.

Over their last 21 ACC regular season games, the Blue Devils are 14-7. Only Florida State (18-2), Clemson (17-3) and North Carolina (15-6) have better ledgers.

Safety DeVon Edwards was named ACC Specialist of the Week after returning a kickoff 94 yards for a TD at Virginia.

Five Blue Devils were honored with CoSIDA Academic All-District accolades, marking the highest total in the nation. The Duke contingent also made up 45.5 percent (5-of-11) of the ACC’s honorees. S DeVon Edwards earned the honor for the second straight year and was joined on this year’s team by OT Gabe Brandner, K Ross Martin, QB Thomas Sirk & DT A.J. Wolf.


Bob Harris, the Voice of the Blue Devils, is in his 40th season as the play-by-play announcer for the Blue Devil IMG Radio Network. Harris enters this week’s game in Charlottesville having called 457 consecutive Duke football games dating back to the 1976 season-opening 21-18 win at Tennessee.