Duke Football Bowl Projections - Week 1
We are only a week away from the start of the Duke Football season when they will play Clemson on Labor Day night at Wallace Wade Stadium. Duke has a brutal schedule that includes playing teams such as Clemson, Notre Dame and NC State at home while traveling to play Florida State and North Carolina on the road.
With this blog last season, I gave out my bowl projection on November 25th a day before Duke finished the season winning against Wake Forest at home. I predicted Duke to play UCF in the Military Bowl. Turns out, I landed my prediction correctly on my first attempt. Duke finished the season beating UCF in the Military Bowl at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland by a score of 30-13 to finish the season 9-4 in the first year of the Elko era.
This season I decided to have more fun with the bowl projections. The last few weeks of last season I enjoyed talking with Brian Kennedy @tbkennedy22 on Twitter (aka the next Brett McMurphy) of Duke Football Talk about bowl projections. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Section 17 podcast wherever you get your podcasts to get the latest information on Duke Football. Also check them out on Twitter @DukeFBTalk. After talking with Brian this summer, we are going to give out a bowl projection each week during the season with our first projection being given before Duke Football plays a game. Our bowl projections may come with a short response as well as to why we are projecting that bowl.
With all of that said here is our Week 1 bowl projections for Duke Football. We hope to see many of you out Labor Day as Duke opens the season with Clemson.
Brian Kennedy of Duke Football Talk - Section 17 Podcast.
We are a week away from one of the most anticipated season openers in Duke Football history. I don’t think there has ever been this much buzz around a Duke team heading into the season. Needless to say, this season is going to have a “battle in the trenches” feel as Duke will take on power house teams such as Clemson, FSU and Notre Dame. And you can’t forget about in state foes NC State and Chapel Hill College.
Even with all these amazing teams on the schedule, Mike Elko and his staff will have this veteran team prepared for every game on the schedule. With everything I am seeing with this team, I am going to put Duke heading back to New York City and the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. If a victory over Clemson were to happen week 1, next week's prediction will certainly change. GO DUKE!
Freddie Hodges of Duke Report
As I stated at the start of this article, Duke has a brutal schedule that includes playing teams such as Clemson, Notre Dame and NC State at home while traveling to play Florida State and North Carolina on the road. Duke also has many players returning on both offense and defense for the second year of the Elko era. For my first projection I am going to go with my heart over my mind to start the season and predict Duke to play in the Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina. In my opinion a lot of let's just say dominoes will have to fall for Duke to land in this bowl. My season record prediction for Duke Football at 9 wins and 3 losses may or may not line up with this bowl when I look at where I think other ACC teams will land in bowls... However, a win or even a loss over Clemson could change my bowl prediction for after Week 1. Bring on Labor Day and Go Duke!
