How big was it?
Ask yourself this instead: when was the last time Duke won a game as big as Saturday’s win over Notre Dame?
You could obviously argue last year’s Pinstripe Bowl. That was pretty big.
Before that? The Spurrier-era pasting at Chapel Hill? Where Duke won 41-0 - and posed under the UNC scoreboard? After that, UNC started turning off the scoreboard after the game.
Pretty satisfying, a legendary rivalry win, but basically that’s it.
You’d probably have to go back to the 1970 upset of Stanford at Stanford, where Duke beat the #10 Indians (Stanford adopted the Cardinal nickname the following year following protests) 9-3 to find a game that was as big for Duke football as this one is.
There is one game that’s sort of that big but in a different sense: it was when Duke had the audacity to invite mighty Alabama into Wallace Wade a few years ago and take the inevitable whipping.
That game, however, introduced Duke to big-time college football - reintroduced really, because Duke used to be a powerhouse football program back in the day - and showed Cutcliffe’s team what it meant to be great.
That game had a major impact on Duke’s gutty performance against Florida State in the 2013 ACC and the brilliant effort against Texas A&M in the 2013 Chick-Fil-A Bowl, not to mention last year’s Pinstripe triumph.
After the game, David Cutcliffe told NBC that "[t]his is a new era for Duke football. This is a huge opportunity for us moving forward now."
You think?
Duke got a lot out of this game, not least of all a brilliant performance by Daniel Jones, who seems to be growing game by game.
Jones was 24/32 and finished with 290 yards and three touchdowns.
Just as importantly, Duke’s defense woke up. Although Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer had 381 passing yards, the Blue Devils limited the Irish to 153 rushing yards.
More importantly than stats, Duke pushed the Irish around at times, and especially at the end.
The Blue Devils showed immense heart, passion and commitment. These are the hallmarks of David Cutcliffe’s program.
Pulling off a win at Notre Dame for a school like Duke, particularly with some early adversity, is really brilliant and should at the least instill confidence in a young group.
We started by looking back at Duke games to find a win as big as this one. It’s really not the same thing but we couldn’t help but think about Appalachian State’s legendary win at Michigan’s Big House.
Duke is a Power Five team of course, even though it’s been one of the absolute worst until fairly recently. ASU came out of the Southern Conference at the time and, to borrow from Muhammad Ali, shook up the world.
We walked into a relative’s house in time to see the last :30 seconds of that classic.
It was a much bigger win than Duke’s to be sure, but it has some similarities, starting with hardly anyone expecting that they could do it.
Well, Duke did it too. This is not a vintage Notre Dame team, but like winning at the Big House, winning at Notre Dame means a lot.
Duke has Virginia and Army coming up next and both games are at home and winnable.
After that?
It’s not an easy road. Duke will visit Louisville and Georgia Tech, and the Cardinals are on an absolute tear and Georgia Tech looks to be over last year’s swoon.
Then it’s Virginia Tech and UNC at home, then back on the road to take on Pitt and Miami.
Duke’s not going to win all of them, but if they keep playing like they did at Notre Dame, they’ll win their share.
Of course it’s not all good news. Duke may have lost DeVon Edwards for the season. That on top of the Thomas Sirk injury means Duke is playing without its two best seniors and leaders. But in both cases, Duke is showing a lot of heart.