Next up for football is Florida State, and while that always seemed like a long shot before and may still be now, it doesn't seem like as long a shot as it used to. For one, Florida State has slipped. There's really no question about this anymore. The Florida State that used to roll over the conference without a loss, that intimidated everyone before the game even started, is no more. The 'Noles are 1-3 in the conference and 4-3 overall, and by their standards, that's just about as bad as things could possibly get. A loss to Duke would stick a fork in Bobby Bowden's program, and could very well force him into retirement at the end of the season.And while Florida State has slipped, Duke is improving, albeit slowly. They're showing a lot more fire and heart than they have in years, and have shown that they can stay in a game and come back, too.
There is still a talent gap, though it is smaller, and special teams and mistakes are killing Duke. But still, they're there at the end.
Normally, most people would just write this one off, but this year, you might be making a mistake to do that.