As long as I can remember, most Duke fans only awknowledged one major sports team on campus. For years Duke football has been completely overshadowed by their storied basketball team. But that would all change this season as the Blue Devils, with a 10-2 record, finished the season with their first division title in school history and a ticket to the ACC Championship to take on the number one team in the nation.
But as we know, all magical seasons come to an end at some point and there’s no surprise that Duke’s would at the hand of Heisman front runner Jameis Winston and Florida State.
The enviroment at Bank of Ameica Stadium in Charlotte, NC was electric. Florida State fans, who despite being in Duke’s home state heavily outnumbered those in blue, were excited about their teams opportunity to book a ticket to their first National Championship game in the Jimbo Fisher era. Duke fans, who still seemed a little shell-shocked that their football team was in the game, were excited just to be there but didn’t seem to have any real expectation that the Blue Devils would pull off the ultimate upset.
Fans on both sides of the stadium were stirred up during the first quarter, as the Duke defensive looked impressive holding Winston and the potent Seminole offense scoreless. But that excitment was short-lived as FSU would finally wake up in the 2nd quarter scoring 17 and their defense continued to man-handle the Blue Devil offense rendering them scoreless for most of the game. At 9:52 in the third quarter, when Winston threw a touchdown pass to Kenny Shaw to make the score 24-0, all hope of an upset was lost and Duke fans, sobered by 40 degree weather, began to shuffle out of the stadium. By the end of the third quarter with the score 38-0 many FSU fans, who were passing out drunk before the game even started, decided to they’d seen enough as well.
To no surprise, Jameis Winston looked impressive throwing for 330 yards and 3 touchdowns, almost guaranteeing his spot on the podium as Heisman trophy winner.
There could only be one team that walked away an offical winner in last night’s game, but with what the Duke Football team has been able to do this season, I think two teams left Bank Of American stadium feeling victorious.