College Football

Duke football schedule 2013: Dates, toughest opponents and more

David Cutcliffe led Duke last year to its first bowl appearance since 1995, and now he’ll try to do what has never been done before in Durham.

by Steven Muma

Aug 28, 2013, 12:30 PM UTC

Mark Dolejs-US PRESSWIRE

Duke finished last season 6-7 overall, which in general terms isn’t much of an accomplishment. To put that in perspective, though, the man who preceded head coach David Cutcliffe won a total of six games in 4+ seasons at Duke. Simply getting Duke to bowl eligibility is difficult enough in the modern era, and were the Blue Devils to reach the postseason again this year, it would be the first time in school history that they’d earned back-to-back bowl trips.

2013 Duke schedule


Date	Opponent	Conf.	Projected ranking
8/31/2013	N.C. Central	FCS
9/7/2013	at Memphis	AAC	116
9/14/2013	Georgia Tech	ACC	32
9/21/2013	Pittsburgh	ACC	34
9/28/2013	Troy	SBC	95
10/5/2013	Open date
10/12/2013	Navy	Indep.	88
10/19/2013	at Virginia	ACC	71
10/26/2013	at Virginia Tech	ACC	24
11/2/2013	Open date
11/9/2013	N.C. State	ACC	61
11/16/2013	Miami	ACC	25
11/23/2013	at Wake Forest	ACC	80
11/30/2013	at North Carolina	ACC	29
12/7/2013	ACC Championship (Charlotte)
Date	Opponent	Conf.	Projected ranking

Projections from Football Outsiders’ 2013 college football almanac.

The Blue Devils start light with non-conference games against N.C. Central and Memphis before heading into conference play. Five of Duke’s first six games will be played at home, giving the Blue Devils an opportunity to build early on what they accomplished a year ago.

Georgia Tech will provide the first significant challenge of the season for a Duke defense that needs to improve considerably for the program to take another step forward. The Blue Devils gave up 52 to the Jackets in 2012, and allowed at least 42 points in each of their final five games. They lost four of those contests by multiple scores, making clear that they still have plenty of work ahead of them.

The Blue Devils also face road trips to Virginia Tech and North Carolina, though they avoided the Atlantic Division heavyweights this time around, instead drawing Wake Forest and N.C. State. That’s a fortunate exchange for Duke, which did have to play both FSU and Clemson last year, but the true gauge of progress will be its intra-division contests.

Duke might need to steal a couple of road games in ACC play to reach bowl eligibility, and with trips to Wake Forest and Virginia on the slate, that’s doable. Another postseason trip would be historic, and perhaps more importantly, a sign of newfound stability within the program.