It’s safe to say expectations are higher for the Duke Blue Devils football team than they were three years ago.
The Blue Devils have won at least eight games in each of the last three seasons, the first time Duke has pulled off that feat since 2013-15, in a span that included multiple head coaches, multiple starting quarterbacks, and the program’s third first-round NFL draft pick of the century.
Manny Diaz won nine games in his first season as the program’s head coach in 2024, and he upped the stakes with the addition of Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah through the transfer portal back in December. The Blue Devils lost wide receivers Jordan Moore and Eli Pancol, who combined for 1,659 yards and 17 touchdowns, but head coach Manny Diaz supplemented that room with Andrel Anthony from the Oklahoma Sooners and Harvard’s Cooper Barkate with Sam Houston State defensive back Caleb Weaver ready to supplement the back seven.
Here’s an early prediction for all 12 games on the 2025 Duke football schedule.
Week 1 – vs Elon Phoenix
This year’s Blue Devils team will have much less experience together than the 2024 squad. Mensah, Anthony, Barkate, and the entire offense will certainly discover some growing pains when the plays start counting, but Duke opened last season with a comfortable victory over the Pheonix at home, and it will start this season the same way.
Prediction: Win
Record: 1-0
Duke beat its lone Big Ten opponent in 2024, but the Illini will offer a different challenge. Illinois won 10 games last season thanks to 2,717 passing yards and 22 touchdowns from quarterback Luke Altmyer, who will return for his fifth and final collegiate season, and the Illini enter 2025 with College Football Playoff potential. The Blue Devils suffer an early loss.
Prediction: Loss
Record: 1-1
The Green Wave won nine times and went to the American Athletic Conference Championship Game in their first season under head coach Jon Sumrall, but Mensah contributed 2,855 yards of offense and 23 total touchdowns to that team. He’ll play for the Blue Devils in 2025, and Tulane lost its three games against Power 4 teams by 47 combined points. Duke’s new quarterback gets revenge against his former school.
Prediction: Win
Record: 2-1
Week 4 – vs NC State Wolfpack
Duke’s first conference showdown of the year comes against a Wolfpack team that won 40 games over the last five seasons, but NC State entered the 2024 campaign with high expectations and failed to finish with a winning record. Even with promising freshman quarterback CJ Bailey going into year two, the Blue Devils will notch a fifth victory in their last six games against NC State.
Prediction: Win
Record: 3-1
Week 5 – at Syracuse Orange
Diaz somehow didn’t finish with the best record of the ACC’s new head coaches in 2024 as former Georgia Bulldogs assistant Fran Brown led the Orange to 10 wins and a Holiday Bowl victory. But Syracuse lost its starting quarterback, its leading rusher, and its three leading receivers to either the NFL or the transfer portal. That’s just too much talent to reliably replace.
Prediction: Win
Record: 4-1
Week 6 – at California Golden Bears
The Golden Bears lost four consecutive contests by five points or less in 2024 and still found a way to win six games, but in another transfer portal decimation, California’s starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza (Indiana Hoosiers) and star running Jaydn Ott (Oklahoma Sooners) both left the program. It’s hard to see the Golden Bears getting better at either position.
Prediction: Win
Record: 5-1
The Yellow Jackets used a physical brand of football to pull off some of college football’s most impressive upsets in 2024, beating the Florida State Seminoles to open the year and ending Miami’s undefeated season in November. If quarterback Haynes King stays healthy, he and the Yellow Jackets will halt Duke’s momentum.
Prediction: Loss
Record: 5-2
The Clemson Tigers aren’t just among the heaviest ACC favorites for 2025, they’re among the heaviest national championship favorites after quarterback Cade Klubnik threw for 3,497 yards and 36 touchdowns against just five interceptions over his last 13 games. The Blue Devils handed Dabo Swinney’s program a stunning loss in Durham just two years ago, but this trip to Death Valley will be much less pleasant.
Prediction: Loss
Record: 5-3
Week 11 – at Connecticut Huskies
The Huskies gave the Blue Devils a surprising fight in 2024, scoring three unanswered touchdowns to lead 21-17 at the start of the fourth quarter, but that was Duke’s third game with a new head coach and a new quarterback. Diaz and his coordinators will have more than 20 games under their belts by this point, and Mensah will have found his battle rhythm in the offense.
Prediction: Win
Record: 6-3
Week 12 – vs Virginia Cavaliers
The Cavaliers made a late push for bowl eligibility with a shocking upset of the ranked Pittsburgh Panthers last November, but Virginia still failed to reach the six-win threshold after dropping five of its last six games by at least 17 points. With the home crowd of Durham behind them, the Blue Devils snag a seventh win.
Prediction: Win
Record: 7-3
Week 13 – at North Carolina Tar Heels
The North Carolina Tar Heels will be one of the most discussed and least predictable programs in the sport during the preseason as fans await six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick’s first year as a college football coach, but by this point in the schedule, it’ll be clear whether year one is a success or a disappointment. Belichick is too good of a football mind to not figure out the sport in time, but dozens of programs have tried to reshape themselves through the transfer portal in a single offseason with few success stories. Duke shocks the world in Chapel Hill.
Prediction: Win
Record: 8-3
The Demon Deacons feel like a program with all questions and no answers. Wake Forest won just four games in each of the last two seasons, a slide that coincided with longtime quarterback Sam Hartman’s decision to transfer to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 2023, and head coach Dave Clawson stepped down in December after more than a decade with the program. It’s hard to find tangible reasons for preseason optimism in Winston-Salem
Prediction: Win
Record: 9-3
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