“They’re aware of it,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said of his team. “I’ve talked to some of our captains and seniors about that very thing. You’re not going to fool kids. It’s on their mind.”
Cutcliffe added that his players realize they have to focus on the game at hand – a matchup with 3-1 rival Wake Forest. “For our team, it should be an easy task to focus only on what’s there in front of you, and I hope we do that well,” he said. “We’re going to need to do that as a team. For us to win, period, each week, it takes us playing well in all three phases. That’s what our team has to focus on.”
Wake Forest and Duke have met 92 times in football with the Blue Devils holding a decided 53-37-2 advantage. However, of those 92 meetings, only seven have occurred in September. With the 3-1 Deacons hosting the 3-1 Blue Devils, this marks the most combined wins ever by the two programs for a September meeting. The previous high
had been three wins back in 2010 when 1-0 Duke met 2-0 Wake Forest at BB&T Field.
As a subplot to the game, Duke senior wide receiver Conner Vernon is on the cusp of etching his name atop the ACC’s career list for pass receptions … with 227 career catches, the Miami, Fla., native sits just six grabs shy of breaking the league’s all-time mark of 232 held by former Clemson standout Aaron Kelly … Vernon, who has caught at least one pass in 39 straight games – six weeks shy of the ACC standard set by former North Carolina star Corey Holliday, is also 443 receiving yards back of eclipsing former Florida State standout Peter Warrick’s conference record of 3,517 receiving yardage.