DURHAM — For the second time this season, Duke had to turn to a freshman quarterback, making his first career start, in a game against an in-state ACC rival. Both times, the Blue Devils were coming off of losses, and both times, the kid came through, leading Duke to a critical win.
Three weeks after Henry Belin IV stepped in to defeat NC State, Grayson Loftis got the call as Duke hosted Wake Forest on Thursday night. Like Belin, his stat line didn’t jump off the page, but Loftis was able to lead the Blue Devils to a key win, 24-21, over the Demon Deacons.
After back-to-back losses to Florida State and Louisville, Duke fell behind against Wake on three different occasions, only to battle back and tie the score.
The Duke defense stepped up in the fourth quarter. Duke’s Tre Freeman forced a fumble that was recovered by Aeneas Peebles on the first snap of the quarter. The Blue Devils’ defense forced a three-and-out on the next possession and another punt on the possession following that.
With the score tied, Wake moved into Duke territory with just over four minutes remaining. Duke’s Ryan Smith stepped in front of a Mitch Griffis pass to give the ball back to Loftis and the offense.
Prior to two giveaways in the final quarter on Thursday, Wake’s offense had gone seven straight quarters without a turnover.
Loftis, the latest Duke freshman quarterback, directed a 10-play, 54-yard drive that moved to the Wake 9-yard line, and kicker Todd Pelino split the uprights for the game-winning touchdown at the buzzer.
“Hopefully this will put to bed the question of if we’ll respond,” Elko said of Duke’s multiple comebacks in the game. “Nobody should question their toughness again. I’m so proud of them. … Just grit — the only way we get that done is with grit — just kept fighting, finding ways to make plays. I’m just so proud of the fight of these guys, the grit they showed, that’s the biggest takeaway for me.”
Loftis, who had played 17 snaps this season and threw his first collegiate pass in relief of Riley Leonard last week at Louisville, prepared as the starter all week after Leonard suffered another leg injury. A sprained ankle put Leonard out of the NC State game, giving Belin the start. Belin, however, was also ruled out for each of the last two games with an injury of his own.
Loftis finished 7 of 19 for 86 yards with one touchdown pass — which tied the game at 21 in the fourth quarter — and one interception. He also rushed for 17 yards, including an 8-yard scramble on the game-winning drive.
With the win, Duke became bowl eligible for the second straight season at 6-3 and moved into a tie for fourth in the ACC at 3-2. It’s just the third time in school history that Duke has had a streak of consecutive bowl appearances. Elko took Duke to the Military Bowl last season. His predecessor, David Cutcliffe, took Duke to four straight bowls from 2012 to 2015 and to back-to-back games in 2017 and 2018.
Wake, meanwhile, fell to 4-5, 1-5 in the conference. It’s the latest in a season that the Deacs have been below .500 since the end of the 2020 season, and the first time Wake has been four games below .500 in conference play since 2015.
Coach Dave Clawson pointed out the crucial fourth quarter penalties that helped both Duke scoring drives. Aiden Hall was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct flag that moved Duke to the Wake Forest 29 on the game-tying touchdown drive, and on the final field goal drive, a pass interference call on DaShawn Jones allowed Duke to convert a third-and-13, and unnecessary roughness on Jones later in the drive moved Duke into field goal range.
“The most selfish penalty you can make is unnecessary roughness or an unsportsmanlike, and we had two of them in the fourth quarter,” Clawson said. “It’s just really disappointing. We talked about it last night. It’s a rivalry game in November. You want to play with emotion, but don’t want to play emotional. We just made two really, really stupid penalties in the fourth quarter. … We lacked the discipline necessary to win a close game.”
Duke plays at UNC next week, while the Deacs host NC State.
