Next Up For Duke Football: Florida State

And a chance for an historic win in Wally Wade

Date 10/18 || Time 7:00 || Venue Wallace Wade Stadium || Video ESPN2

How things have changed: this time last year, Florida State was working on an undefeated regular season and it looked like the Big Time had returned to Tallahassee.

Now though FSU is a dreadful 1-5 and for the first time ever, Duke is favored. And that’s kind of surreal, because even when Florida State has been kind of average, they’ve still been plenty good. Not this year though. FSU has had a nightmare season to date.

So far, Duke is averaging 26 ppg and keeping opponents to 17.5. The ‘Noles have really struggled to move the ball and you kind of get the feeling that Manny Diaz, who played at FSU and coached there as an assistant before ultimately taking the Miami job later, understands the significance of Duke beating Florida State.

There could be a psychological barrier there. After Mike Krzyzewski got Duke to parity with UNC, it took a while for the Blue Devils to get over the mental hump of competing with UNC.

That could be an issue here.

So could Duke’s periodic struggles with converting third downs. They’ve managed to do it just 28.7 percent of the time.

Florida State has been starting freshman Brock Glenn since starter DJ Uiagalelei went out with a hand injury against SMU. This is just Glenn’s second start, so that’s going to be pretty unpredictable.

Duke is coming off a bye week - so is Florida State - and both teams have had time to work on issues.

For FSU, it’s about salvaging a season. For Duke, now 5-1, if they can beat the ‘Noles for the first time (Duke is 0-22 vs. Florida State), they’ll be bowl-eligible. And we’re not sure many people saw that possibility.

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