Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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36 SEPT. 30, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: DUKE 'HUNGRY TO IMPROVE' ESPN has a Football Power Index (FPI) that is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season. Since Elko arrived ahead of the 2022 season, Duke's FPI is 7.2 points better than it was on average in the five seasons before his arrival. That represents a better tenure to ten- ure improvement than Chris Klieman at Kansas State and Lance Leipold at Kansas. Klieman led Kansas State to a Big 12 title last season by beating College Football Playoff qualifier TCU in the league championship game. Leipold took over at KU after the Jayhawks went 0-9 in 2020 and has somehow mustered a winning record in the last two seasons. And yet, Elko has been better than both per the FPI. He has figuratively said, "I see how well y'all have done in turning around football programs at basketball schools. Now watch me do the same thing just a bit better at one of the best basketball schools there ever was." It's truly been remarkable what Elko has done in Durham in short order. What Elko did at Notre Dame in a mat- ter of months was impressive, too. The Irish endured a dismal 4-8 sea- son the year before Elko arrived. Former defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder was fired after just four games. The Irish allowed 454 yards per game in that quartet of contests. In the following 2017 season that included games against seven ranked teams, Notre Dame only allowed 369.2 yards per game on its way to a 10-3 record. The scoring defense improved by nearly a touchdown and an extra point per game year over year, from 27.8 in 2016 to 21.5 in 2017. "Those kids were very hungry to im- prove," Elko said of Notre Dame players in his first fall camp press conference with Texas A&M. "I think that's where it starts. Those kids did a really good job of buying into how we wanted to play defense." Clearly, the same thing has happened at Duke. The Blue Devils allowed an FBS- worst 517.6 yards per game in 2021. Elko got that figure down to 378.2 in his first season in charge of the pro- gram. Through three games in 2023, even further improvement showed up on paper; Duke only surrendered 300.7 yards per game to Clemson, Lafayette and Northwestern. Tougher games are coming. One of those occurs this week at Wallace Wade Stadium. The last two times Notre Dame has faced Duke, the Fighting Irish have won by an average of 22.5 points per game. Still, there is something to be said for Elko finding a way to kick-start this 2023 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Aug. 26 vs. Navy* W, 42-3 Sept. 2 Tennessee State W, 56-3 Sept. 9 at NC State W, 45-24 Sept. 16 Central Michigan W, 41-17 Sept. 23 Ohio State L, 17-14 Sept. 30 at Duke (ABC) 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at Louisville TBA Oct. 14 USC (NBC) 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 Pittsburgh (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at Clemson (ABC) TBA Nov. 18 Wake Forest (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 25 at Stanford TBA * at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland Senior linebacker Dorian Mausi anchors a defense that allowed only 9.3 points and 300.7 yards per game during the Blue Devils' 3-0 start. PHOTO COURTESY DUKE ATHLETICS 2023 DUKE SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Sept. 4 Clemson W, 28-7 Sept. 9 Lafayette W, 42-7 Sept. 16 Northwestern W, 38-14 Sept. 23 at Connecticut W, 41-7 Sept. 30 Notre Dame (ABC) 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 North Carolina State TBA Oct. 21 at Florida State TBA Oct. 28 at Louisville TBA Nov. 2 Wake Forest (ESPN) 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11 at North Carolina TBA Nov. 18 at Virginia TBA Nov. 25 Pittsburgh TBA