Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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34 SEPT. 30, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: DUKE BY TYLER HORKA M ike Elko's split with Notre Dame was messy. When the former Fighting Irish defensive coordinator left South Bend for Texas A&M after just one season in 2017, Notre Dame fans couldn't believe it. How could the Ag- gies, who haven't won a national title since before World War II, be on the same playing field as the Fighting Irish? Well, money. That's how. But that was another issue in itself. How could Notre Dame, whose en- dowment is up there with the best of the best universities nationwide, not pay Elko whatever it took to get him to stay for at least another season? The thing is, Notre Dame tried. Reportedly, the Irish administra- tion originally matched A&M's offer. But then the Aggies played hardball and upped the ante even further. When it was all said and done, Pete Thamel, then of Yahoo Sports and now of ESPN, re- ported Elko was set to make $1.8 mil- lion per year in College Station. That's a heck of a lot for a defensive coordinator, especially in 2018. So, after Elko's one successful season in South Bend, he walked. "This must be what getting cheated on feels like," tweeted Jonathan Jones, a Notre Dame sophomore linebacker at the time, on Jan. 4, 2018. Almost six years later, Notre Dame has a chance to get back at its ex. Elko spent four seasons as A&M's de- fensive coordinator but is now in his second season as the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils. With just one stop be- tween Northern Indiana and the North Carolina Research Triangle, there is an alternate universe in which Notre Dame somehow retained Elko by giving him his money, made him the head coach in waiting and promoted him to the top title on the Irish coaching staff when Brian Kelly left for LSU and the SEC. Notre Dame promoted its defensive coordinator, Marcus Freeman, when that eventually happened anyway, so it's not far-fetched to imagine a world in which Elko became the skipper in South Bend. And it's not far-fetched to think he would have had a lot of success in that role, too. Elko took over a Duke program that went 2-9 in 2020 and 3-9 in 2021, and he turned in a 9-4 campaign in 2022. The Blue Devils are off to another hot start in 2023, opening the season with a 28-7 rout of then-No. 9 Clemson on national TV on Labor Day night. Duke blew out Lafayette (42-7) five days later and Northwestern (38-14) in Week 3. Those results came with a rise from un- ranked to the No. 18 spot in the Associ- ated Press poll. Duke hadn't beaten Clemson since 2004 when Dabo Swinney was still the Tigers' wide receivers coach. Duke hadn't been ranked in the AP poll at all since 2018 and hadn't been ranked as high as No. 18 since an appearance at No. 16 in 1994. It's a new era of Blue Devil football. And it all coincides with the arrival of Elko, the one-time Notre Dame de- fensive coordinator who everyone who coached for, played for or followed Fighting Irish football at the time of his presence in South Bend knew would be a superstar head coach someday. "Mike Elko has earned a load of plau- dits for his work in immediately turning this program around [and with minimal transfer portal help], but we probably aren't talking about it enough," ESPN's Bill Connelly wrote on Sept. 20. RUNNING WITH THE BLUE DEVILS Former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Mike Elko has had immediate success as the head coach at Duke Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME AT DUKE Date: Sept. 30, 2023 Site: Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C. Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET Television: ABC Radio: This game can be heard on Notre Dame IMG affiliates. Series facts: Notre Dame is 5-2 all time against Duke. The Irish last beat the Blue Devils 27-13 on Sept. 12, 2020. Duke's only victories came in South Bend in 2016 and Durham in 1961. Head coaches: Duke — Mike Elko (13-4, second season); Notre Dame — Marcus Freeman (13-6, second season). Noting Duke: Through three games, Duke quarterback Riley Leonard only had 1 passing touchdown, but he had 3 rushing scores … Duke had the nation's No. 6 rushing offense through Week 3 with 242.7 rushing yards per game … The Blue Devils only allowed 9.3 points per game through Week 3, which was tied with Oklahoma for the No. 5 spot in the country; there were only six teams in the FBS giving up fewer than 10.0 points per game through Week 3, and Duke was one of them — Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, Syracuse and the Sooners were the others … Duke was one of the FBS teams least affected by penalties through Week 3; the Blue Devils only sacrificed 28.3 penalty yards per game in their first three matchups, which ranked tied for ninth nationally … For reference, Notre Dame gave up 50.0 yards per game in penalties in its first four matchups … Conversely, Duke opponents only lost 29.0 yards per game in penalties in those first three games; that ranked 128th in the nation, meaning 127 teams saw their opponents receive more punitive yard losses than the Blue Devils.