Duke earned a massive road win on Saturday as the Blue Devils walked out of Champaign, Ill., with a 31-27 victory over Illinois.
Nate Sheppard scored three touchdowns, two receiving, while rushing for 147 yards, and Duke’s defense held the Fighting Illini to three points in the second half.
Here’s what Blue Devils head coach Manny Diaz had to say following the game:
Opening statement
Proud of our football team. That's a great, great road win. It's a really, really good Big 10 opponent. And I think what I'm most proud of is it went about the way we felt it would, and we knew it was going to be a Duke-type game where it was going to be one in the fourth quarter. We felt that there were three key elements to the game, which was turnovers, special teams,
and explosive touchdowns. And we lost the explosive touchdown. They got the one in the first half, but I felt that winning the special teams with the fake punt, which came at a huge point in the game, and then the turnover, which came at a huge point in the game in the fourth quarter, those were massive. The reason why those were so massive is because what we really believe going in is after 60 minutes, we could win the game up front.
And for two weeks in a row, for everyone to know that the key to stopping Duke is to stop number 20 and for him to have 100 yards rushing at halftime and to play the way he played in our offensive line to play the way they played to give us a confidence that when we have a fourth and one for the win, that we can run the ball and we can get that yard to ice the game. And so again, super credit goes to the offensive line and tight ends. And again, I thought Nate ran great, and CJ got in and ran the ball really well as well. Defensively, it was all about turning the game around right in the first half. I just don't feel like we played in the back end the way we had showed and practiced. And so sometimes halftime adjustments are about doing something different and sometimes halftime adjustments are just doing something better.
And there might've been a little bit different, but it was mainly just better. I feel like we just presented as a more, what I feel like is the best version of ourselves. I just didn't think we were our best selves in the first half, didn't challenge. I thought the quarterback played great. He was an outstanding player, but I thought we made it too easy on him. So proud of the way the defense responded to that. And again, massive, massive win. And the last piece I'll add is the situational football. We deferred the toss this week, scored going into halftime, scored coming out of halftime, got to play, make it take it, a huge part of the game. And really we kind of took control from that point on. So like I said, this win checks a lot of boxes in terms of, from my standpoint, just being very proud and now excited to go back home and open up a league play next week.
On winning the middle eight (last four minutes of first half, first four minutes of second half)
Well, it was a great drive by our offense going into halftime because, really again, I think it scored to go back up by 10, and you felt maybe that they had control of the game. They were certainly moving the ball. We were having a hard time stopping him. So, to be aggressive, we were under two minutes. We'd save a little time with the timeout, but we were under two minutes and had the two timeouts in our back pocket. And to be able to flip the field so quickly, hit some explosive plays, that was just so huge. And to be able to go in the locker room and feel like we hadn't played great and we're basically down three getting the ball, I think it gave our guys a lot of confidence. And then again, a really, really masterful drive coming out in the third quarter and to punch that in with a touchdown.
So really it felt like 14. I mean, it was unanswered, but almost like they had the mini drive with the long missed field goal. But I think those two drives went from them being in control of the game to us being in control of the game, and we were able to keep control of that from that point on.
On Walker Eget’s performance
Yeah, it's what we expected. He made some really tough throws. We knew they were going to heat us up and bring a lot of pressure. That's their identity. It's what they do. And like I said, I thought he handled it really, really well. We were able to make some plays down the field. I thought the first touchdown to Burton was an absolute beautiful throw. And then his toughness to come back in the game and even to play that last series, I think shows to everybody in the locker room of what type of human being and competitor he is. Not that we doubted that. So just again, a great performance by Walker.
On the fake punt
Yeah, I felt like we needed a little something at that moment. We've been practicing that play for, I think, since I've been here. That play has been run just about every week in practice since 2024, and we just haven't had the situation to be able to call it. And we got the ball in the proper hash. It was a proper down and distance, and any play that goes to number 20 is a pretty good play call. So credit to the guys doing it, credit to Gabe Infante and Scott Boone for practicing that every week because you never know when it's going to be the time, and today was the time, and I do think that was really important because down by 10, facing a punt, we have not been stopping them on defense. The game could have gotten a little bit away from us at that moment.
So it was the right play, and again, proud of the guys for executing it.
This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Everything Duke HC Manny Diaz said following win vs. Illinois
