Duke opened its 2026 campaign with a 17-3 win over Tulane, avenging last season’s loss. Week 2 presents a similar challenge, as the Blue Devils look to best an Illinois team that blasted them in Durham a season ago. Here are five things to watch for in the Duke’s first road game of the year.
1. Nate Sheppard versus a Big 10 defense
Duke’s bell cow back played on another level versus Tulane. Sheppard had 35 carries (you read that correctly) for 227 yards and a pair of scores last week.
We knew Sheppard would be a huge part of what this offense looks to do this year, but based on Week 1, it looks like he IS the offense. It will be intriguing to see what Sheppard looks like against an Illinois defense that is fairly talented, knows he’s coming, and knows the team is limited in its passing
attack.
2. Week-to-week QB improvement
San Jose State transfer Walker Eget had a rough go of it in his first game as a Blue Devil. He went 13/26 for 131 passing yards and zero touchdown passes.
Eget looked extremely limited concerning his mobility and didn’t seem super confident in operating the offense. He’ll have a full week to right some wrongs, but he’ll need to play at a completely different level this week, or Duke will be in serious trouble.
3. Is Katin Houser for real?
Duke’s defense got absolutely torched by Illinois QB Luke Altmyer last year in Durham, and this week’s result could also be determined by whether the Fightin’ Illini quarterback can carve up the Duke defense.
This year, it’s ECU transfer Katin Houser at the helm for Illinois. He looked pretty good in Week 1, but the competition was UAB, so I’d take his solid stat line with a grain of salt.
If Houser puts up similar numbers against Duke’s defense this week, the Blue Devils could be in for back-to-back losses against the Illini.
4. Duke’s defense against play-action
Head coach Manny Diaz stressed the importance of stopping Illinois’ play-action game this time around after getting eaten alive on that front a year ago.
As I said previously, this Duke defense is improved from last year, but learning from past failures is going to be a major key to this game.
5. Playing on the road
In this new age of college football that features a great deal of player churn, playing on the road becomes even more difficult, especially when you have to travel for a power conference clash.
It will be intriguing to see how this season’s addition of the Blue Devils fare away from home after last year’s squad went 4-2 in road contests.
Duke and Illinois will face off in Champaign on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET and can be viewed on FS1.
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This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Duke vs. Illinois: 5 keys to the Blue Devils, Fighting Illini matchup
