Note: A version of this story will appear in the Blue & Gold Illustrated 2020 Football Preview magazine in June. This is the second installment of the 2020 Notre Dame opponent previews, which will be presented in order of least difficult to most difficult game. Prior ones are listed at the bottom of this story.
Date, location: Oct. 31, Notre Dame Stadium
All-time series: Notre Dame leads 4-2
Last meeting: Notre Dame won 38-7 on Nov. 9, 2019
Head coach: David Cutcliffe, 13th season (72-79 at Duke, 116-108 career)
2019 results: 5-7, 3-5 ACC
Returning starters: 14 (seven offense, seven defense)
When trying to reboot an offense that plodded along for an entire season, bringing in a new quarterback from a national title-winning team is a pretty ideal start.
Duke, then, has completed the critical step from what it hopes is a leap up from a below-average offense with eventual top-10 NFL Draft pick Daniel Jones and a bottom-rung one in 2019 without him. In comes Chase Brice, a grad transfer from Clemson with two years of eligibility left. The former four-star recruit threw for 1,023 yards and nine touchdowns from 2018-19. He lifted the Tigers to a narrow win over Syracuse in 2018 when pressed into duty.
He is at Duke to provide a boost for an offense that averaged fewer yards per play than all but five Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams and passed for 179.3 yards per game in 2019. The move to bring Brice in, though, is part of a greater theme around the Blue Devils’ offseason and offensive issues.
Urgency.
