On the remarkable reclamation turnaround Mike Elko engineered at Duke in Year 1

Duke started playing football in 1888. The Blue Devils have seven — repeat SEVEN — nine win seasons in 134 years, and one of those now belongs to Mike Elko, who capped a remarkable Year 1 in Durham after Duke thumped UCF 30-13 in the Military Bowl. 

“This group is special and this program is special,” Elko said postgame after the Blue Devils ended the 2022 season going 9-4, winning four of their final five games.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this team. … From where this team was and this program was walking off the field at the end of the 2021 season, to walking off the field today as the 2022 Military Bowl champions.’’

Talk about a turnaround season. The first-year coaching jobs by Sonny Dykes at TCU, Lincoln Riley at USC and Brian Kelly at LSU, among others, has received plenty of plaudits this offseason, including from yours truly. I’ve praised the work of ACC Coach of the Year Mike Elko, too, but not enough.

Duke “walked off the field” last year losing eight straight games — six by margins greater than 30 points. 

The program had stalled to a stop under longtime coach David Cutcliffe. In 14 seasons in Durham, Cutcliffe sent the Blue Devils to six bowl games with five winning years. But following a solid stretch of football from 2013-2018 (all five winning campaigns), the well dried up on ‘Coach Cut’, as Duke went 5-7, 2-9 and 3-9 — including a combined 1-17 in ACC play over the last two seasons.

Yet Elko wasn’t deterred by such a steep hill to climb. The former Texas A&M defensive coordinator saw opportunity, and a program ripe for growth. While the 45-year-old coach came to Duke from a SEC powerhouse flush with resources, Elko had built up close to 20 years of coaching calluses working at the likes of Fordham, Richmond, Bowling Green and Wake Forest. Working side-by-side at every stop with now-Demon Deacons head coach Dave Clawson, Elko learned the art of the rebuild. 

How to maximize talent. How to adapt. How to find edges in the details. 

Duke’s 2022 season was a masterclass of those “how to’s” all coming together in unison. 

How Mike Elko took Duke from 3-9 to 9-4 in Year 1

The Blue Devils were picked to finish near the cellar of the ACC again. They weren’t expected to win more than three or four games. Instead, with Wednesday’s blowout over UCF, Duke won nine games in a single season for just the third time since World War II. 

With largely the same roster from last 2021 and just a couple impact graduate transfers (namely linebacker Cam Dillion, offensive tackle Chance Lytle and defensive back Darius Joiner) sprinkled in, Duke won five conference games (more than the previous three seasons combined) and were a couple close losses away from a division title.

Elko empowered OC Kevin Johns to develop quarterback Riley Leonard, who turned into one of the better play-making quarterbacks in the ACC (33 total touchdowns). 

Leonard had two rushing scores against UCF, with Duke once again leaning on a deep stable of ball-carriers (177 rushing yards, three scores). 

Defensively, Elko shored up a group that was torched in 2021 (ACC-worst 517.6 yards per game, 40 points allowed). The Blue Devils finished No. 5 in the ACC in scoring defense — dropping their average by 18 points (22.1 allowed). More impressively, after allowing more than 7.1 yards per play in 2021, Duke cut that number down to 5.52 — easily the biggest net-improvement in the conference this year. 

Against UCF, Duke’s defense finished the year on a particularly high-note, sacking John Rhys Plumlee six times and forcing a pair of takeaways. 

“Nobody can understand the amount of work and the amount of character that went into that. This is not a day-in-age where people grind through hard times, where people stay and stick together,” Elko said.  

“Everybody in our organization that ended the season showed up here today to be a part of this bowl, every coach and player and you don’t see that. … Today was just a testament to all of that. What a way to end this first story of Duke football, but now it’s on to the next of bigger and better things.”

The future is certainly bright in Durham. 

The Blue Devils will be hard-pressed to replicate their 2022 season next fall, though Leonard was certainly dreaming big with expectations of winning “12, 13, 14 going into the national championship. So my eyes will be set on next year. While championships are likely unrealistic, Duke is positioned to play ACC spoiler again next fall.  

With Leonard at the helm, the core of the Elko’s team — especially on offense — is set to return. 

The Blue Devils’ schedule is much tougher (Clemson, Notre Dame and Florida State are all on the slate next fall) and their fumble-luck (ACC-leading 16 recoveries) is likely to even out some, but still, in a single year, Elko has altered the trajectory of what is possible for Duke football. 

They’ll enter every game in 2023 expecting to win. Here’s guessing more times than not, they will.