Mike Elko Spares Duke Football Fans With Bowling Plans

Duke football is rolling and will be bowling in Mike Elko's first campaign.

Duke football head coach Mike Elko (Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)

It's official: Duke football head coach Mike Elko's first season is a raving success, no matter what happens from here on out. The Blue Devils (6-3, 3-2 ACC) are bowl eligible for the first time in the past four seasons following their 38-31 win at Boston College (2-7, 1-5 ACC) on Friday night.

In a year that the ACC media projected Duke to finish dead last in the Coastal Division, the 45-year-old Mike Elko and his resilient, passionate bunch have gifted the fanbase what remains a rarity when looking back at the past six decades.

It'll be only the third bowl trip for the program in the past 62 years with anyone other than David Cutcliffe at the helm. The Blue Devils went 3-3 in six bowl games across Cutcliffe's 14 seasons in Durham (2008-21), but all those postseason appearances came in one seven-season span (2012-18).

Outside of Cutcliffe's remarkable stretch, the brief Steve Spurrier era (head coach from 1987 to 1989 with a bowl game in 1989), and the shortlived winning of Fred Goldsmith (1994-98, bowl game in 1994 and a 9-35 record across the next four seasons), Duke football has graded as "putrid" in almost every season in most living humans' lifetime.

Also noteworthy, the victory over Boston College, a product of Duke's balanced attack on offense and ball-hawking mentality on the other side of the ball, marks the program's first W in November in three years.

The Blue Devils aim to make it two straight wins in November and three straight overall when they host Virginia Tech at noon next Saturday.

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