CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Duke has its first outright Atlantic Coast Conference football championship since 1962.
Now it wants a little more.
Blue Devils coach Manny Diaz wasted little time Saturday night advocating for his team to make the 12-team College Football Playoff after Duke beat No. 16 Virginia 27-20 in overtime on Saturday night.
“The ACC champion should go to the College Football Playoff this year and every year,” Diaz said.
Duke threw the CFP selection process into chaos when Darian Mensah connected with Jeremiah Hasley for a 1-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play in overtime and Luke Mergott sealed the game with an interception.
But winning the first overtime game in ACC championship history isn’t expected to be enough to get Duke and its 8-5 record into the CFP. The Blue Devils’ victory opens the door for a second Group of Five team — likely James Madison — to make it.
Diaz doesn’t get it.
He pointed out Duke’s superior strength of schedule, with seven wins over power-conference teams — all ACC foes — while James Madison lost to its only Power Four opponent, Louisville.
“You can’t compare going through the Sun Belt this year — it has been a really good conference in years past — but most of their top teams are just having down years,” Diaz said. “So they (James Madison) probably are not challenged they way the would going through a normal Sun Belt season.”
Duke last won a share of the ACC regular-season title in 1989, sharing it with Virginia in Steve Spurrier’s final season as the Blue Devils’ coach. The conference championship game was created in 2005, and Duke got there this year by winning a five-way tiebreaker.
Virginia (10-3), the ACC regular-season champion, would have reached the CFP for the first time in school history with a victory but fell short when Chandler Morris was intercepted by Mergott on the Cavaliers’ first offensive play of OT.
Coach Tony Elliott described his team as having “the heart of a champion.”
“Obviously disappointed, and it hurts,” Elliott said. “There is nothing I can say to them to take away the pain. But I also told the guys how proud I am of the team that was picked to finish 14th out of 17 teams and earned the right to be here. … When you’re trying to climb that mountain, the air is thin and the margin for error is very, very small.”
Mensah threw for 196 yards and two scores — both to Hasley — while Nate Sheppard ran for 97 yards and a score for Duke.
Virginia trailed by 10 with 5:02 left in regulation, but got a field goal from Will Bettridge before Morris capped a 10-play, 96-yard drive with an 18-yard strike to Eli Wood in the left corner of the end zone with 22 seconds left to tie it at 20-all.
In the extra period, Sheppard got the Blue Devils to the Virginia 2 with three runs. Duke was stuffed on two straight plays before Mensah rolled out and found Hasley for the go-ahead score. Virginia was flagged for roughing passer on the throw, meaning it had to start its overtime possession at the 40 instead of the 25.
Elliott said that put his team in position to try to get a “chunk play.”
It didn’t work. Morris took a throwback pass from a running back, fired downfield and was picked off by Mergott, setting off a raucous Duke celebration.
“To bring a championship to this school, which is primarily known for basketball, is a statement that me and the seniors on this team have been trying to make,” Mensah said.
Morris, who finished 21 of 40 for 216 yards with two TDs and two interceptions, was in tears after the game. J’Mari Taylor, the ACC’s leading rusher, was limited to 65 yards on 15 carries and scored on an 11-yard reception.
Duke established control of the line of scrimmage early.
The Blue Devils controlled the clock in the first half, putting together the two longest drives in ACC championship game history — 9:38 and 8:02 — culminating with a 12-yard touchdown catch by Hasley and a 16-yard run by Sheppard to take a 14-7 lead into halftime.
Diaz, who ran a fake field goal that led to the Blue Devils’ dramatic win over rival North Carolina, called a fake punt on Duke’s go-ahead drive in the second quarter. It worked, with Kevin O’Connor taking the direct snap and running up the middle for 6 yards.
The takeaway
Duke: The Blue Devils’ punt team was big. Along with the fake punt, Duke pulled Virginia offsides on a hard count on fourth-and-7, and then Diaz sent the offense back on the field to get the first down on fourth-and-2. Duke punter Kade Reynoldson also pinned Virginia at the 1, leading to Morris’ interception three plays later.
Virginia: Taylor fumbled on the Virginia’s first play from scrimmage — it was negated by a penalty — and could never get on track against the Duke defense, which played its best game in recent weeks.
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