Boston College Athletics
Newest Phase of BC-Duke Series Arrives This Friday
November 03, 2022 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Jeff Hafley's first game on the BC sideline was at Duke. Now two years later the Eagles welcome the Blue Devils and first-year head coach Mike Elko.
A lot has changed since Jeff Hafley's head coaching debut at Duke in 2020 on the ACC's regional sports network. The Eagles, who entered that day as six-point underdogs, ran away with a 26-6 victory; forcing five turnovers. Two years later, BC hosts the Blue Devils with a first-year coach of their own on national TV.Â
Duke football was never a football destination before the last decade. There wasn't a well-known history of bowl success and national prominence, and any reference to the university's athletics department started with the basketball culture ingrained by decades of championship contention and glory. Students never slept outside Wallace Wade Stadium like they did at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and seasons turned into decades before the football program experienced a season of .500 football or better.
All of that turned when former Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe arrived in Durham, and his slow build offered a blueprint to programs looking to invest in success on the gridiron. He was armed with a $100 million renovation to a once-crumbling football stadium, but he built the momentum that formed the foundation of 2013's Coastal Division champions.
That infrastructure turned Duke into a place where football players could succeed, and after Cutcliffe agreed to mutually part ways with the Blue Devils after three consecutive losing seasons, his replacement, Mike Elko, is already on the road to returning the program to the top of the conference. Armed with a young quarterback and roster ready to produce immediate results, Duke is now a program with an energetic style and new sunrise as a potential ACC power player.
"Mike has kind of worked his way up," said BC head coach Jeff Hafley. "He's been coaching for a long time, coaching his own positions for a long time and coordinating for a long time with many different stops. He's really involved with the defense, and I have a ton of respect for him. Mike's a great guy from the chances that I've gotten to know him in the ACC meetings and the time spent with him. He's a guy that loves ball and seems to do things the right way, and he has his team playing really well, so I can't say enough good things about him and what he's been able to do."
Elko served as the defensive coordinator at Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Texas A&M, but his pedigree boasts resume stocked with stops throughout the Division I-AA and Football Championship Subdivision programs of the northeastern United States. He was a championship caliber player at Penn, where he was part of the 1998 Ivy League championship team under head coach Al Bagnoli, and he returned to Philadelphia two years later as the defensive backs coach on the Quakers' second Ivy League champion in three years. He would later move to Fordham and Hofstra as the defensive coordinator with a role as linebackers coach at Richmond sandwiched in between the two, and he didn't jump to the bowl subdivision until Dave Clawson hired him as the defensive coordinator at Bowling Green.Â
Wake Forest hired Clawson after the 2013 season, and Elko followed him to Winston-Salem for four years until Notre Dame hired him to stabilize its defense for the 2017 season. One year later, he moved into the SEC for the first time with Texas A&M, where he remained until Duke hired him at the conclusion of last year.
"I think Coach Elko has done a really good job," Hafley said this week. "Robb Smith is a really good friend of mine as a defensive coordinator. We were together for a while, but he's got the defense playing at a high level. Their offense has really done a good job."
His hire signaled a necessary change for a program that looked for a change after Cutcliffe's last couple of years, and Elko's injection brought new life to Duke with a staff loaded with connections throughout the ACC. Offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, for example, was a former lieutenant to Florida State head coach Mike Norvell at Memphis, and his background in both the spread and air raid offenses was a complete shift from an offense that didn't throw for 3,000 yards in any of the three seasons with first round pick Daniel Jones playing quarterback.
But it's defensive coordinator Robb Smith who is likely going to draw the bulk of attention this week for his previous relationship with BC head coach Jeff Hafley. The former Rutgers defensive coordinator spent a number of years building the Scarlet Knight defense under head coach Greg Schiano, and Hafley joined him in 2011 as the defensive backs coach in his last season coaching special teams and linebackers. Schiano's departure one year later for the NFL took Hafley with him, but Smith remained in New Jersey to serve as the coordinator under Kyle Flood, who had been the assistant head coach of the team's staff.
"We've never coached against each other before," Hafley said, "[but] Robb and I coached together at Rutgers for a season. He didn't come to Tampa with us right away, but we were together for two years [and] got pretty close. He's a phenomenal person. He has a really good family and is a really good person.
"He's worked his way up," Hafley added, "and he's had success. He was at Arkansas [after Tampa Bay] and did a great job with Rutgers. I think he was out of coaching for a year and was working at A&M as an analyst, so I think he and Mike hit it off pretty well there. He's very smart, very passionate ,loves the game, and it means a lot to him."
The shared defensive background of the head coach and his coordinator usually means the offensive coordinator has more autonomy to run his style, and that's already translated to some eye-popping results for the Blue Devils in their first year with the new staff. The undefeated start prior to the Kansas game included a shutout win over Temple in the season opener, and Duke forced eight turnovers last week in its 45-21 win against Miami. The three losses were by a combined 14 points, and the consecutive league losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina were each by three points, including an overtime game against the Yellow Jackets.
The Eagles don't usually see Duke, but quarterback Riley Leonard is already earning recognition across the entire ACC. He's thrown for 1,693 yards and 10 touchdowns with just four interceptions, and his eight rushing touchdowns lead all ball carriers in Johns' offense. The sophomore's 328 yards passing set a tone in that first game against Temple, and he continued growing by throwing for an additional 324 yards with a touchdown and no picks in the loss to Kansas, a game in which the Blue Devils gained 463 yards with an additional 54 on the ground from their quarterback.
"He's a big guy," Hafley said. "He's tall. He's thick. He throws the ball well down the field. He's their leading rusher, so he definitely wants to turn upfield and run, and I think he's done a good job with that. He's got a strong arm. His completion percentage is pretty high. I think he's done a really good job. He's been a good fit for their offense. He's a tough kid, too, because he's taken a bunch of shots."
BC and Duke kick off on Friday at 7 p.m. from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television via ESPN2 with online streaming coverage available through ESPN platform of apps on computers and mobile devices.
Duke football was never a football destination before the last decade. There wasn't a well-known history of bowl success and national prominence, and any reference to the university's athletics department started with the basketball culture ingrained by decades of championship contention and glory. Students never slept outside Wallace Wade Stadium like they did at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and seasons turned into decades before the football program experienced a season of .500 football or better.
All of that turned when former Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe arrived in Durham, and his slow build offered a blueprint to programs looking to invest in success on the gridiron. He was armed with a $100 million renovation to a once-crumbling football stadium, but he built the momentum that formed the foundation of 2013's Coastal Division champions.
That infrastructure turned Duke into a place where football players could succeed, and after Cutcliffe agreed to mutually part ways with the Blue Devils after three consecutive losing seasons, his replacement, Mike Elko, is already on the road to returning the program to the top of the conference. Armed with a young quarterback and roster ready to produce immediate results, Duke is now a program with an energetic style and new sunrise as a potential ACC power player.
"Mike has kind of worked his way up," said BC head coach Jeff Hafley. "He's been coaching for a long time, coaching his own positions for a long time and coordinating for a long time with many different stops. He's really involved with the defense, and I have a ton of respect for him. Mike's a great guy from the chances that I've gotten to know him in the ACC meetings and the time spent with him. He's a guy that loves ball and seems to do things the right way, and he has his team playing really well, so I can't say enough good things about him and what he's been able to do."
Elko served as the defensive coordinator at Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Texas A&M, but his pedigree boasts resume stocked with stops throughout the Division I-AA and Football Championship Subdivision programs of the northeastern United States. He was a championship caliber player at Penn, where he was part of the 1998 Ivy League championship team under head coach Al Bagnoli, and he returned to Philadelphia two years later as the defensive backs coach on the Quakers' second Ivy League champion in three years. He would later move to Fordham and Hofstra as the defensive coordinator with a role as linebackers coach at Richmond sandwiched in between the two, and he didn't jump to the bowl subdivision until Dave Clawson hired him as the defensive coordinator at Bowling Green.Â
Wake Forest hired Clawson after the 2013 season, and Elko followed him to Winston-Salem for four years until Notre Dame hired him to stabilize its defense for the 2017 season. One year later, he moved into the SEC for the first time with Texas A&M, where he remained until Duke hired him at the conclusion of last year.
"I think Coach Elko has done a really good job," Hafley said this week. "Robb Smith is a really good friend of mine as a defensive coordinator. We were together for a while, but he's got the defense playing at a high level. Their offense has really done a good job."
His hire signaled a necessary change for a program that looked for a change after Cutcliffe's last couple of years, and Elko's injection brought new life to Duke with a staff loaded with connections throughout the ACC. Offensive coordinator Kevin Johns, for example, was a former lieutenant to Florida State head coach Mike Norvell at Memphis, and his background in both the spread and air raid offenses was a complete shift from an offense that didn't throw for 3,000 yards in any of the three seasons with first round pick Daniel Jones playing quarterback.
But it's defensive coordinator Robb Smith who is likely going to draw the bulk of attention this week for his previous relationship with BC head coach Jeff Hafley. The former Rutgers defensive coordinator spent a number of years building the Scarlet Knight defense under head coach Greg Schiano, and Hafley joined him in 2011 as the defensive backs coach in his last season coaching special teams and linebackers. Schiano's departure one year later for the NFL took Hafley with him, but Smith remained in New Jersey to serve as the coordinator under Kyle Flood, who had been the assistant head coach of the team's staff.
"We've never coached against each other before," Hafley said, "[but] Robb and I coached together at Rutgers for a season. He didn't come to Tampa with us right away, but we were together for two years [and] got pretty close. He's a phenomenal person. He has a really good family and is a really good person.
"He's worked his way up," Hafley added, "and he's had success. He was at Arkansas [after Tampa Bay] and did a great job with Rutgers. I think he was out of coaching for a year and was working at A&M as an analyst, so I think he and Mike hit it off pretty well there. He's very smart, very passionate ,loves the game, and it means a lot to him."
The shared defensive background of the head coach and his coordinator usually means the offensive coordinator has more autonomy to run his style, and that's already translated to some eye-popping results for the Blue Devils in their first year with the new staff. The undefeated start prior to the Kansas game included a shutout win over Temple in the season opener, and Duke forced eight turnovers last week in its 45-21 win against Miami. The three losses were by a combined 14 points, and the consecutive league losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina were each by three points, including an overtime game against the Yellow Jackets.
The Eagles don't usually see Duke, but quarterback Riley Leonard is already earning recognition across the entire ACC. He's thrown for 1,693 yards and 10 touchdowns with just four interceptions, and his eight rushing touchdowns lead all ball carriers in Johns' offense. The sophomore's 328 yards passing set a tone in that first game against Temple, and he continued growing by throwing for an additional 324 yards with a touchdown and no picks in the loss to Kansas, a game in which the Blue Devils gained 463 yards with an additional 54 on the ground from their quarterback.
"He's a big guy," Hafley said. "He's tall. He's thick. He throws the ball well down the field. He's their leading rusher, so he definitely wants to turn upfield and run, and I think he's done a good job with that. He's got a strong arm. His completion percentage is pretty high. I think he's done a really good job. He's been a good fit for their offense. He's a tough kid, too, because he's taken a bunch of shots."
BC and Duke kick off on Friday at 7 p.m. from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The game can be seen on national television via ESPN2 with online streaming coverage available through ESPN platform of apps on computers and mobile devices.
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