By By JOEDY McCREARY, AP Sports Writer
DURHAM — When Duke lineman Fred Roland peeked at the national rankings, something unusual caught his eye: Some coach included the Blue Devils on his top-25 ballot.
Unlike those token thank-yous every preseason from former Duke coach Steve Spurrier, this time the Blue Devils earned that vote.
They aren’t chuckling anymore in Durham. Not when they’ve already welcomed Orange Bowl scouts, snapped unwanted streaks seemingly on a weekly basis and cruised to a four-touchdown victory despite their quarterback’s worst performance of the year.
It’s only a month into the season, and these David Cutcliffe-led Blue Devils (3-1) no longer resemble perennial losers.
From the season’s opening series, it was clear these weren’t the same Blue Devils that became synonymous with comically bad football during the two decades after Spurrier left for Florida.
Widely ridiculed as the worst program in the six major conferences, Duke posted four winless seasons since its last bowl berth in 1994 and lost at least 10 games in each of the past three years. That prompted the school to fire Ted Roof and lure Cutcliffe from Tennessee’s staff to turn things around.
The Blue Devils have already taken care of that streak of 10-loss seasons.
Then, they went to work on some other pesky footnotes: The season-opening victory over James Madison ended a 16-game losing streak at Wallace Wade Stadium, and last week’s 31-3 win over Virginia — an ‘‘off day’’ for Lewis, Cutcliffe said — marked the end of a 25-game slide in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
On the line this week at Georgia Tech is a 16-game slide in ACC road games, but a win would give Duke its first three-game winning streak since 1994 — the last time the Blue Devils reached the postseason.
They’re already getting some attention from the bowl officials. The Orange Bowl sent its blazer-wearing representatives to Wallace Wade Stadium last weekend, and they spoke to the team after Friday’s practice and attended Cutcliffe’s post-game press conference.
And perhaps the most surprising thing about the Blue Devils’ start is they’re one play from being undefeated: A holding call nullified the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute of a 24-20 loss to Northwestern.
Yet skeptics say Duke’s results came against a weak schedule. Sure Virginia isn’t having much of a season, but that win over Navy is looking pretty good since the Midshipmen beat Wake Forest last week.
Still, even Cutcliffe isn’t getting carried away yet. He’d rather wait and see how things shake out in the ACC’s late-season stretch run.