A look back at memorable moments from Duke football's 2025 season
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Duke football won nine games in 2025 for the second-straight season under Manny Diaz.
The Blue Devils finished 9-5 with four straight wins, capped by an ACC championship and a Sun Bowl victory. It marked Duke’s fourth consecutive bowl appearance and just the third time in program history the Blue Devils claimed both an ACC title and a bowl win in the same season.
Diaz now sits at 18–9 through his first two seasons in Durham, giving him the third-best winning percentage by a Duke head coach through 27 games.
Here’s a look back at some of the defining moments from Duke football’s 2025 season:
ACC champions for eighth time in program history
Duke earned its way to the conference title game in a tie-breaker scenario, being one of a handful of two-loss teams in the conference. A Week 14 win over Wake Forest, along with Pitt and SMU dropping their games, earned the Blue Devils a bid to the conference title game. Duke’s opponent in the ACC title game was a familiar one in Virginia, which had beat Duke at home in Week 12 in what was arguably Duke’s worst performance of the season.
The Blue Devils got their revenge over the Cavaliers in Charlotte, taking down Virginia 27-20 in overtime. Duke held off a late Virginia comeback, when the Cavaliers scored 10 points to Duke’s 3 in the final quarter, with a Luke Mergott interception sealing the game in overtime. It marks Duke’s eighth overall ACC title and first outright since 1962.
It was one of a handful of game-winning interceptions for Mergott, who stepped into a starting role this season after injuries plagued the Duke linebacker corps. Mergott had another clutch pick for Duke in its Sun Bowl win over Arizona State.
Record breakers
Quarterback Darian Mensah arrived in Durham from Tulane with quite the expectations, and it’s safe to say he lived up to them. Mensah rewrote Duke’s record book during the 2025 season, setting multiple single-season program records, including passing yards (3,973), passing touchdowns (34), total offense (3,942 yards), completions (334), pass attempts (500), completion percentage (.668) and pass efficiency rating (153.59).
Mensah also closed the year with a program-record 35 total touchdowns responsible for and a Duke-best touchdown-to-interception ratio of 5.67-to-1, cementing one of the most productive quarterback seasons in school history. Good news for Duke: Mensah announced he will be returning in 2026.
Freshman running back Nate Sheppard also delivered a breakout campaign that reinvigorated the Blue Devils’ backfield. Sheppard rose to the top of Duke’s depth chart midway through the season, rushing for 1,132 yards and 11 touchdowns, both Duke freshman single-season records
Mensah’s top target, wide receiver Cooper Barkate, became just the third Blue Devil to surpass 1,000 receiving yards in a season, finishing with 1,106.
Together, Mensah, Sheppard and Barkate formed Duke’s first 3,000–1,000–1,000 season in program history.
Winningest senior class in program history
The majority of Duke’s senior class joined a program coming off a 3–9 season that had not posted a winning record since 2018 or competed for a conference championship since 2013. Wesley Williams was blunt when talking about it at ACC Kickoff in July 2025, saying when he committed to the program, they were “factually losers.”
However, the group will be leaving Durham as the winningest in program history. The ACC championship win over Virginia put them at 34 career wins to set the record. The Sun Bowl victory over Arizona State added one more, bringing the total to 35 wins.
First six-win conference record since 2013, road win at Clemson
Duke notched six conference victories in 2025 for the first time since 2013, defeating NC State (45–33), Syracuse (38–3), Cal (45–21), Clemson (46–45), North Carolina (32–25) and Wake Forest (49–32). Its win at Clemson marked the program’s first victory in Death Valley since 1980, highlighted by a late 2-point conversion called “Waffle House” in which Sahmir Hagans swung around the back of the formation and was found wide open in the end zone by Mensah.
Duke also won the “state-title” and retained the Victory Bell, sitting at 6-0 against in-state foes under Diaz. It used its fair share of trick plays, too, with Todd Pelino converting a successful fake field goal attempt that Anderson Castle converted into a touchdown to take down UNC.
Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@usatodayco.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke football’s 2025 season in review
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