Defending ACC champion Duke unranked in preseason coaches poll

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With fall camps across the country getting underway this week, the US LBM College Football Coaches Poll was released Tuesday, and the reigning ACC champions will begin the season outside the preseason Top 25.

The Duke Blue Devils are under the leadership of head coach Manny Diaz, who enters his third season at the helm after adding to Duke’s dusty trophy case with an ACC title last December. This is apparently not good enough for the various coaches across the country to place Duke inside the initial rankings.

The result should come as no surprise, though, as the Blue Devils were snubbed from last year’s final rankings after ending their season with both a conference championship victory and a Sun Bowl win.

Some coaches did show Duke some love, however, as the program received six points in the poll, good for 46th in the country.

Ohio State came in at No. 1, followed by Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Notre Dame in the Top 5. Other ACC institutions that appeared in the poll include Miami at No. 7, SMU at No. 20 and Clemson at No. 23.

Duke is set to square off against two teams that received nods in the poll this season. The Blue Devils will travel to Coral Gables to take on Miami on Nov. 14 and will quickly turn around and host Clemson on Nov. 20 inside Wallace Wade Stadium.

The primary reason Duke was likely left out of the rankings is that the team will replace 17 starters from last year’s ACC championship team, including its starting quarterback, Darian Mensah. 

The Blue Devils' first chance to prove these coaches wrong will come on Sept. 5, when they play host to the Tulane Green Wave. Kickoff in the Bull City will take place at 3:30 p.m. ET and can be streamed on ACC Network.

This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Defending ACC champion Duke unranked in preseason coaches poll

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