DURHAM — Daniel Jones, as he typically does, pondered the question a moment before answering if Saturday was his best game.
The junior quarterback had just completed 31 passes for 361 yards and three touchdowns, and ran 15 times for 186 yards and a touchdown. His longest play, a 68-yard run to the 2, set up another score.
He paused, smiled, shifted at the podium a bit, and finally said, “I don’t know … I don’t … I, uh, had a delay of game in the fourth quarter.”
Duke 42, Carolina 35.
Jones and the Blue Devils own three consecutive wins over their rival. He had 547 yards. By anyone else’s standard, this might easily have been the best game.
His bar is high.
“He runs like a deer,” lineman Zach Harmon said. Head coach David Cutcliffe adds he could be a track athlete.
“He’s a great leader,” Harmon added. Cutcliffe will share more on that in a minute.
The pause before Jones answers questions is emblematic of his nature. He did have all kinds of football records and success at Charlotte Latin High School, but also, he was off the charts academically.
Ivy Leaguers Harvard, Princeton and Yale all wanted him to play. Word out of Leinwand’s in Elizabethtown where he’s shopped a few times is he grew up a Carolina fan and wanted to play there.
His high school coach convinced Cutcliffe to take a look at a player not on the national radar. The Blue Devils’ “big quarterback signee” that class was Quentin Harris out of Connecticut.
Cutcliffe knows a thing or two about quarterbacks. So Duke got him, and as injuries shifted the depth chart, Jones found his way into the rotation.
While he plays well against most anybody, his numbers against Carolina are terrific: three wins, 308 yards rushing and 803 yards passing on 71 completions. He’s only thrown one pick against five touchdown passes. He’s run for three touchdowns.
And he’s had to be good. Carolina’s quarterbacks in that time, to include the Chicago Bears’ Mitchell Trubisky, have thrown for 777 yards and five touchdowns.
But it’s more than statistics.
“Daniel has grown into such a fierce competitor and he prepares like you’re supposed to prepare,” Cutcliffe said. At this point it’s worth noting that Cutcliffe’s biggest success was known for meticulous preparation, a fella named Peyton Manning. “He’s as knowledgeable as the coaches about what to do and what to expect and he makes everyone around him better. I don’t know if I’ve had any quarterback match the day he had today.”
Linebacker Ben Humphreys sees it in practice, and from the sideline on gamedays.
“He showed the talents he has,” Humphreys said. “He’s such a hard worker. He can run and throw. He has it in him every Saturday.”
Just like the coach who took over a woeful program and turned it into a regular bowl participant. Like the coach who works hard to find the right fit for his team, starting with who is recruited.
Since 2012, Duke is 11-3 against the rest of the Big Four: 5-2 against Carolina, 5-1 against Wake Forest and 1-0 against N.C. State. Throw in routs of N.C. Central and Elon in that time, and Duke has won 18 of its last 21 against in-state foes.
As much or more than anybody else, in football this is Duke’s state. Cutcliffe is a 64-year-old kid, dancing in Miami a week earlier, showing improved dance moves after the win over Carolina.
And playing with the Victory Bell when nobody’s looking.
“I love that bell. I truly do,” Cutcliffe said of the prize for the Duke-Carolina winner. “I walk by it every day and I never take it for granted. I took it last night and rolled it around a bit.”
The boyish smile appeared — “I hate to admit that,” he said — then rolled away as he continued.
“That bell should be important to every player that has ever played Duke football and will play in the future.”
Players like Jones, the kids who are all in with teammates and work relentlessly, are the culture of the program. The byproduct is tangible. It’s more than bowl trips and wins over Carolina; it’s life after football has taught them life lessons.
They commit to the team and focus on the team, not themselves.
Five-yard penalty versus 547 yards? It’s a high bar.
Duke and Daniel Jones would have it no other way.
Duke quarterback Daniel Jones passes as North Carolina’s Tyler Powell (95) and Patrice Rene (5) pressure during the first half Saturday. Jones threw for three touchdowns and amassed 547 yards of total offense, improving to 3-for-3 against rival North Carolina.