Duke did not make a bowl game this season. Yes, that is news.
Riding a four-game bowl streak that included the program’s first postseason win in 54 years, the Blue Devils entered August with a team capable of extending that run to a half-decade. Duke had never even been to bowls in consecutive years previously.
Injuries, youth and inexperience stifled momentum in 2016, however, sinking Duke to a 4-8 record and the bottom of the ACC. Unlike for much of its existence in the conference, the lowest depths of the ACC won’t become a familiar position again for Duke.