COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 10:
Wake/Duke Coaches, FCS/D2 Title Contenders
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Nov. 3, 2026)
While the focus of our weekly college football shows are forward-looking as often as possible, we always take a glance back at the previous week, too, and sometimes we’ll offer some quick mentions to those making impactful headlines on the gridiron, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or across North Carolina.
With that in mind, below are our Week 10 “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” brought to you by our good friends at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach and the same folks’ latest creation, Jimmy’s Inland, their new bar in Wilmington.
Jimmy’s has a full bar, nightly drink specials and live music 365 days a year(!). (It’s a great place to watch a game, too.) Right next door in Wrightsville Beach, King Neptune has become one of the best restaurants in the greater Wilmington area. Jimmy’s Inland, which features live music, pool tables, darts, an arcade and the brand’s signature slushies, is located about a mile from the UNC Wilmington campus.
Week Nine “Fun Fact #1”
Fun Fact: According to an advanced-analytics college football measure called SP+, only eight teams rank in the top 30 nationally on offense, defense and special teams: #1 Miami, #2 Georgia, #4 Notre Dame, #7 BYU, #10 Texas, #13 Texas Tech, #14 Wake Forest and #16 Tennessee.
Among those who deserve credit for such impressive balance with the Demon Deacons this season are second-year head coach Jake Dickert, second-year offensive coordinator Rob Ezell, second-year defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton and second-year special teams coordinator Nick Whitworth.
Wake Forest’s stellar 7-1 record (with the only loss being to #1 Miami) entering November wouldn’t have been possible without major contributions in all three phases.
On offense, Ezell has quarterback Gio Lopez and wide receiver Carlos Hernandez, among others, playing by far the best ball of their college careers. Even without a dominant o-line, and even after losing star tailback Demond Claiborne to the NFL, the Demon Deacons rank among the ACC’s top four teams in both rushing offense and passing offense, and they’re third in scoring offense, at more than 39 points per game.
On defense, Hazelton — who was absolutely central to the Demon Deacons’ nine-win campaign a year ago — has his group playing better with each passing week. In October, Wake gave up just three points to Stanford, 14 to NC State, seven to Cal and seven to UVa. Thanks in large part to the four seniors on the front line — ends Langston Hardy and Gabe Kirschke, plus tackles Dallas Afalava and Zach Lohavichan — Wake also ranks third in the ACC in scoring defense, at just 18 points per game.
On special teams, Whitworth’s group also has Wake very high in the ACC and national rankings in various categories. Thanks to punter Ethan Hyams (a freshman from Australia) and the team’s coverage unit, the Demon Deacons rank first in the ACC and fifth nationally in net punting, at almost 45 yards per boot. Meanwhile, kicker Connor Calvert (a former walk-on!) has made all 34 extra points and 13 of his 14 field goal attempts, including three essential three-point conversions in the team’s 30-27 victory at nationally ranked Louisville. The Deacs also are sixth in the league in kick returns and second in punt returns.
That sort of all-around excellence doesn’t happen by accident, and it’s been central to Dickert’s amazing encore in Winston-Salem this year.
Now on to this week’s shout-outs, brought to you by our friends at Muscle Milk, as we head into Week 10 …
#1—Shout-out to third-year Duke head coach Manny Diaz and his third-year defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke.
Among all the programs the North Carolina Sports Network covers regularly, both here in the Bold North State and around the 17-member ACC, there is no single unit — on offense, defense or special teams — that does things more intelligently on a more consistent basis than the Blue Devils’ defense.
That’s in part a tribute to Diaz, who made a name for himself as a standout defensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State, Texas, Miami and Penn State prior to his time as the head coach in Durham.
It’s also a tribute to Patke, who worked under Diaz at Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State and Miami but didn’t reach the coordinator level anywhere until 2022 (Incarnate Word) and 2023 (Texas State).
Diaz took a significant leap of faith when he gave Patke his first opportunity to be a coordinator at the Power Four level, as part of Diaz’s original Duke staff in 2024. The Blue Devils finished seventh in the ACC in scoring defense that year, at 24 points per game, and they’re even better this season, despite losing a ton of talent from last year’s ACC championship squad.
Entering Week 10, Duke has by far the best scoring defense in the ACC, at only 14 points per game. During the Blue Devils’ 6-2 start, they limited every opponent to 28 points or fewer. UVa managed only 16 on the scoreboard against Duke, Stanford only seven, Tulane only three and — last week — Boston College only two, with the Eagles’ special-teams unit returning a Blue Devils extra-point attempt for a conversion the other way.
Impressively, this year’s Duke defense has played at that high level in the immediate aftermath of losing its entire front line — plus All-ACC cornerback Chandler Rivers — to the NFL and/or graduation after last year’s ACC championship season.
Perhaps even more impressively, the 2026 Blue Devils are giving up the seemingly impossible low number of only four points per second half, meaning a lineup overflowing with first-time but high-football-IQ starters is executing their brilliant coaches’ various halftime adjustments quite impressively.
#2—Shout-out, at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level, to third-year Campbell head coach Braxton Harris.
Although they lost 45-35 at nationally ranked Albany last week, the 7-2 Camels are assured of posting the winningest season in program history, and they remain in the hunt for what would be the first conference championship in program history.
Led by senior quarterback Kamden Sixkiller, Campbell has the most prolific offense in the Coastal Athletic Association this season, with 33 points per game and 461 yards per game.
If you’re a fan of high-powered offenses, you might want to consider a trip to Buies Creek this Saturday (1 p.m., FloCollege). That’s where and when you’ll find the two highest-scoring offenses in the CAA, as the Camels host Stony Brook, another team that is putting up about 33 points per game.
Just as Sixkiller leads the conference with 2,620 passing yards and 20 touchdown throws so far this season, Stony Brook QB Quinn Boyd ranks second in the CAA in both categories, with 2,382 passing yards and 17 TD tosses.
#3—Shout-out, at the Division Two level, to fourth-year UNC Pembroke head coach Mark Hall.
UNC Pembroke didn’t even have a football program until 2007, and the Braves have had as many valleys as peaks since then, but Hall has his team in the running for some special accomplishments for the second year in a row.
Last season, during an 8-3 campaign, Hall posted more victories over Top 25 opponents — two — than UNCP previously had (one) in the entire history of its gridiron program. The Braves also finished 5-1 in conference play a year ago, which earned them a spot in the Conference Carolinas championship game.
Now Hall, who previously served as a successful head coach at Chowan University, another Division Two program in North Carolina, is well on his way to his sixth straight winning season in his six years as a head coach, and his 7-2 Braves — who also have posted two victories over nationally ranked opponents this season — have the inside track on another trip to the league title contest.
Remember, Division Two programs typically finish their regular-season schedules by mid-November, and UNC Pembroke actually has its regular-season finale this Saturday, when the team travels to Ferrum. If the Braves can claim that road victory, they will virtually assure themselves of a spot in the game known as the Conference Carolinas Bowl for the second year in a row.
There is a highly likely scenario in which North Greenville, UNC Pembroke and Chowan all finish with 5-1 league records this year, but the conference tiebreakers almost certainly would eliminate Chowan and lead to a rematch of the 2025 league championship game between North Greenville and UNCP.
Last, but certainly not least…
#4—Shout-out, again at the D2 level, to fifth-year Johnson C Smith head coach Maurice Flowers.
The Golden Bulls had their backs to the wall last Saturday, needing a victory over nationally ranked Virginia State to remain in the hunt for a trip to next week’s CIAA championship game, which will be held at Durham County Stadium right here in the Triangle.
Sure enough, Johnson C Smith got it done last Saturday in front of the home fans at the Irwin Belk Complex in Charlotte, with running back Fabian Duncan — the fourth-leading rusher in the entire D2 ranks, at 157 yards per game — carrying the ball a whopping 39 times for 203 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning score in the Bulls’ 39-33 overtime victory.
Now, as long as the 7-2 Golden Bulls take care of business at 3-6 Livingstone this Saturday afternoon (2 p.m., CIAA), they will finish second in the CIAA standings. That would give them the right to face first-place Virginia Union, which is undefeated in league play, at next week’s conference championship game in Durham.
Virginia Union was the CIAA champion in both 2023 and 2024, before Flowers led JCSU to that title last year, in what was just the Golden Bulls’ second championship in their 100 years as a member of that league. Now the Bulls may have at least a shot at their second league crown in a row.
