SHEPPARD SHOW: Duke Football CRUSHES Tulane - Nate Sheppard Emerges as Top ACC Running Back

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is The Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day.

JJ Jackson (0:11)

We always love that winning feeling, and Duke Football starts off the season 17-3, the win over Tulane.

SPEAKER_3 (0:24)

You are Locked On Blue Devils, your daily podcast on the Duke Blue Devils, part of The Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

JJ Jackson (0:36)

Hello, everybody. Welcome into another episode of The Locked On Blue Devils Podcast. My name is JJ Jackson. It is so great to have you here with us today on this Wednesday, September 9th, 2026, Locked On Blue Devils is your one-stop shop where we discuss everything going on inside the life of Duke Athletics. On today's show, we got to talk about that win that Duke Football had over Tulane, 17-3 the final score as Manny Diaz gets year 3 started as Duke's head coach with a win. We'll break it all down with our good buddy Hugh Strain from Duke Blue Devils on SI who joins us now. Hugh, great to see you once again on the show. We've been posting clips throughout the week here on the program. You and I talked about the key to victory for Duke was going to be to hand Nate Sheppard the football and boy oh boy they did that. Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. Good to see you, my friend.

Hugh Strain (1:26)

You as well, JJ. Always good to be on. I mean, yeah, we talked about how it just made sense. Give your best player the ball as much as possible. I don't know if anyone could have expected just how much of the offense Nate Sheppard ended up being. I mean, he was quite literally the only spark on that side of the ball all evening long, but certainly led the way and expect him to lead the way here for the majority of the rest of the season. But quickly, you know, turning heads and could, like we said in the preseason, could genuinely turn into one of the best running backs in college football. And I think that was one heck of a start against Tulane.

JJ Jackson (2:00)

227 yards on 35 carries, two scores, and there was just no answer for him.

Duke put out amazing content after the fact going to some press scrums from Tulane where Tulane football players were saying if we could hold them under 200 yards rushing that we'd find a way to win. And Nate Sheppard took offense to that, and knew how good the team as a whole was. And it was like the very first drive, man, that they were able to get the job done. Let's talk about that for a moment. Also what I really appreciated in this behind the scenes footage that Duke released their cinematic recap for the game, a few weeks ago in fall camp, Manny Diaz said, just imagine the hype going into the season and we find out there's a delay before kickoff. Mentally, we've still got to stay sharp and be ready to go. And what do you know, a few weeks later, Hugh, going into that opener, it played out that way. For a coach to even think, like, let's make sure we're mentally sharp and then for Duke to put together nearly a 10-minute drive to get the season started after a rain and lightning delay in the Durham area. That was crazy and good job by Duke to just have that footage ready to go, man. That was epic to see.

Hugh Strain (3:12)

Yeah, pretty cool. I mean, Diaz, Manny Diaz has proven time and time again that he's a fantastic coach and he's a guy that I think the Duke football program is lucky to have. Hopefully, he's there long term, but his sustained success makes it a little nerve-racking for Duke fans long term here, but obviously a fantastic coach. And yeah, Duke was hit with a couple sort of late reports, kind of stopping their rhythm, obviously the weather. And then you assume the Duke program knew about this before it was made public, but give or take an hour and a half or so before kickoff, even Nicholas was officially ruled out of that game, which was another big hit.

Guy who came in, you know, expect to be one of your top receivers. So for a team like Duke, you know, hit with the weather delay, hit with just kind of getting thrown out of your rhythm and, you know, stuck to the game plan, got Nate Sheppard the ball. He had a, you mentioned that, that early long drive, he had 11 carries on that first drive alone. So you give him the ball, you feed him the ball and it worked out pretty well. I mean, like you said, there was literally no answer for him all night long from that Tulane defense. And he took advantage with 35 carries, but efficient on those carries, 6.5 yards per attempt for him. I mean, he just looked dominated. It kind of did look easy for him. I expect more of the same. I think this weekend against Illinois will be a really fun test for him, though, to really kind of make a statement against, you know, an opponent out of the mighty Big Ten.