Alabama @ Duke preview
Wallace Wade Stadium
Last Meeting ( Oct 7, 2006 ) Duke 14, Alabama 30
When Alabama continues its quest toward a 14th national championship Saturday, it will do so in a stadium named after the coach that led Alabama to its first three national titles.
The top-ranked Crimson Tide make their first road trip of the season, as the defending national champs travel to Durham, N.C., to take on Duke at Wallace Wade Stadium.
Coming off a dominant 24-3 victory against Penn State, Alabama (2-0) has won 26 consecutive regular-season games, and now the Crimson Tide plans to have reigning Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram back after the junior missed the first two games while recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.
The running game hasn't missed a beat without Ingram, averaging 218.5 yards per game on the ground. Sophomore Trent Richardson has led the way with 210 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries, an average of 6.6 yards per carry. Richardson ran for a career-high 144 yards and a touchdown against Penn State, becoming the first back to rush for 100 yards against the Nittany Lions since Iowa's Shonn Greene in 2008.
The passing game has been just as efficient, as senior quarterback Greg McElroy has completed 72.5 percent of his passes for 447 yards and three touchdowns. He hasn't thrown an interception in 138 attempts dating to last season. McElroy threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns against Penn State, pushing him past 3,000 passing yards for his career.
Julio Jones has once again been McElroy's favorite target, catching 10 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown.
Even with seven new starters on defense, the Crimson Tide has picked up where it left off on that side of the ball. Alabama has held each of its first two opponents to three points and leads the nation in scoring defense.
The defense is expected to get a boost from the return of Marcell Dareus, who is finished serving a two-game suspension for accepting improper agent benefits. Dareus led the Crimson Tide in sacks a year ago and was the defensive MVP of last year's BCS championship game.
That unit will be tested against a Duke offense that ranks ninth in the nation with 514.5 total yards per game.
The Blue Devils (1-1) piled up 487 total yards in a 54-48 loss to Wake Forest last week. Quarterback Sean Renfree completed 28 of 44 passes for 358 yards and four touchdowns, including eight completions for 181 yards to Conner Vernon, who was on the receiving end of two scoring passes. Vernon leads the nation with 310 receiving yards.
Desmond Scott led the Blue Devils' ground game with 122 yards on 11 carries last week and leads the ACC with 99.5 rushing yards per game.
The Blue Devils have topped 40 points in each of their first two games, marking their first back-to-back 40-point games since 1991, and the 89 points are their most in a two-game span since scoring 90 against South Carolina and N.C. State in 1952.
Duke coach David Cutcliffe, an Alabama graduate, went 2-4 against his alma mater as the head coach at Ole Miss.
Duke is 0-10 all-time against top-ranked teams and 3-8 against reigning national champions.
The meeting is the fourth all-time between the programs, but the first in Durham. Alabama won the most recent meeting 30-14 in Tuscaloosa in 2006. Duke lone win in the series was a 29-26 victory in the 1945 Sugar Bowl.