When the Elon University football team last traveled to Durham in 2010 to take on Duke University, the Phoenix faced a struggling program that was coming off a 5-7 season, which at the time was its highest win total since 1994.

In five days, the Phoenix will return to Durham, but both programs are now in a different era.  Duke is coming off a 10-4 campaign in 2013, the first 10-win season in program history. The Blue Devils won the Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference and earned a spot in the ACC Championship Game.

Under head coach David Cutcliffe, who is 31-44 in his six years at the helm, Duke has shifted away from its losing ways and for the first time in what seems like forever, there is real confidence and high expectations for Duke football heading into the new season.

The Blue Devils’ hopes to repeat its 2013 success will be tested in the upcoming weeks, as the team lost linebacker Kelby Brown and tight end Braxton Deaver this preseason to season-ending knee injuries.  Brown, a 2013 All-ACC selection, recorded 114 tackles last year, good for third on the team.  Deaver hauled in 46 catches for 600 yards and four touchdowns in 2013.  Brown and Deaver, both fifth-year seniors, are no strangers to injury, as both have missed an entire season due to knee injuries already in their careers.

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When Elon played Duke in 2010, Pete Lembo was head coach of the Phoenix and Rich Skrosky was serving as offensive coordinator.  Now, Lembo is at Ball State and Skrosky is back at Elon, this time as head coach.  Duke defeated Elon, 41-27, in 2010, a time when the Phoenix had been enjoying recent success.  The Phoenix went 9-3 in 2009, but still lost to a Duke team that at the time was at the bottom of the ACC.

Four years later, the script is flipped and Elon is the team that is in a period of transition.  Since the 14-point loss to Duke in 2010, the Phoenix has faced two ACC opponents (the University of North Carolina in 2012 and Georgia Tech in 2013), were shut out by both and lost by a combined 132 points.

Though the losses of Brown and Deaver are a big blow for the Blue Devils, it remains to be seen how the Phoenix will perform on Saturdays under Skrosky.  Senior quarterback Mike Quinn will start for Elon at Duke, but he is still in the process of absorbing a new offensive system engineered by Skrosky and offensive coordinator Damian Wroblewski.  Quinn’s performance against Georgia Tech last year (17-for-30, 136 yards, three interceptions) is not exactly encouraging, either.

At the conclusion of the team’s final scrimmage of preseason camp Aug. 23, Skrosky noted that while Quinn has made progress in camp, there is still more to be made.

“He’s not where we want him to be at this point in time,” Skrosky said of Quinn.

That’s not exactly a glowing endorsement of a quarterback that will face the defending Coastal Division champs of the ACC.