A.J. Reed kicked a 19-yard field goal with 1:24 left to play to lift Duke to a 38-35 upset win on the road against heavily favored Notre Dame and earned the Blue Devils the United States Sports Academy’s College Football Game of the Week honor.
Duke quarterback Daniel Jones completed 24-of-32 passes for 290 yards and three touchdowns, including a 64-yard strike to receiver Anthony Nash to tie the game at 35 in the fourth quarter. Nash caught six passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns, while running back Jela Duncan carried 21 times for 121 yards and a touchdown for Duke. The Blue Devils gained 498 yards of offense against the Irish.
Notre Dame jumped (1-3) out to a 14-0 lead early in the first quarter but Duke (2-2) rebounded when Shaun Wilson returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown.
Notre Dame entered Saturday’s game as a 21-point home favorite.
A blue ribbon panel of 17 members consisting of former college football coaches and athletic directors and including Academy faculty selects the weekly winner of the Academy’s College Football Game of the Week Award by ballot. The committee is chaired by former U.S. Naval Academy athletic director Jack Lengyel. At the conclusion of the college football season, the panel selects the Academy’s College Football Game of the Year.
The College Football Game of the Year Award is part of the Academy’s Awards of Sport series, a function of the American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA), which was established as “a tribute to the artist and the athlete.”
Each year at the conclusion of the college football season painter Daniel Moore, the ASAMA 2005 Sport Artist of the Year, is commissioned by the Academy to render a painting depicting a memorable and pivotal moment to commemorate the selected College Football Game of the Year. In addition, the Academy contributes $5,000 to the winning university’s scholarship fund.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Academy’s Game of the Year process and compare their selected games of the week to the committee’s selection.
Based in Daphne, Ala., the United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research, and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports. For more information about the Academy, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu .
Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of nearly 2,000 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.
By Eric Mann
Eric Mann is the communications assistant at the United States Sports Academy.