What If: Duke Football, 1971

Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images ATLANTA, GA - AUGUST 31: Blue Devil, the Duke mascot, during the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Duke Blue Devils on August 31, 2019 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.It’s easy to think of Duke football in the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s as one long, miserable slog through mediocrity or worse, with the occasional Steve Spurrier sighting to liven things up.

And you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. But the clouds did part and the sun did shine for a magical month in the 1971 season, one that demonstrated both the brilliance of which Duke football was still capable and the structural flaws that limited…