Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
Duke and State opened the season in typical ACC fashion.
Consider how the Blue Devils and Wolfpack began as heavy favorites and looked like they could have lost after three quarters.
Duke had tons more size and speed than Elon. State was looking to make up for the bowl game it gave away to East Carolina last year. Somehow, both were still one-score games early in the fourth.
If you watched them, compare what you might see this weekend involving SEC and Big Ten teams. As usual, there will be no comparison, sorry.
Both ACC teams were at home, State with the regular capacity crowd that is one big party from an hour before the kickoff through the dramatic last drive. Duke had another turnout that looked like the visiting team brought as many fans as Dukies who showed up.
Each team has exciting quarterbacks who could have great seasons.
Darian Mensah is the transfer the Blue Devils really needed. The sophomore was rumored to receive seven figures for coming from Tulane, where Duke will visit in week three and may be an underdog.
Mensah had a slow start, which was expected with all the hype, but finished with 389 yards passing and three touchdowns, no picks. He led three TD drives in the fourth quarter that turned a close game into a blowout final score of 45-17.
Sophomore C.J. Bailey showed why State could be very dangerous on offense this season even with a running game almost as bad as East Carolina’s. Bailey was the star with 340 yards of total offense that included running and passing touchdowns.
The Pirates ran for a paltry 30 yards, which is about one third of the winning touchdown jaunt that pulled out the Military Bowl win last December when it looked like State had the W in the bag.
Both games had explosive plays by explosive players.
The Blue Devils kept allowing little Elon to stay within one score before finishing with more than 500 yards of total offense, another reason it should have been a rout early on, when the Phoenix’s barely 6-foot QB Landen Clark looked almost as good as Mensah.
ECU’s senior transfer quarterback Katin Hauser, who played some at Michigan State before downgrading to Greenville, looked rattled with the State crowd roaring, but he outplayed Bailey in the second half and could not convert a fourth-and-1 in the Wolfpack red zone that would have tied the game, or won it with a 2-point conversion, in the last minute of play. Hauser wound up with 382 yards of the Prates’ total offense while the rest of the team had 47.
State coach Dave Doeren looked pale at the prospect of ECU doing it again and left the field as a half-happy man with the 24-17 victory. His next four games against Virginia, Wake Forest, Duke and Virginia Tech will tell us more than we learned about State on opening night.
chapelboroaudio.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/2025/08%20-%20August/29/Art%27s%20Notebook%20082925%20-%20FINAL.mp3
Featured image via Associated Press/Karl DeBlaker
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
Chansky’s Notebook: Mediocre Starts Chapelboro.com.
Hence then, the article about chansky s notebook mediocre starts was published today ( ) and is available on chapelboro ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Chansky’s Notebook: Mediocre Starts )
Also on site :
- 12-year old Russian beats world chess champion
- Hundreds of popular grocery, drug-store items recalled due to ‘filth' at Midwest distribution center
- Passengers stuck on Delta flight for more than two hours after landing at Rochester airport