Riley Leonard, the quarterback for Duke football, hurt his right ankle again during the second half of the Blue Devils’ 38-20 loss to the fourth-ranked Seminoles. The Duke football team is rated 16th.
In the third quarter at Doak Campbell Stadium, with Duke leading 20–17, Leonard—who had only been back for three weeks—was hurt. He had first injured his ankle against Notre Dame in late September.
“He wanted to come back in,” Duke coach Mike Elko said after the game. “He was begging me on the sideline to come back in. I didn’t feel comfortable with where he was health-wise to bring him back, and so we didn’t do it.”
The Blue Devils (5-2, 2-1 ACC) lost by double digits for the first time under Elko as Florida State (7-0, 5-0) outscored Duke by 21 points in the fourth quarter after Henry Belin IV took Leonard’s place.
In Elko’s first 19 games, the Blue Devils’ worst loss came against Kansas, where they were defeated by eight points. Leonard caught seven of his sixteen catches for 69 yards and one interception. Belin got one pass completed for seven yards.
“The fourth quarter got away from us and they were obviously able to pull away and create the score that they did,” Elko said.
“I thought for three quarters we battled – our defense against their offense – I thought we held them in check to some degree. … It got away at the end, so now we’ve gotta regroup.”
