For Duquesne football, goals extend beyond highly anticipated opener vs. Pitt

If you’ve ever done the drive from New England to Pittsburgh, you know time has an uncanny way of slowing down.

The minutes seem like hours. The hours feel like centuries. Regardless of which state you are departing, there really is no perfect route to take, and you are invariably going to hit an illogical patch of traffic that is going to take an obnoxious amount of time to escape for seemingly no good reason.

Now imagine taking that ride in a bus with 50 other football teammates after the most disappointing loss of your careers.

That was the case for defensive back Antonio Epps and his fellow Duquesne Dukes after an upset defeat at the hands of Central Connecticut State in last year’s regular-season finale. The 21-14 loss cost the Dukes an outright NEC championship and a berth in the FCS playoffs.

“I don’t think there has ever been a quieter bus ride than that one,” Epps said. “It ended just like that. It was an eight-hour drive. You could hear a pin drop. It hit everyone really hard.”

Duquesne had won its first five conference games in machine-like fashion, outsourcing opponents 206-89 along the way. But an out-of-nowhere eight-turnover game from All-NEC quarterback Darius Perrantes, and a stubborn Blue Devils team, prevented the Dukes from claiming a fourth FCS playoff bid since 2015.

In his 21st season coaching Duquesne, Jerry Schmitt takes pride in how his teams usually have managed to compartmentalize defeats and move on from them.

Unfortunately, this time, there was no game to move on to next. That loss just sat on everyone’s shoulders from Nov. 23 all the way through training camp.

It’s hard to apply a “24-hour rule” to a wait of almost nine months.

“That was a tough one,” Schmitt said on his SportsNet Pittsburgh coach’s show. “It probably took a little bit longer for some guys. But we focused right away on moving on. Always use what happened to learn and get better. Our failures help us learn to be better.”

Perrantes has graduated. Gardner-Webb transfer Tyler Riddell is the new starting QB. However, 16 of the other 21 starters on offense and defense are returning players with significant playing experience from the Dukes’ 2024 club. They have taken Schmitt’s message to heart.

“That loss was something that we don’t want to feel again. A lot of us on this (2025 team) are in our last year, and that feeling will never go away,” Epps added. “It sticks with me to this day. We are determined not to let that happen again this year.”

The impact of that messaging won’t truly be played out until NEC play begins in October. After all, the challenge of bouncing back from that CCSU loss in Week 1 will be massive. The Dukes open the 2025 season Saturday at Acrisure Stadium against Pitt as 37.5-point underdogs.

That said, despite the odds, the atmosphere of anticipation to renew a local rivalry that has been dormant since 1939 within the Duquesne alumni and student body seems to have deadened any hangover from last year’s disappointing end.

“The environment is going to be loud, and it is going to be fun,” defensive lineman A.J. Ackerman said Thursday. “I’m excited to be on the field. There is a level of proximity to this (opponent). But I’m just excited to get out there. I’m really excited about the guys who were brought in and the guys we have coming back.”

While the final scores have never been particularly close, in recent years Duquesne has played a number of ACC and Big 12 schools such as Florida State, TCU, Boston College and West Virginia.

Ackerman said the Dukes have taken some valuable lessons from those experiences.

“You notice it on tape. There is a level of difference that the position you are playing against is coached to. You can see how consistent (FBS teams) are,” Ackerman said. “When you get a shot, you have to take it because it is only going to happen every so often, as compared to an FCS school where there is more opportunity sometimes.”

One thing is for sure: The bus ride back from the game won’t be as bad for Epps and company. The short 2.7-mile stretch road from Acrisure Stadium to Duquesne’s campus will be a lot easier to deal with than eight hours on I-84 and I-80.

Regardless of the outcome.

LISTEN: Tim Benz interviews Jerry Schmitt on Fox Sports Pittsburgh 970 AM.