FACTS & STATS: Site: Wallace Wade Stadium (33,941) -- Durham, North Carolina. Television: ESPNU. Home Record: Miami-FL 2-2, Duke 3-1. Away Record: Miami-FL 1-1, Duke 0-1. Neutral Record: Miami-FL 0-0, Duke 0-0. Conference Record: Miami-FL 0-2, Duke 1-1. Series Record: Miami-Florida leads, 4-1.

GAME NOTES: The only team in the Coastal Division of the ACC without a league victory, the Miami-Florida Hurricanes try to change direction this weekend as they battle the Duke Blue Devils in Durham. Miami managed to even its record this season at 3-3, thanks to a 20-14 non-conference win over UCF last Saturday at home, but the squad not only has back-to-back losses to ACC foes North Carolina and Florida State, but its lone blowout victory came against Charleston Southern in the opener, 52-7. As for the Blue Devils, a football program that has been the laughing stock of the league for a number of years, the squad has actually been moving in the right direction this season with three wins in five opportunities. Granted, one of those triumphs was against a non-FBS program in James Madison, but the group did gain some respect with back-to-back triumphs over both Navy and Virginia. Enjoying a bye last week, the most recent game for the Blue Devils took place on October 4th, the squad's first road trip of 2008 which ended in a 27-0 loss to Georgia Tech. As far as the all-time series between these two programs is concerned, the Hurricanes have won all but one of the previous five meetings with Duke. In fact, the only victory for the Blue Devils came in the very first meeting back in 1976 by a score of 20-7. More recently Miami posted a 24-14 victory against the Blue Devils in the Orange Bowl a season ago.

Graig Cooper rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown, accounting for most of the team's 128 yards on the ground in their win over UCF this past weekend. While the rest of the running backs had problems moving the ball, the same could be said for quarterback Robert Marve who completed just 8-of-19 passes for 74 yards and, while he did manage to throw a TD pass to Travis Benjamin, was also picked off three times and sacked twice in the decision. Marve has been less than marvelous in 2008 for the Hurricanes, averaging a mere 122.4 ypg through the air and having more interceptions (eight) than touchdowns (six) through his five appearances. There doesn't seem to be one favorite target in the aerial attack either, with five players posting between 11 and 13 receptions thus far. Cooper, who recorded a personal high for carries last weekend, actually leads the group with his 13 grabs, yet has just 54 yards to show for his efforts. On the ground he's been a bit more reliable with 412 yards and four TDs and yet his efforts have done little to make the offense better than 110th in the country this week with 289.2 ypg.

UCF's offense was nowhere to be found against an aggressive and relentless Miami defense. The 'Canes not only limited the visitors to a mere four yards rushing, they held the Knights to a pitiful 78 total yards on 64 plays, an effort that was reminiscent of the dominant Miami squads in past decades. As the Hurricanes held UCF to a miserable 3-of-18 on third down and just 1-of-3 on fourth-down attempts, players such as Allen Bailey stepped up big as he tallied a pair of sacks for a combined loss of 22 yards. Darryl Sharpton and Spencer Adkins also logged sacks in the decision as well. Because of the defensive effort the Hurricanes put together on Saturday, the team is now second in the ACC and 16th nationally in yards allowed on the ground (95.7 ypg) and is 20th in the country in overall defense with just 279.8 ypg surrendered. Tackles for loss are a big part of the unit's efforts, coming up with 7.3 TFLs per game to rank third in the ACC and 17th in the nation, which much of the credit going to a player like Glenn Cook who leads the group with 6.5 TFLs and 38 overall stops.

Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis has put up some decent numbers so far this season with his 194.2 ypg passing and seven touchdowns and just three interceptions over the course of five games. However, before reading too much into those numbers it is important to note that Lewis had his best game of the season against a fairly weak pass defense in Navy. In that contest he passed for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns, accounting for a huge chunk of his stats to this point in the campaign. Easily the most conspicuous target for Lewis and the Blue Devils down the field has been Eron Riley who has team highs across the board with 27 catches for 288 yards and six touchdowns, which means Miami needs only to focus on his whereabouts in order to shake up the passing attack of Duke. The running game for the Blue Devils is not much to write home about, averaging just 118.8 ypg to place ninth in the ACC and 95th in the country this week.

Greg Akinbiyi doesn't make many tackles over the course of a game, having tallied just 20 stops in five contests, but when he does take someone down it is usually for a significant loss. Already this season Akinbiyi has seven TFLs, more than anyone else on the unit and is also first on the team with a pair of sacks, with a pair of fumble recoveries and a forced fumble along the way for good measure. Because of Akinbiyi the Blue Devils are currently fourth in the ACC and 35th in the nation with nearly six and a half sacks per game, but sacks are a much different story for this group. Despite Akinbiyi's efforts, Duke is second-to-last in the conference and 99th in the country with a mere 1.2 sacks per outing, which means the pass defense has to work that much harder down the field to make a difference. For the most part the secondary has done the job with just 175.2 ypg allowed, which is fifth in the ACC and 25th nationally at the moment.

A team that has been beaten and abused for so many years, the Blue Devils may just have what it takes to get by Miami this weekend, especially having had the extra week to prepare.