Virginia and Duke engaged in a bit of role reversal on a pleasant, variably cloudy Saturday afternoon before 25,527 fans at Wallace Wade Stadium. Al Groh’s Cavaliers, a bowl team last year, fell to 1-3 and often looked befuddled, bedraggled, and, frankly, bedeviled as they committed six turnovers. Coach David Cutcliffe’s first Duke team looked quite competent as it improved to 3-1, the school’s best start since 1994, also its most recent bowl season.

More meaningful for a Duke program that has long served as the ACC’s doormat, the 31-3 victory ended a 25-game conference losing streak that dated to November 2004. “The streak being over is great,” said senior noseguard Clifford Respress. “I’m very excited. This is my first ACC win. It’s amazing.”

The margin of victory was the Blue Devils’ largest in a decade. The last time a league opponent managed so few points against the Blue Devils was 1989, when Steve Spurrier ran up the score in a 41-0 victory at Chapel Hill, after which his team gleefully posed for photos with the scoreboard in the background.

No current Duke player had previously participated in an ACC win, not even fifth-year players redshirted as freshmen. Asked what it was like in the Duke locker room, junior cornerback Leon Wright described the scene as “crazy.” Players danced. Music played. “They’re having fun,” Wright said. “That’s all we can do."

A lot less fun was had by the home team on Saturday evening at Raleigh’s Carter-Finley Stadium, where rain and a relentless South Florida attack quickly swept away injury-riddled N.C. State in a forgettable 41-10 rout.

Long passes, deft rushing, and the elusive skills of junior quarterback Matt Grothe helped No. 13 USF notch touchdowns on its first three possessions. Grothe hit 20 of 29 passes for 259 yards on the night, with a touchdown and no interceptions.

Included in the Bulls’ 31-10 halftime advantage was something of a rarity -- a pair of N.C. State safeties caused by poor snaps on consecutive possessions in the second quarter. South Florida improved to 5-0, accumulating a gaudy 354 yards in total offense and 19 first downs in the opening half alone. For the game it had 29 first downs, two short of the record by an N.C. State opponent. The Bulls amassed 520 yards in total offense, gaining 6.4 yards per play.

Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien insisted the requisite enthusiasm and effort were present a week after his squad secured an emotional overtime victory against East Carolina. Pack players generally agreed, although not all of them. “In the first half, I don’t think we came to play,” lamented cornerback Jeremy Gray, a graduate student. “We just weren’t there.”

O’Brien’s take was that his team was defeated by a “pretty good” team. “We couldn’t make a play against them. They made plays against us. It’s over. Forget about it. We get back in the conference next week, and let’s see what we can get done.”

The 2-3 Wolfpack never seriously threatened, yet fought hard. Harrison Beck, a drop-back passer substituting for injured starter Russell Wilson, completed one throw for at least 40 yards in each of the first three quarters. A 48-yard toss to sophomore Owen Spencer set up the Pack’s only touchdown, a one-yard run by Andre Brown with 1:06 remaining in the opening half.

Beck hurt his left, non-throwing arm but expects to be ready next week for Boston College. Under a silly rule imposed by O'Brien, he could not discuss specifics of his injury. Beck converted only 9 of 32 passes, but did average a gaudy 26.6 yards per completion.

By the time the second half began at Raleigh, a combination of drenching rain and wrenchingly unequal play sent the majority of the sellout crowd of 57,583 scurrying home. Not surprisingly, the hardiest souls were students seated in the open wearing red N.C. State T-shirts, and the school band, wrapped in plastic ponchos that gave members the look of a silvery choir.

The rain let up, but South Florida did not. Despite the playing conditions, the Big East’s top offensive squad kept Grothe in the game well into the fourth quarter.

Surprisingly, the result was similarly lopsided at Durham, where all but three of Duke’s points against Virginia came in the second half. The Devils’ final touchdown came on a one-yard rush by Tielor Robinson with 1:41 remaining. Some might consider Robinson’s score superfluous. Then again, we’re talking about Duke, which scored 31 points only twice all of last season. Besides, it was at Wade Stadium two years ago that Groh revealed a striking disdain for sportsmanship, allowing his team to throw and drive for a late score in a 37-0 win over the hapless Blue Devils.

Groh’s comeuppance was delivered at what was for him a most inopportune moment. Virginia media members openly speculated about the dour coach’s job status even before the thumping by Duke. This despite a $2 million per year contract that runs through 2011 and five bowl appearances in Groh’s first seven seasons at his alma mater. Reporters groan at the prospect of covering a search for a new coach, but they nonetheless love to contemplate replacing an incumbent.

Cutcliffe is one such replacement, having succeeded overmatched Ted Roof. The new coach brought an offense from Tennessee that increasingly dictated the terms of engagement with UVa as the game wore on. O’Brien, on the receiving end against USF’s uptempo, spread offense, noted much the same effect. “We had to go at their pace,” he said. “You have to play at the pace of the offense.”

The Blue Devils not only put together sustained drives in the second half with an effective mix of rushing and passing, but kept the Cavalier defense off-balance with variations on a no-huddle scheme. Cutcliffe said the new 40-second clock and a quicker reset by officials at the line of scrimmage amplify the advantages of employing the stratagem.

Nor is Duke easy to predict. Sometimes quarterback Thad Lewis let the play clock run down to about 20 seconds before he and the other skill-position players stood upright and looked to the sideline for the play call. Other times the Blue Devils mutely consulted sideline signals before lining up, or never looked at all. Formations varied as well, with Lewis varioulsy lining up under center or taking the snap in a shotgun alignment.

Virginia grew tentative when confronted with this approach, contributing to the game’s key score late in the third quarter. Cav defenders lost track of Eron Riley, Duke's most dangerous receiver, while looking to their sideline for assignments. Lewis immediately spied the situation, but was so anxious to execute a quickened snap he recalled being momentarily “tongue-tied.” He managed to bark out some signals and got the ball to Riley along the left sideline, where the senior cavorted 30 yards for a touchdown and a 17-3 lead.

“I started taking off, running with him,” a happy Cutcliffe said of Riley, “and when I realized he was going to outrun me so badly and it would be on tape, I pulled up.”