AP photo

NASHVILLE — Duke had to dodge several ghosts of seasons past while playing Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt Stadium on Saturday.

Missed field goals. Turnovers. A soul-killing big pass play just when you think you’ve got a handle on a game.

The Blue Devils flinched over and over but sophomore defensive back Chris Rwabukamba intercepted a late pass to help Duke work out a tough 10-7 non-conference victory over Vanderbilt.

Duke (4-3), needing two wins to earn a trip to a bowl, plays Wake Forest, which lost to Miami on Saturday, in Winston-Salem next weekend.

ESPN360.com is offering exclusive live coverage of one more ACC football game this season — Duke at Wake Forest at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 1. The N.C. State-Maryland game tomorrow also will be shown only on ESPN360.com, which is available from certain Internet service providers, including AT&T and Verizon.

Time Warner doesn't have it yet, but the company likes the service and may eventually work out a deal to add it to Roadrunner. Meanwhile, a few area sports bars are planning to hook up ESPN360 to their big screens tomorrow to show the State game, and anyone on campus with a .edu e-mail address can get it.

Duke will be down two receivers against Vanderbilt on Saturday but receiver Johnny Williams is expected to return.

Williams missed the Miami game with a dental abscess. Duke will need freshman because Raphael Chestnut and Austin Kelly are out. Williams and freshman Donovan Varner will start in their stead.

More ACC games rule the Pick Six fun in Week 9.

I had my best week ever, sadly at 4-2, which was not good enough to beat Patrick Stevens, of the Washington Times, who went 5-1.

This week loyal reader Eric Koch, a Virginia Tech fan from Edison, N.J., is the guest picker.

If you'd like to be the guest picker, send me an e-mail and state your case.

On with the games:

During a phone conversation Tuesday, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas shared his opinions on ACC and N.C. State basketball. Here are some of his comments:

Three years in the making, the North Carolina Research Campus debuted Monday in Kannapolis.

The $1.5 billion project, driven by developer-billionaire David Murdock, has transformed the former Pillowtex mill complex, which closed in 2003 in Kannapolis and threatened that area with a massive economic tailspin.

Murdock, owner of Dole Food, swept in with a big idea: A research campus mixing private industry with not just a single university's research engine - like N.C. State's Centennial Campus or, perhaps, the eventual Carolina North project in Chapel Hill - but an accumulation of brainiacs from universities across the state.

Sixteen private businesses, eight North Carolina universities and the state's community college system jumped on board. Our local universities are well represented, as UNC-CH, Duke, NCCU and N.C. State all have research programs running or in the works on the campus.

This venture is no joke. Murdock is picking up a lot of the tab, but so are you and I. There is about $47 million in public money committed to the project.

The Charlotte Observer has a nice look at the project here.

One snippet on the economic viablility of translating research to the market:

"Biotech is a dicey venture. It can take a decade or longer - and hundreds of millions of dollars - just to get one product to market, with no guarantee of success. An industry that requires risk-takers for investing in new ideas is especially vulnerable to a turbulent market."

DURHAM — The Duke football team crashed the Duke Blue-White basketball scrimmage, before its loss to Miami. The basketball crowd stopped and gave the football team a standing ovation, a sign that it's a new age at Duke.

It also signals that a strong relationship is blossoming between Duke football coach David Cutcliffe and basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Staff photo by Chuck Liddy

• First Look

DURHAM — Miami and Duke have each won one ACC game  since their meeting last September at the Orange Bowl. The Hurricanes are 1-9 and the Blue Devils are 1-8.

Make that 2-9 for Miami. The Hurricanes scored 35 straight points in the second half to run away from Duke for a 49-31 win.

• Photo gallery

DURHAM — The theme for the 2008-09 Duke basketball season is “Our house, our court.” ACC Now is taking that to mean the Devils promise not to lose at home this season.

The Devils didn't have to worry about that on Saturday. The Blue-White scrimmage ended at Cameron, telling the story that the Duke basketball team will be fast, it can be deep, and its freshmen will have roles on this team.

Duke basketball player Greg Paulus has a sense of what his brother Mike, a backup redshirt freshman quarterback for the North Carolina Tar Heels football team, is going through these days.

With UNC starter T.J. Yates getting injured in the second half against Virginia Tech with the Heels leading, Paulus came off the bench and threw two interceptions. The Heels let the lead slip in an eventual loss and Paulus took his share of heat as a result.

Paulus and Cameron Sexton both played the following week in a win at Miami where Sexton, a junior, emerged as Yates' replacement.