No. 6 Stanford travels East to face lowly Duke

They want nothing more than a happy flight home.

The Cardinal (1-0) visit Duke (0- 1) on Saturday, and the toughest obstacle they’ll face might not be the Blue Devils themselves but jetlag.

The trip to Durham marks just the fifth regular-season cross-country trip since 1997 for Stanford, which is 1-3 in its previous four non-bowl games in the East. That includes a 24-17 loss two years ago at Wake Forest in the first road start of Luck’s career.

"There’s still a sour taste in my mouth from that,” Luck said. "I’d like to personally sort of right that ship in terms of the East Coast.”

That might not be too much of a challenge in this one. Some 2,400 miles away from their Bay Area home, the Cardinal are a three-touchdown favorite in this intersectional matchup of private schools with similarly rigid academic requirements but vastly different results on the field.

With Luck under center, Stanford is in the midst of one of the best stretches in school history.

The Cardinal opened their season by methodically routing San Jose State 57-3 for their ninth straight win, a streak that includes a rout of Atlantic Coast Conference champion Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl in January and is their longest since 1951.

A victory over Duke would bring them within three wins of the school record of 13 set in 1905 and matched in 1941. Stanford is 21-5 when starting Luck, the 2010 Heisman Trophy runner-up who could have been the Carolina Panthers’ No. 1 draft pick had he left school early.

"It all revolves around Andrew Luck,” said Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who knows something about evaluating quarterbacks, having mentored Peyton and Eli Manning when they were in college.

"People ask me, ‘Well, why is he good?’ He is some kind of physical specimen,” Cutcliffe added. "He’s a big, strong athlete. He’s got great feet, great, quick hands, and he has just an uncanny sense of poise and ability to buy a little time. He just stays out of panic.”