Associated Press

Duke coach David Cutcliffe was successful at Mississippi previously.

The last time Virginia stared across the line of scrimmage at Duke, the Blue Devils were in the throes of a 25-game ACC losing streak.

Now, Duke comes to Scott Stadium with another, more modest streak.

The Blue Devils (4-3, 2-1 ACC) have won back-to-back ACC games for the first time since 1995.

Duke hasn't won three consecutive conference games since 1989, when it tied Virginia for the ACC championship in coach Steve Spurrier's final season in Durham, N.C. That Duke team won seven games in a row, six against conference foes.

Virginia was a 31-3 loser at Duke last year and the Cavaliers would rather not serve as another footnote to Blue Devils history when the teams meet for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff today.

"We've discussed it," UVa cornerback and co-captain Chris Cook said this week. "It eats us up the way they won last year. Even though I wasn't officially a member of the team, it ate me up."

Cook was serving a one-year academic suspension when the Blue Devils capitalized on six UVa turnovers and outscored the Cavaliers 28-0 in the second half.

That Duke team finished 4-8 in coach David Cutcliffe's first season and the Blue Devils already have matched that win total this year.

"You know, David was very successful in a very challenging conference when he was the head coach at Ole Miss," Virginia coach Al Groh said earlier this week.

"And, [he] probably was unjustifiably released from that position."

In 2003, Cutcliffe was named Southeastern Conference coach of the year when his Mississippi team beat Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl and finished 10-3.

"So, he's a quality coach," Groh said. "Knows how to run a real good program. He's done a very good job [at Duke]. We're very respectful of it."

Cutcliffe was best known as a mentor to the Mannings. He was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee when Peyton Manning was the Vols' quarterback, and he was the head coach at Ole Miss when Eli Manning starred for the Rebels.

In that context, it was a glowing tribute when Cutcliffe said he believed that Thaddeus Lewis' performance Nov. 17 at North Carolina State "was the finest game I've had a quarterback have in college."

Lewis completed 40 of 50 passes for 459 yards and five touchdowns, and he also ran for a touchdown in Duke's 49-28 victory.

"Of the 10 passes he had incomplete, probably three were dropped and two were tips," said Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, who watched the Duke-State game in advance of the Terrapins' game in Durham. "We hadn't played them since expansion, but Thaddeus Lewis is one of the best quarterbacks in the country."

Lewis, a 6-foot-1, 215-pounder from Hialeah (Fla.) Miami Lakes High School, has been Duke's starting quarterback since the second game of his redshirt freshman season in 2006. He has started 42 of the past 43 games for the Blue Devils, missing only a 2008 visit to Virginia Tech, when he had a sprained ankle.

In Duke's first seven games this year, Lewis has thrown for 1,912 yards and 14 touchdowns. He has been intercepted three times.

"A lot of coaches would go first to those 14 touchdowns," Groh said, "but most guys would be very appreciative of only the three interceptions.

"Clearly, he's keeping his team out of difficult circumstances. He's really a stylish quarterback fundamentally, [with] a classic delivery. He's got a good-looking ball with a tight spiral. He puts the ball right on players' bodies."

In Duke, the Cavaliers will face the No. 5 passing offense one week after taking on the No. 2 rushing offense in Division I-A, Georgia Tech.

The Yellow Jackets attempted eight passes in a 34-9 victory at Scott Stadium. Duke averages more than eight passes per quarter, with a high of 55 in a 24-16 loss to Richmond in the season's opener.

"It's a difficult thing," said Cook of the inactivity the UVa cornerbacks experienced against Georgia Tech, particularly on plays run to the other side of the field. "We like being challenged."

They should be challenged today.

"On every team, those [defensive backs] are saying they wish they got more action," Groh said. "Well, now they're going to get their wish. They'll be challenged on every play [today.]

"For a player to go 15, 18, 20 plays in a row and not be [tested] and then to be able to really keep the hammer down for the next plays, that's a challenge for a lot of guys. That should not be an issue this week."