DURHAM, N.C. — Duke thrived in its last prime-time, nationally televised game against a marquee opponent. The 17th-ranked Blue Devils have the chance to do it again.

Duke hosts No. 11 Notre Dame on Saturday night, a game that quickly grew in magnitude after the Blue Devils blew out preseason ACC favorite Clemson in its 4-0 start. The immediate challenge is stopping the Irish’s long regular-season winning streak against ACC teams, though it also includes managing the hype that includes luring ESPN’s “College GameDay” for its first appearance in Durham for a football game after multiple stops there for basketball.

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“I told the guys this morning: We’re getting a lot of congratulations for ‘GameDay’ coming here,” second-year coach Mike Elko said. “I’d rather wait and get some congratulations for how we play the football game Saturday night.”

Duke has a chance to reach 5-0 for the first time since winning the first seven games of the 1994 season. This comes just two years after Duke closed a three-win season with eight straight losses, seven by at least 25 points.

“There’s so much more we have in us,” linebacker Dorian Mausi said. “When you take a step back and look at it, yes, we can be proud of how far we’ve come. But it’s still an innate sense of knowing we have so much more to get to and so much more to accomplish.”

The most notable change this year has been the play of Duke’s defense, which has allowed just five touchdowns in four games. The Blue Devils will need another strong showing from that unit against the Irish (4-1), who boast a strong offense behind quarterback Sam Hartman and cracked the 40-point mark in their four wins before a last-second loss last weekend to No. 4 Ohio State.

“The thing that you respect is how hard they play,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “They’re aggressive. They play extremely hard and they’re sound. They’re not exotic. They don’t do crazy things on defense, but they play fast and they play hard and they tackle well.”

Notre Dame has won 29 straight regular-season games against ACC opponents since losing at Miami in 2017. The Irish play an average of five games annually against conference teams as part of a scheduling arrangement for the football independent that is an ACC member in all other sports. The streak includes a win at North Carolina State on Sept. 9.

Notre Dame and Duke rank second and fourth nationally in team pass efficiency defense.

Cornerback Ben Morrison, a second-team preseason AP All-America pick, leads the Irish secondary. He played a crucial role in holding Ohio State’s superstar wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. to three receptions for 32 yards Saturday.

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Overall, Notre Dame has limited quarterbacks to a national-best 47.4% completion rate with two touchdowns and five interceptions. The Blue Devils are allowing a national-best 4.4 yards per pass attempt.

Duke’s dual-threat quarterback Riley Leonard had a big passing game in last week’s romp at Connecticut, but he has generated his biggest plays with his legs. Leonard is the team’s No. 2 rusher, averaging 59.5 yards per game, and has found the end zone four times, including a blitzer-shedding 44-yard sprint in the Clemson win.

“All offenses go through the quarterback, but the things he presents in the run game, he’s a big, physical, tough runner too,” Freeman said. “It’s a huge challenge for our team, the biggest one yet.”

The Blue Devils know plenty about Hartman. He played previously at Wake Forest, which was an every-year, in-state ACC opponent for Duke in the conference’s former cross-divisional scheduling model. Hartman played against Duke in each of the last two seasons, winning a blowout at home in 2021 but losing at Duke last year.

“We’re very familiar with Sam and who he is as a quarterback and what he’s capable of doing,” Elko said.

This is the first time a ranked Duke team has hosted a ranked opponent since the 23rd-ranked Blue Devils beat No. 13 Virginia in November 1994.

AP freelance writer Andrew Mentock in South Bend, Ind., contributed.