"The Blue Devils are a combined 1-39 against their remaining six opponents since the Atlantic Coast Conference expanded in 2004 - including an 0-8 mark against this week's opponent, Virginia Tech."
Kinda puts some things back in perspective. As giddy as I am about the start of the season, VT will be a real measuring stick of where we REALLY are. If we build on the second half of the UVa game, we should acquit ourselves very well. If we spot points early, it's gonna be tough to chase all day.
Thank you for the kind words, sir. With various players getting back into practice, we can be encouraged about what can develop as the season goes forward.
I'm working at trying to keep a balance between the euphoria brought on by the current success and the tough, focused attitude needed to keep this trend going. I've recently borrowed a little saying from my friends in Louisiana: Stay Calm. Beat Everybody.
I would not call a 7-5 record a "good year" at Duke. I would call it a great year! I would be over-the-moon thrilled with that kind of record given what our program has endured for the past 2 decades. Heck, there are classes of Duke football players who came through here and did not win 7 games total in their 4 years on campus! 7 wins in one season... it is almost mind-boggling.
I bet you could have polled 50 Duke football fans in the pre-season this year and asked them to bet on how many wins Duke would get and you would not have found more than maybe 3 or 4 who would have predicted 7 wins in the regular season.
I am not saying 7 should be our goal -- I agree with Coach Cut that the team must aspire to championships -- but lets enjoy what a remarkable situation we are in today to even be dreaming of 6 or 7 wins. I will honestly say that I did not expect this for this season (I predicted 4 wins, when talking to friends in the pre-season).
-Jason "many of my Duke friends predicted 2 or 3 victories this year -- they are all gleefully wrong!" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
I'd have to agree here, 7 wins would be, for me, an awesome year for Duke football. I haven't been a Duke FB fan for that long (my first memories include the word "airborne", which still gives me shudders), and my time as a fan has not been fun until the past few years.
Even if we went 1-5 the rest of the way, I would be very pleased with this season. I've never even sniffed a bowl game as a Duke fan.
football in the ny times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/sp...ef=todayspaper
Well, in one game against VT, we saw two Dukes: the one which has seemed to turn a corner from Duke teams in the past and gotten so many fans excited, and the other which is "vintage" Duke.
Sadly, they came in that order.
This is officially a vigil. Our best chance at a bowl game might be against UNC next weekend or Miami at home to close out the season. Hope it doesn't get to that final game.
Do you remember what happened to the basketball team the last time Duke football went to a bowl game? It might just be a zero-sum game. The sports gods may only allow a finite amount of Duke success in any given year.
And for those who scoff at the idea that a good(er) football season may mean a not-good(er) basketball season, why do you have that lucky sweatshirt that you wear during a big game???!!?
Riddle me that...
I was going to counterexample with 2007 for the other side of the spectrum, until I remembered the women's basketball team that year actually helps prove his point (Harding's free throws are still my worst Duke sporting moment, beating out any UNC or Lehigh or LSU or whatever related defeat).
Please stop over analyzing this. It was a joke.
Tough road game, we have the rival coming to our house this week. Regroup and get it done.