FB: 2015 Schedule

[Bob Green]

The ACC will announce the 2015 football schedule tomorrow at 1000.

B8dJlJFIYAAPffy.jpg

[CameronBornAndBred]

The ACC will announce the 2015 football schedule tomorrow at 1000.

B8dJlJFIYAAPffy.jpg

Sept. 3 at Tulane (Thurs.)
Sept. 12 NC CENTRAL
Sept. 19 NORTHWESTERN
Sept. 26 GEORGIA TECH
Oct. 3 BOSTON COLLEGE
Oct. 10 at Army
Oct. 17 OPEN
Oct. 24 at Virginia Tech
Oct. 31 MIAMI
Nov. 7 at North Carolina
Nov. 14 PITT
Nov. 21 at Virginia
Nov. 28 at Wake Forest


6 home games, with 4 of them in a row in the hottest month of the year.

[AIRFORCEDUKIE]

Looks like a favorable schedule once again, another bowl season is upon us. Perhaps a ACC championship appearance and win!!!! Lets go DUKE Football!!!

Having GT and Miami at home is a big plus!

[CameronBornAndBred]

I like our schedule...and I like our November. I see the potential for going 4-4 close the year, which would be huge heading into a bowl. (I could also see us going 2-4.)

[AIRFORCEDUKIE]

I like our schedule...and I like our November. I see the potential for going 4-4 close the year, which would be huge heading into a bowl. (I could also see us going 2-4.)

does that mean going 4 wins and 4 loses or 4 out of 4 games won? I would think going 4-4 as in 4 wins and 4 loses going into a bowl game would not be huge...

[Bob Green]

Here are my initial reactions to the schedule:

1. Four home games in a row does not make me happy.
2. The bye week is favorably scheduled with six games before and six games after.
3. A fast start (5-1?) is possible.
4. Finishing the regular season on the road at Virginia and at Wake Forest should be a good thing.

More thoughts later...

[CameronBornAndBred]

does that mean going 4 wins and 4 loses or 4 out of 4 games won? I would think going 4-4 as in 4 wins and 4 loses going into a bowl game would not be huge...

Winning all 4. We've not done that in November, and it would be huge going into a bowl game (and possibly the ACC championship game.)

[AIRFORCEDUKIE]

ahhh gotcha, then I completely agree, winning all four would be epic!

[Bob Green]

Here is the complete conference schedule:

http://www.theacc.com/page/2015-acc-...ule-grid-style

None of our eight conference opponents have a bye week the week before playing Duke!

[devildeac]

Sept. 3 at Tulane (Thurs.)
Sept. 12 NC CENTRAL
Sept. 19 NORTHWESTERN
Sept. 26 GEORGIA TECH
Oct. 3 BOSTON COLLEGE
Oct. 10 at Army
Oct. 17 OPEN
Oct. 24 at Virginia Tech
Oct. 31 MIAMI
Nov. 7 at North Carolina
Nov. 14 PITT
Nov. 21 at Virginia
Nov. 28 at Wake Forest


6 home games, with 4 of them in a row in the hottest month of the year.

Yea, that's brutal on our tailgating crew (), not to mention our players, but with Cut's emphasis on conditioning from the moment he arrived, I'm confident he'll have our guys ready.

[CameronBornAndBred]

One of the concerns of last year was our weak schedule. Looking back at results of the teams that we'll be playing this year, I'm not sure that perception will change much.
8 of the 12 teams we played finished with losing records. Three of those teams went bowling, but lost in their bowls and thus ended at 6-7. (By the way...two of those three teams beat us, and the third came within a missed FG.) Here are the results, ACC records in parenthesis.
Tulane (Thurs.) 3-9
NC CENTRAL 7-5
NORTHWESTERN 5-7
GEORGIA TECH 11-3 (6-2)
BOSTON COLLEGE 7-6 (4-4)
Army 4-8
Virginia Tech 7-6 (3-5)
MIAMI 6-7 (5-3)
North Carolina 6-7 (4-4)
PITT 6-7 (4-4)
Virginia 5-7 (3-5)
Wake Forest 3-9 (1-7)

[sagegrouse]

One of the concerns of last year was our weak schedule. Looking back at results of the teams that we'll be playing this year, I'm not sure that perception will change much.
8 of the 12 teams we played finished with losing records. Three of those teams went bowling, but lost in their bowls and thus ended at 6-7. (By the way...two of those three teams beat us, and the third came within a missed FG.) Here are the results, ACC records in parenthesis.
Tulane (Thurs.) 3-9
NC CENTRAL 7-5
NORTHWESTERN 5-7
GEORGIA TECH 11-3 (6-2)
BOSTON COLLEGE 7-6 (4-4)
Army 4-8
Virginia Tech 7-6 (3-5)
MIAMI 6-7 (5-3)
North Carolina 6-7 (4-4)
PITT 6-7 (4-4)
Virginia 5-7 (3-5)
Wake Forest 3-9 (1-7)

Another way to look at it, CBB, is that we are playing six bowl teams, which isn't bad. It happens that Pitt, UNC and Miami were 6-6 and lost their bowl games to finish with losing records.

[Olympic Fan]

Winning all 4. We've not done that in November, and it would be huge going into a bowl game (and possibly the ACC championship game.)

Did we forget 2013 so quickly? 4-0 in November with wins over NC State, Miami, Wake Forest and UNCheat to close out the regular season.

And who gives a &%$#^ about a weak schedule -- that only manners if Duke is in position to make a run at the playoffs.

We're not there yet. We're still in the building stage. I'd rather go 9-3 or 10-2 against a weak schedule than go 7-5 or 8-4 against a strong one.

If we manage to go 12-0 against that schedule, I'll gladly accept all the criticism that it's too weak.

[Wander]

3. A fast start (5-1?) is possible.

Honestly, going worse than 5-1 would be disappointing to me. I really think we're going to be better next year than this year.

The weak schedule thing is an interesting debate for us. I fall on the side of that I'd rather have a harder schedule than what we have, mostly because I'm genuinely curious as to how we'd fare against a good team from another conference before December or January, and as a football fan the game would just be more fun than Army or whatever. But I can appreciate the opposing view of just needing to pick up as many wins as possible for a team like us.

We should really be contending for the division title next year, though I think GT or UNC will be the favorite (I know, they're always overrated, but I think next season might be the first time in a while they actually deserve a good preseason ranking).

[Duvall]

One of the concerns of last year was our weak schedule. Looking back at results of the teams that we'll be playing this year, I'm not sure that perception will change much.

Then again, the only time playing a weak schedule hurts a team is if they are contending for a playoff spot. Otherwise, it's more important just to get the wins.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Did we forget 2013 so quickly? 4-0 in November with wins over NC State, Miami, Wake Forest and UNCheat to close out the regular season.

Yes, yes I did!!! Aggh...thanks for the correction. (I'm so used to hitting the November wall that it is ingrained in me that we always do it.)

And who gives a &%$#^ about a weak schedule -- that only manners if Duke is in position to make a run at the playoffs.

We're not there yet. We're still in the building stage. I'd rather go 9-3 or 10-2 against a weak schedule than go 7-5 or 8-4 against a strong one.

If we manage to go 12-0 against that schedule, I'll gladly accept all the criticism that it's too weak.

I care. But..just like with last year, this year is no different. We didn't go out looking to schedule "weak" teams, that's simply the way the chips landed by the time we actually played. Also note, I didn't say our schedule IS weak, I said it will be perceived that way. The teams we play this year are NOT the teams that earned those schedules last year.
And I totally agree with your last statement. A win is a win is a win, no matter who we beat.

[Reilly]

... We didn't go out looking to schedule "weak" teams, that's simply the way the chips landed by the time we actually played ...

We kind of do go looking for some weak opponents but I don't think we're any worse at that than most teams.

8/12 of the schedule is from the ACC -- so we have no control over 67% of our schedule.

For the other four games, I read the other day how Duke said it looks for one Power 5 team (Northwestern), two non-P5 teams (Tulane, Army), and one FCS (Central).

So, for the 33% of the schedule we control (4/12), we're looking at 75% of that as being outside of the P5.

[Bob Green]

Honestly, going worse than 5-1 would be disappointing to me.

There is one definite tough game and two potentially tough games in the first six: Georgia Tech, Northwestern and Boston College. While I agree with you 5-1 should be the benchmark, 4-2 would not be a disaster. Northwestern has been inconsistent recently with back-to-back 5-7 seasons and Boston College should take a step back with the departure of quarterback Tyler Murphy so 5-1 is a definite possibility and 6-0 isn't unrealistic. We did beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta in 2014 and as you point out we should be an improved team in 2015.

Wow! Talking Duke football on January 29! Exciting times...

[dpslaw]

Yea, that's brutal on our tailgating crew (), not to mention our players, but with Cut's emphasis on conditioning from the moment he arrived, I'm confident he'll have our guys ready.

Certainly brutal on our tailgate crew, but I would think it is great for the players, who don't have to travel for a month.

[blazindw]

4 home games in a row isn't ideal, especially given that we have only 1 home in November. On the plus side, other than Tulane and Army, we have very quick/easy road trips. It will certainly be a tale of two halves of the season. We should use the first half of the season to put some, on paper, easy Ws on the board. And then, we take the bye week to prepare for the tougher part of the season starting with the toughest road game we will have.