What a wonderful debut! [Archive]

CameronBornAndBred

08-31-2008, 01:07 AM

I was thinking I couldn't remember the last time I saw Duke fans leave early because we were up by so much, ha! Luckily, though, the majority stayed for the celebration, it was great. I posted more photos in the game thread, but I'll put this one here.

http://wagnerwatercolor.com/images/Duke/do_not_touch.jpg
Protected until Carolina!
I was happy to see them left on the field, now the students have a reason to come back again..they get more tries! But, I don't think they will need more reason than what the team gave them tonite, the whole student section was great and really was fun to watch during a winning game.

dukemomLA

08-31-2008, 01:15 AM

3,000 miles away I was rooting every moment. Yahoo!! Such a great start to the rebuilding of Duke football. Kudos to the team, the coaches, and the Duke fans who showed up to cheer them on!!

Fan support is crucial as the season progresses. PLEASE Dukies in the area, keep coming on!!

dcarp23

08-31-2008, 01:39 AM

great win. When was the last time the Devils beat someone by 24 (probably more recently than I'd think)?

Oriole Way

08-31-2008, 02:10 AM

great win. When was the last time the Devils beat someone by 24 (probably more recently than I'd think)?

I believe the Devils trounced VMI by a significant margin in 2005.

peloton

08-31-2008, 02:25 AM

Yes, a fantastic debut for this 2008 edition of the Duke football team and Coach Cutcliffe. Although I live in Cary I'm bummed that we won't be in NC next weekend for the NU game. We'll be in 'Bama for some r & r with a couple of diehard Auburn fans and the others being Tarheel fans. Coach, rest assured I'll be making the other home games though...this is going to be an expensive (but me thinks an enjoyable) season!

Go Devils!

YmoBeThere

08-31-2008, 06:21 AM

Certainly tops the debut of Rich Rodriquez at Meeechigan...

I'm 2-0(yes, you must understand that my rooting alone determines the outcome on the field).

devilish

08-31-2008, 06:48 AM

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/duke/photos/story/1201141.html

Love the new Devil!

Buckeye Devil

08-31-2008, 08:31 AM

Certainly tops the debut of Rich Rodriquez at Meeechigan...

Actually, it's Mee-chicken, especially if one is an Ohio State football fan.

Rod obviously does not have the personnel to run his type of system on offense and Utah is a decent team with a veteran starter at QB. U of M is a couple of years (and quite a few players) away from being a Top 10 team and will have some rough spots until that time. But he will get them there.

Good luck Duke football. JMU is a very small step in an otherwise big hill to climb, but you have the best coach since Steve Spurrier was there and good things lie ahead.

Papa John

08-31-2008, 08:39 AM

http://wagnerwatercolor.com/images/Duke/do_not_touch.jpg
Protected until Carolina!
I was happy to see them left on the field, now the students have a reason to come back again..they get more tries! But, I don't think they will need more reason than what the team gave them tonite, the whole student section was great and really was fun to watch during a winning game.

Thanks to Indoor66 for providing the link to the radio broadcast from Albemarle! It was great to listen to the second half and literally hear how this team seems to have been inspired to take their game up to a competitive notch by Cut and company!

One of the best parts of the broadcast for me, however, pertains to your photo... Bob Harris at the end of the broadcast indicated that Cut was talking to the student section, essentially telling them that the goalposts are not to come down--we need to act like we expect to win, not be surprised by it... Winning is habitual when you put all the pieces in the right place--sounds like Cut is trying to instill that type of attitude...

captmojo

08-31-2008, 09:03 AM

Congratulations to all responsible for the first win of the new era!

Ain't it good to BOTH go to bed and wake up confidently smiling? :):):)

ehdg

08-31-2008, 10:11 AM

Last nights showing by our team, students and older fans was remarkable!! To hear how loud the place sounded on the radio was awesome and specially with having to wait through a 88 minn. weather delay. What a great start to the Cutliffe ERA and hopefully this is only the begining and Duke football is finally back on the map!! I haven't been this stoked about our football team since '94 when we last had a winning record. Congrats to our coaches and players!! Keep up the hard work!!

godukerocks

08-31-2008, 10:27 AM

A lot of those pics from newsobserver.com are really good. Thanks for the link.

Is there anywhere, anywhere online where I can watch any video from this game? Unfortunatly was not able to listen on the radio or watch ACC Select last night.

Devil in the Blue Dress

08-31-2008, 10:58 AM

Last night was like Duke football was years ago when Duke was ranked nationally in both football and basketball. If you were waiting to see how it would turn out, whether Coach Cutcliffe is for real, the wait is OVER!

DBRers were there meeting and greeting, but there's room for more!

Classof06

08-31-2008, 01:43 PM

I couldn't be in Durham for the game but I can't tell you how happy I was to see that final score and how hopeful I am for what the future brings.

The last time Duke won their opening game, it was 2002 against ECU and it was my first weekend of college. Needless to say, it's been a while.

Can't wait to see the 9/13 Navy game on ESPNU.

Olympic Fan

08-31-2008, 02:04 PM

great win. When was the last time the Devils beat someone by 24 (probably more recently than I'd think)?

For the record, Duke beat VMI 40-14 (26 points) on Sept. 17, 2005 -- almost three years ago. The comparison between the 2005 VMI team and the 2008 James Madison teams is worth looking at -- VMI was one of the worst teams in Division 1-AA that year. JMU is projected to be one of the best in the renamed FCS.

In Division 1-A (FBS) terms, that's like the difference between beating last year's Duke team and beating last year's Georgia team.

How significant was a 24-point victory over James Madison? Hard to say, but in the eight FCS polls, JMU ranks either No. 1 (Phil Steele), No. 2 (The Sporting News, SME Network, AnygivenSaturday.com), No. 3 (the FSC Coaches, Lindy's), No. 4 (USA Today) or No. 6 (The Sports Network).

Well, by comparison, Georgia Southern ranks No. 16 in one poll, No. 17 in five polls (including the coaches, which is probably the most official), No. 18 in another and is unranked in another. Why is this important? Well, yesterday while Duke was beating JMU by 24 points, No. 1 Georgia was beating Georgia Southern by exactly 24 points.

Could you argue that Duke was more impressive than the top-ranked Bulldogs? Okay, I concede that LSU's rout of FCS No. 1 App State was the MOST impressive, but still ...

But I should also point out that McNeese State ranked between No. 8 and No. 14 in the eight polls (No. 10 by the coaches) -- in every case, lower than James Madison. Yet, while Duke was routing JMU, UNC was fighting for their life in a 35-27 victory over McNeese.

My point is that this was a significant win for Cutcliffe in his opener. Great atmosphere, despite the weather ... great performance.

Wow, the Cut era could not have started any better. Now, we just have to hope he and his team can keep it up.

BTW: Based on the FCS coaching poll, the rank of the ACC's FCS opening opponents:

3. JMU (Duke win 31-7)
8. Delware (Maryland won 14-7)
10. McNeese State (UNC won 35-27)
unranked (Jacksonville State; Charleston Southern)

Acymetric

08-31-2008, 02:19 PM

I think the biggest question going into the next game is pass coverage. JMU didn't try to pass the ball much, and we did a good job stopping their running scheme, but will we fare as well when teams try to throw the ball on us? I think so, and look forward to finding out!

wilson

08-31-2008, 02:23 PM

For the record, Duke beat VMI 40-14 (26 points) on Sept. 17, 2005 -- almost three years ago. The comparison between the 2005 VMI team and the 2008 James Madison teams is worth looking at -- VMI was one of the worst teams in Division 1-AA that year. JMU is projected to be one of the best in the renamed FCS.

In Division 1-A (FBS) terms, that's like the difference between beating last year's Duke team and beating last year's Georgia team.

How significant was a 24-point victory over James Madison? Hard to say, but in the eight FCS polls, JMU ranks either No. 1 (Phil Steele), No. 2 (The Sporting News, SME Network, AnygivenSaturday.com), No. 3 (the FSC Coaches, Lindy's), No. 4 (USA Today) or No. 6 (The Sports Network).

Well, by comparison, Georgia Southern ranks No. 16 in one poll, No. 17 in five polls (including the coaches, which is probably the most official), No. 18 in another and is unranked in another. Why is this important? Well, yesterday while Duke was beating JMU by 24 points, No. 1 Georgia was beating Georgia Southern by exactly 24 points.

Could you argue that Duke was more impressive than the top-ranked Bulldogs? Okay, I concede that LSU's rout of FCS No. 1 App State was the MOST impressive, but still ...

But I should also point out that McNeese State ranked between No. 8 and No. 14 in the eight polls (No. 10 by the coaches) -- in every case, lower than James Madison. Yet, while Duke was routing JMU, UNC was fighting for their life in a 35-27 victory over McNeese.

My point is that this was a significant win for Cutcliffe in his opener. Great atmosphere, despite the weather ... great performance.

Wow, the Cut era could not have started any better. Now, we just have to hope he and his team can keep it up.

BTW: Based on the FCS coaching poll, the rank of the ACC's FCS opening opponents:

3. JMU (Duke win 31-7)
8. Delware (Maryland won 14-7)
10. McNeese State (UNC won 35-27)
unranked (Jacksonville State; Charleston Southern)

Very interesting analysis. Unfortunately, I don't think it provides much in the way of a predictor for the remainder of the season (not only is the transitive property essentially meaningless in this context, we are also talking about the season's first game), but it does provide some insight as to exactly how much of an accomplishment this win is. I regarded this as quite a dangerous game for our team, and had you offered me a single-digit relative squeaker before kickoff, I'd have taken it.

ugadevil

08-31-2008, 04:00 PM

Well, by comparison, Georgia Southern ranks No. 16 in one poll, No. 17 in five polls (including the coaches, which is probably the most official), No. 18 in another and is unranked in another. Why is this important? Well, yesterday while Duke was beating JMU by 24 points, No. 1 Georgia was beating Georgia Southern by exactly 24 points.

Could you argue that Duke was more impressive than the top-ranked Bulldogs?

Maybe Georgia and Duke should play each other to figure out who's more impressive. Nevermind, Georgia fans are sick of their team being unable to stop a Cutcliffe offense!

devildeac

08-31-2008, 04:34 PM

Probably the most impressive stat of the night to me was the JMU 3rd down conversion rate. After many years of giving up many,many 1st downs to our foes faced with 3rd and longs, any one care to venture a guess about last PM (with out knowing in advance:p). Answer below:

0/8-now that's impressive

We were 9/18 on 3rd downs and 3/3 on 4th downs-that's with our "lack of a kicking game" that merely averaged 53.5 yards/punt with 2 going for 60+ yards, I think. Wow.

CameronBornAndBred

08-31-2008, 04:45 PM

How about our 4th down conversion rate? I was thinking we might never see a field goal as long we kept moving the chains on our 4th down attempts.

Scorp4me

08-31-2008, 05:00 PM

Not only did the on the field product look better, but so did everything else. He obviously wanted to reconnect the team with the fans and to see the players literally run to the students to share in the celebration following the game was a just a sight to see, it really was. It's also obvious he respects the students when he came out before the game(while being postponed) simply to acknowledge the students. Even better is to see the students respect him, actually listening to him following the game when no one else seemed able to stop them from rushing the field. Overall I really just can't complain about anything on and off the field, staff and administration, players and fans.

devildeac

08-31-2008, 05:08 PM

How about our 4th down conversion rate? I was thinking we might never see a field goal as long we kept moving the chains on our 4th down attempts.

We were 3/3 on 4th down conversions. I almost got the feeling that during the 3 plays before the FG attempt, we were just trying to set that up to give Maggio the chance to gain some early season confidence by hitting a short one. Just thinking out loud here...

Acymetric

08-31-2008, 05:26 PM

We were 3/3 on 4th down conversions. I almost got the feeling that during the 3 plays before the FG attempt, we were just trying to set that up to give Maggio the chance to gain some early season confidence by hitting a short one. Just thinking out loud here...

I'm not sure if he purposefully set it up on that play, but I'm pretty sure Cutcliffe fully intended to kick a field goal, so that a: he could see how it looked in a real game, and b: as you said, to give Nick some confidence.

The cheers for that FG were as loud as just about any in the game. Having a good kicking game is a huge help to the both the offense and defense, and I think we have improved an incredible amount for 1 year, having the same players.

devildeac

08-31-2008, 05:35 PM

I'm not sure if he purposefully set it up on that play, but I'm pretty sure Cutcliffe fully intended to kick a field goal, so that a: he could see how it looked in a real game, and b: as you said, to give Nick some confidence.

The cheers for that FG were as loud as just about any in the game. Having a good kicking game is a huge help to the both the offense and defense, and I think we have improved an incredible amount for 1 year, having the same players.

My understanding of the FB hires is that we have quite a good special teams coach which we lacked for oh-so-many years. Cutcliffe noted that early on with a quote something like: "if we don't get/have/develop a good kicking game, we'll just go for it on every 4th down." We even bobbled a snap last PM on a PAT and still made the kick:D.

CameronBornAndBred

08-31-2008, 05:44 PM

DU82

08-31-2008, 06:01 PM

Kudos do have to be given to Joe Surgan for his kickoff duties. They had some long run backs, but they sure weren't his fault. He kicked the hell out of it.
Also, what's the deal with all the fair catches on our end? There were 2 punts that it was a good call on, they were short and rolled, but we never tried one runback on any kickoff or punt return. 0 yardage on returns, because we called fair catch every time, and there were a couple that looked awfully returnable to me.

They only kicked off to us twice. The first, to start the game, went low into the end zone (somewhat away from our deep guy) and bounced out for a touchback. It would have been hard to return had he tried to catch it. The other one was a pooch kick to the 30, and the guy under it call for a fair catch. I thought he had room to run, but he could have been under orders to take the safe route.

On the fair catch punts, I remember one where our guy caught it with a JMU defender right in his face (ie, he would have been clobbered.) The other was while on about the ten, where you usually catch it, since you don't expect it to roll ten yards into the end zone. (The ten's about as good field position as you can hope for in that situation.) Both good fair catch calls, I thought. Then there were the two that rolled, as you said. (one was a shank out of bounds.) I don't remember the one punt that we actually tried to return, probably because we didn't gain anything.

CameronBornAndBred

08-31-2008, 06:28 PM

I don't remember the one punt that we actually tried to return, probably because we didn't gain anything.
I don't think we tried..
Either way, that was my only beef about the entire game. It was so much fun. How about the new no-huddle?! Every snap, after we figured out that they would do it, my dad and I would erupt in laughter. They set up, look like they are going to snap, then, in unison, stand up and look at the sideline. It was the funniest thing I have seen in sports in a long time, and just added to the great time we were having.
(If they ever snap the ball off the mark, they are going to catch some team totally flat footed, because they will expect that "stand up and look" like we did)

DU82

08-31-2008, 06:49 PM

I don't think we tried..
Either way, that was my only beef about the entire game. It was so much fun. How about the new no-huddle?! Every snap, after we figured out that they would do it, my dad and I would erupt in laughter. They set up, look like they are going to snap, then, in unison, stand up and look at the sideline. It was the funniest thing I have seen in sports in a long time, and just added to the great time we were having.
(If they ever snap the ball off the mark, they are going to catch some team totally flat footed, because they will expect that "stand up and look" like we did)

I agree, the stand up and look in unison thing was really strange!

I would not be surprised with this offensive game plan to try a "shoestring" play at some point this season.

I noted that the no-huddle also prevented delay penalties. The only time there was a problem, Thad recognized it and called a TO with one second left. Good game management. Now if he can get a few throws a little lower, and our receivers to catch the ball before trying to run further downfield, we'll do better. (Thad missed two clear touchdowns on overthrows, although we eventually scored both times, one TD and one FG.) Overall only three penalties, and one of them (the first "facemask") was probably bogus.

OldPhiKap

08-31-2008, 08:05 PM

The bottom line is that we did what a real D-I team is supposed to do: handle a D-IB (or whatever it's called these days) and beat them soundly.

How long has it been since we could say that?

We will need to improve to beat Northwestern, but that was a heck of a start.

Oh yeah, and GTHC.

Acymetric

08-31-2008, 08:08 PM

I agree, the stand up and look in unison thing was really strange!

I would not be surprised with this offensive game plan to try a "shoestring" play at some point this season.

I noted that the no-huddle also prevented delay penalties. The only time there was a problem, Thad recognized it and called a TO with one second left. Good game management. Now if he can get a few throws a little lower, and our receivers to catch the ball before trying to run further downfield, we'll do better. (Thad missed two clear touchdowns on overthrows, although we eventually scored both times, one TD and one FG.) Overall only three penalties, and one of them (the first "facemask") was probably bogus.

I think the new playclock system had more to do with preventing penalties. I don't think there were usually 40 seconds between the end of one down and the beginning of another, but maybe I'm wrong.

The real problem with the new rule is that a team can run the clock down an extra 30 seconds for each set of downs at the end of a game. I'm not sure I like that side effect.

budwom

08-31-2008, 08:16 PM

I don't think we tried..
Either way, that was my only beef about the entire game. It was so much fun. How about the new no-huddle?! Every snap, after we figured out that they would do it, my dad and I would erupt in laughter. They set up, look like they are going to snap, then, in unison, stand up and look at the sideline. It was the funniest thing I have seen in sports in a long time, and just added to the great time we were having.
(If they ever snap the ball off the mark, they are going to catch some team totally flat footed, because they will expect that "stand up and look" like we did)

They did do it at least once that I can recall. In a short yardage situation in the (highly successful) third quarter as they were deep in JMU territory heading towards the closed end of the stadium, the team very quickly hustled to the line of scrimmage and ran a very quick play which caught JMU out of position, and we got the first down.

But indeed, the look-to-the-sidelines bit was pretty interesting.

How 'bout the fact we had zero delay of game penalties, a Duke trademark for years? I especially recall several occasions in past seasons when we've called timeout only to come back out onto the field and get a delay of game penalty. Painful, that.

OZZIE4DUKE

08-31-2008, 09:44 PM

How 'bout the fact we had zero delay of game penalties, a Duke trademark for years? I especially recall several occasions in past seasons when we've called timeout only to come back out onto the field and get a delay of game penalty. Painful, that.

In the fourth quarter, the guy sitting next to me asked me when Duke was going to start playing. It obviously wasn't our team because there had been no delay of game penalties.

For the first game of the season, we played very well. Not perfect, but 1000% better than we have seen in a decade or longer, probably three and a half decades. Room for improvement for sure, but I am very pleased!

blazindw

08-31-2008, 10:06 PM

Wow...just wow! I just got back to DC from the game, and the atmosphere was absolutely incredible. I sat in various parts of the student section, and it was nearly full the entire time, even during the lightning delay. Coach Cut coming out to pump up the student section was awesome, and the sheer joy at the end of the game with the players celebrating in front of the student section is a sight I hope to see many more times this year and in the future!

The whole day was great, from all the tailgates to the Devils Walk to the fireworks to, ultimately, the excellent product on the field last night. Standing in the stadium, the whole day's experience was very similar to other top-notch football programs...there really was no difference. For at least one day, Duke was a football school. I'm so happy for the players and the coaching staff, and kudos to all the students, employees and other Duke fans for coming out and making it a great night!

Olympic Fan

09-01-2008, 11:02 AM

I think the new playclock system had more to do with preventing penalties. I don't think there were usually 40 seconds between the end of one down and the beginning of another, but maybe I'm wrong.

The real problem with the new rule is that a team can run the clock down an extra 30 seconds for each set of downs at the end of a game. I'm not sure I like that side effect.

I think you are misunderstanding the new rule.

Previously, the play clock started at 25 when the refs marked the ball ready for play. Under the new rule, the play clock starts at 40 the moment the previous play is finished.

Under the old rule, there was always a gap between the time the previous play ended and the ball was marked for play. That gap usually flunctuated between 10-20 seconds -- and if the previous play was a tackle inbounds, the game clock ran during that period. One of the problems was that different officiating crews had different tempos for making the ball ready for play. The new 40-second rule is a good one in that it imposes a standard tempo for all crews.

I don't think you can credit the rule with preventing delay penalties ... if you watched other games this weekend, you saw a number of teams have trouble adjusting to the new tempo. I saw half a dozen delay penalties.

jimsumner

09-01-2008, 11:44 AM

"How 'bout the fact we had zero delay of game penalties, a Duke trademark for years"

Not just that but only once did Duke have to burn a timeout because the clock was approaching zero. Having timeouts available at the end of a half is a luxury Duke has all too often been denied in recent years.

Look, it wasn't a perfect game. Two lost fumbles, one at the end of a 54-yard run [hey, it's as good as a punt.:)]. At least two dropped passes and TL overthrew Riley several times, once for a should-have-been TD. A dumb face-mask penalty that kept a JMU drive alive. Missed lane assignments on kickoffs.

But still, the total number of mistakes was encouraging, especially for an August opener. Three penalties. No interceptions. No sacks. No missed place-kicks. And the best open-field tackling I've seen from a Duke team in ages. Great punting, a balanced offense, no points allowed after the first period. A big interception and return by Marshall that snuffed a nascent JMU rally.

And, as others have noted, the atmosphere was about all that could be expected. The weather did chase away a few not-so-die-hards but not many. It's been a long time--maybe Goldsmith's first year--since Duke has come close to filling Wade without the other team bringing half the folks.

Not to awaken the weaux gods but I may be writing about this one in twenty or so years as the beginning of the Duke football renaissance.