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Olympic Fan
08-27-2011, 12:20 PM
I realize that a lot of people on this board are only Duke basketball fans, but I also know that many of us also care about the Blue Devil football fortunes.

Kickoff of the new season exactly a week from today!

David Cutcliffe, about to start his fourth season at Duke, has made amazing progress. Good enough to start thinking about a bowl? I think so and apparently, do does Mel Kiper, who this morning picked Duke as one of his two breakout teams nationally (along with Washington State).

Personally, I think there are still questions about a very young defense, but the offense is experienced, talented and very deep -- headed by QB Sean Renfree who has a chance to be the best QB in the ACC, Our special teams should be excellent.

Six wins in the goal -- it's not guaranteed, but it is reasonable. Long term the outlook is great. Duke will be even better next season (as the defensive ages and catches up with the offense that loses only a handful of seniors) ... while our division in the ACC seems to be melting down with three teams in our dvivision either on NCAA probation (Georgia Tech) or about to go on probabtion (UNC and Miamii). Now if we could just find something on Virginia Tech, we'd be clear to reach the ACC title game in a year or two!

hudlow
08-27-2011, 12:21 PM
GO DUKE!

hud

OldPhiKap
08-27-2011, 12:27 PM
My goal is more than six wins, but all forward movement is welcome.

Go Duke, get us started right!

Reilly
08-27-2011, 01:03 PM
Promises to be an exciting season. Hope folks make it to Wallace Wade Stadium.

First home game -- Richmond -- a nighttime season opener is fun ... Richmond beat Duke the last two times out, so there's the payback factor ... Richmond's QB is former Southern Cal starter Aaron Corp ... cool to see a marquee QB match-up with Corp and Renfree ...

Second home game -- Stanford -- Stanford has the projected #1 QB in next year's NFL draft, Andrew Luck .. cool to see a marquee QB match-up with Luck and Renfree and to see if Duke's offense can make noise against a pre-season top team ...

Third home game -- Tulane -- this is Homecoming ... seems like the alumni office has made lots of effort here recently at making Homecoming an event ... the only thing missing is more people! ... last year, they had a pretty much non-stop, free, beer and water and soft drink and snack stand running for alums who had registered (free) for Homecoming ... a nice touch ... consider coming back to campus and attending a game if you haven't been in a while ...

peloton
08-27-2011, 01:40 PM
OF, I think there are a good number more Duke football fans on DBR than we realize...they've just been keeping a low profile here for "a few years". That said though, now is the time for Duke fans to show our full support for the football team and all their hard work leading up to this season. These young men have been busting their keisters all spring and summer long in an effort to entertain us starting in September. Along the way, with some solid play and a few breaks we just might win several games in the process. This promises to be an exciting season indeed, even if we do end up having a subpar season (which I don't believe will be the case). I truly believe that this is going to be a special season for Duke football; our offense should be able to go head to head with pretty much anyone. We're going to consistently put points on the scoreboard; Will Snyderwine as well as Sean Renfree, Donovan Varner, Conner Vernon, and Desmond Scott will see to that. Sure, the defense is a bit of a question mark but I believe we're going to be better there than advertised. Believe me, if I was playing defense on the Duke team this year I would certainly take everything that's been said during the preseason as a challenge, playing with the proverbial chip on my shoulder. I won't make any predictions regarding "four letter 'b' word" eligibility, but mark my words...we're going to beat at least one team who we're not supposed to beat this year. It's going to be a challenging but at the same time fun year for Duke football. I'm a Duke fan first and foremost (and secondly a rabid Duke basketball fan) so yes, I'm pretty psyched for the Sept 3rd home opener against the University of Richmond Spiders. Unless you're not a football fan, why not join your fellow Duke fans in supporting Coach Cutcliffe and the team next Sat night as we continue our journey down the road to football respectability (with honor and integrity I might add).

Go Devils! Let's send the Spiders back to Richmond with their first loss!

Reilly
08-27-2011, 01:45 PM
... and watch the "Taking Off the Helmet" 3-part video series on Duke football preparing for this season ... good stuff ...

Dev11
08-27-2011, 02:43 PM
... and watch the "Taking Off the Helmet" 3-part video series on Duke football preparing for this season ... good stuff ...

Actually, great stuff. They give the microphone to a good number of players, the way BluePlanet lets the players make videos. I would like to see it develop into the football team's own version of BluePlanet.

I, too, am excited for the season to start, thought I just realized I don't have ESPN3 and live about 2000 miles from Durham. Hmm...

msdukie
08-27-2011, 03:51 PM
Actually, great stuff. They give the microphone to a good number of players, the way BluePlanet lets the players make videos. I would like to see it develop into the football team's own version of BluePlanet.

I, too, am excited for the season to start, thought I just realized I don't have ESPN3 and live about 2000 miles from Durham. Hmm...

Actually, the football team has its own website for recruiting and fans too, but it lacks the bells and whistles of DBP. This is it:

www.bluedevilsfootball.com

Maybe Dave Bradley has a brother who can work on it?

Dev11
08-27-2011, 05:16 PM
Actually, the football team has its own website for recruiting and fans too, but it lacks the bells and whistles of DBP. This is it:

www.bluedevilsfootball.com

Maybe Dave Bradley has a brother who can work on it?

Bookmarked, thanks. GO DUKE!

EDIT: Little disappointed that it hasn't been updated since they built the practice facility. Also notice it still lists Pat Bailey as being on the Steelers, which hasn't been true in almost a year.

Bob Green
08-27-2011, 06:00 PM
Six wins is the goal -- it's not guaranteed, but it is reasonable.

I agree six wins is a reasonable goal. If the defense can slow down some opponents, the offense can score enough points that we could win up to eight games. If the defense hasn't improved over last season, four wins could be our ceiling. I'm betting we get our sixth win against Georgia Tech on November 19.

Devil in the Blue Dress
08-27-2011, 06:15 PM
I'm excited about this season and can't wait for it to get underway. I've loved Duke football since it was introduced to me when I was learning to talk!;)