Just for fun, I peaked at some bowl projections:
CBS Sports: Duke v. Oregon State in the Sun Bowl
247Sports: Duke v. Iowa in the Pinstripe Bowl
ESPN (they have 2 different writers making projections): Duke v. Houston in the Military Bowl, Duke v. Maryland in the Pinstripe Bowl
Yahoo: Duke v. Purdue in the Mayo Bowl
Athlon: Duke v. East Carolina in the Military Bowl
Bill Connelly notes that his SP+ system has Duke projected to win 7 games after a preseason expectation of 3 wins. This is notable since SP+ still has Duke 80th in the country, quite a bit lower than other metrics. I didn't want to copy and paste the article since it's paywalled, but here's the link if you have an ESPN+ subscription: https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...e-weeks-season
It should be evident by now that coaching matters. For as many times as I've read here that its Jimmys and Joes, and that Duke would never compete in the ACC without recruiting top 25 classes, ultimately coaching matters the most. They're going to be the ones that put the players in the best position to succeed, run the drills, gameplan and scheme, etc, and they are the ones doing recruiting.
It appears that Cutcliffe recruited some solid players, good enough to win some games for Duke, but his scheming game planning and coaching just were not getting the job done. Enter Mike Elko and a new staff, new strength and conditioning, new attitudes, better results.
Its obviously not that simple, most of the Coastal has had coaching changes and the success has been less inspiring than Duke's current run. I read where a lot of UVA fans were saying Elliott is the new Mike London. VT's situation actually looks worse. Duke could still collapse and maybe only pull out 1 more win, who knows. I think this team is on the right track. Now its not to say talent doesn't matter, it definitely does, but coaching is paramount in football.
That's nice and all that, but let's take it a step further and confirm that we're worthy of the higher rating where it counts...leaving the field with a victory. To me the most important game of the season is against Georgia Tech, as that's our next opponent (not that you don't realize that, Bob!)
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
Kansas is #19 in the latest AP poll!
"This is the best of all possible worlds."
Dr. Pangloss - Candide
That loss is totally fine by me. We played well with a chance at the end in front of a great crowd, all cheering against us. I always like to see our opponents do well, no matter the outcome of our game*. It gives us a better bearing of where we stand.
*ABC, of course.
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
Duke's social media team is working overtime, putting together this awesome cinematic recap of the big win:
https://twitter.com/DukeFOOTBALL/sta...073604098?s=20
They also just posted a similar video highlighting the men's soccer team's win over #1 Wake. Amazing stuff!
Agreed (on all counts). I do believe the Kansas QB is a special player but...we put very little pressure on him AND often gave his receivers huge cushions that made it awfully easy for him to get big chunks of yardage. That and some horrid positioning/tackling against KU left me thinking that was actually a pretty winnable game for us. I believe they showed a Stat on TV at one point that their QB had 236 yards on...12 completions 😬. Yikes!
With his rep for defense, I have faith that Elko can right some of those wrongs so I'm very bullish on this Duke team!