2014
Duke Football Preview
In
Part 5 of the 2014 12 part opponent video series. I’m going to talk a little
about the Duke Blue Devils, our opponent on Sept 27th at Sun Life
Stadium.
Lets
first look at their Talent:
Where do you start with Duke? While they might not have the best talent in the world, they find ways to win. They mix the run and pass as good as anyone in the ACC. While they’re not on the level with a FSU or Clemson, their balance offensively is very good. At QB, Anthony Boone is back and he’ll have to be healthy this year because they lost Connette (transferred to Fresno). They do have back Sophomore Thomas Sirk. Sirk is very good athlete who, if he stays healthy, could fill a void left by Connette’s departure. Understand this, this is Boone's offense, if not the entire team, meaning Cut and his new OC, Scottie Montgomery, are going to have to try and keep Boone’s mindset on the here and now. He needs to cut down on the picks which were high last year.
In the WR core, they have this guy named Jamison Crowder. All he did last year was have 108 receptions for 1,360 yards. He’s just the latest in a long line of Cut offenses to shatter records. He’s also the next Duke receiver to be an All-American candidate. Even though Brandon Braxton is gone, when you factor is Crowder's return, along with a healthy influx of underclassmen talent, you have a WR corp that one of the better ones in the ACC. At TE, they have back a 2nd team All-ACC in Braxton Deaver (46 for 600). He will be out early in Fall Camp, but he will be one to be dealt with in Cut’s offense. With Braxton graduated, his role in the slot, will be filled by Junior Max McCaffrey (26 for 298), who's steady, and he’ll push Senior Isaac Blakeney (19 for 244) to the outside, where his size could be a useful tool. When you add a 2nd tier of receivers like Sophomores Johnell Barnes and Ryan Smith, as well as true freshman Trevon Lee, and you can really do some damage stretching the field, which would be huge for Boone's production. This group is very solid and dangerous.
Where they’ll take the biggest hit here is on the O-Line, where they lose two of the most experienced, battle-tested and awarded linemen in the history of their program in RT Perry Simmons and LG Dave Harding. However, they do have three starters coming back in Takoby Cofield at LT, Laken Tomlinson at RG and C Matt Skura. Their OL will be fine. Even with Harding gone, they have back Junior Lucas Patrick, who can step up and produce. The only weakness would be at RT where, you have a battle between Sophomores Tanner Stone and Casey Blaser, and throw in RS Freshman Sterling Korona, and that could be a cause for concern. That competition will draw eyeballs; however, the most important player on their line is Cofield on the blind side. While Tomlinson is a clear-cut All-ACC pick, the key to their success is the blind side protection being very strong and consistent.
Defensively, they did lose some big names like Kenny Anunike, Sydney Sarmiento, and Justin Foxx, However, they are still loaded with seniors and experienced juniors along the defensive line. The starting lineup here won’t be determined for a few weeks, expect to have five seniors in their two-deep, including three of their four DEs. Look for Seniors Dezmond Johnson and Jordan DeWalt-Ondijo to be starting in 2014, with the latter seemingly set for a very productive year as the full-time starter. Ones to watch, I suspect are Senior Jonathan Jones and Junior Kyler Brown, who moves to the DL from LB, and could be one to deal with in certain situations. Even though Sarmiento is gone, they will be better stopping the run: You have Jamal Bruce producing at the point of attack, Carlos Wray is one that could wreak havoc, and A.J. Wolf has played some key snaps in reserve. They have an impressive young core of linemen even if both true freshmen wear a redshirt as rookies. When you look at the interior of their line, they might have depth that could be the best they’ve had in Cut's tenure. The issue up front is the pass rush.
At LB, they play a 4-2-5 set, and in the spring, that took a major hit when Kelby Brown's tore his ACL for the 2nd time in his career ending his season. That loss is going to take a big hit on their D. Finding someone to step into Brown’s shoes isn’t going to be easy. It would have to start with Junior Deion Williams, but needs to include Senior C.J. France and a handful of underclassmen, which includes RS Freshmen Dominic McDonald and Chris Holmes. The latter (Holmes) is set to spend his first year behind WS LB David Helton, who had 133 tackles in 2013, and himself a likely all-league selection and the new leader of the front six. While Helton is a nice player who will produce, he’s not the player Brown is.
As for their secondary, it’ll be up to how two new starters, both sophomores do, and true sophomores to boot in Bryon Fields and Breon Borders, Oh, by the way, they’ll be asked to step in at CB as their starter from 2013 have graduated in Ross Cockrell and Garett Patterson. You might question it at first, but look deeper; Fields and Borders were significant and irreplaceable parts of last year's defense. They came up big and stepped into the lineup right away and produced. Also, don’t be shocked if they use sophomore DeVon Edwards (64 tackles, 3 interceptions) in a Cockrell-like role, and move him around the whole secondary. But look for Edwards to be a majority of the time on the back end of the 4-2-5, sharing space with sophomore Deondre Singleton (63 tackles) and junior Jeremy Cash (121 tackles, 4 interceptions). Cash is an All-American. The thing is, Duke has the talent and the athletes back here. They are not to be taken lightly at all here. They’re young to boot.
On Special teams, they are very good, even though they had off years. Monday is an All-American Punter, and Maritin is an All-ACC Kicker. You have back Jamison Crowder and Edwards, and you have one of the better ST units in the ACC.
Next, I want to talk about the Coaching:
What can you say about David Cutcliffe? What this man has done to turn Duke around is unbelievable. He gets the most out of the talent he has. This guy has won everywhere he’s gone (Tennessee, Ole Miss, and now Duke).
Now, to their 2014 Schedule:
Off a 10-4 record in 2013 and a Coastal Division title, Duke in 2014 will not sneak up on anyone this year. Let’s break the Blue Devils schedule down.In their opener, Duke gets Elon at home. Now, Elon is what Duke used to be — a football program most people do not realize even exists. There are perhaps 6,000 students at tiny Elon University, also located in North Carolina. They are in the FCS and playing in the Colonial Athletic Association. They’re breaking in a new Head Coach in Rich Skrosky, who comes over from Ball State. How far Duke has come that it now has cupcake games like this to start with. Duke wins here easily.
In Week 2, another tune-up game for the Blue Devils, as they make the trip down to Troy, Alabama to take on the Troy Trojans. While, the Trojans are a nice team from the Sun Belt Conference, and gave Duke Fits last year, they will not defeat the Blue Devils this year. Duke wins comfortably here.
In week 3, the Blue Devils are back home, to take on Kansas and Charlie Weis. Weis is on the hot seat in Lawrence, and they are still rebuilding. It’ll be a while before they’re a .500 or better team. They haven’t won on the road since 2009. Won’t happen in this one either. Duke wins this one.
In week 4, they’re home again, this time to face the Tulane Green Wave. Here’s interesting tidbit here about the Green Wave. They have a legally blind player, who’s a freshman long-snapper, and he's good at it. The problem is that he doesn’t play where it needs the most help: On O. CJ’s boys won’t be able to hang with the Blue Devils for 4 quarters here. Duke is just too much for Tulane here and gets the win to improve to a projected 4-0.
In week 5, they open ACC play with a trip to Miami Gardens to take on the Hurricanes. In last year’s loss, we didn’t have Duke at all. This will be a shootout. In the end, we have payback on our minds and I believe the D finds a way to pull it out for us over Duke.
In Week 6, they have a BYE, and coming off the BYE in Week 7, they’re in Atlanta to face GT. However, note that this is not the same Tech team that demolished Duke last year. They lost a main cog in QB Vad Lee and much of their O. You could see Crowder have a field day against that porous Tech D. Duke bounces back and gets revenge for last year’s beat down by GT.
In Week 8, they host UVa, who are just awful, and Mike London’s seat will already be blistering hot at this point and it won’t cool here after this one. Duke wins BIG here.
In Week 9, they have their 2nd BYE, and in Week 10 off the BYE, they make the trip up to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to take on the Pitt Panthers, in a rematch of a classic shootout the Panthers won 58-55 last year in Durham. With Pitt’s QB Tom Savage now gone, it won’t be the shootout it was last year, and Duke is vastly improved at this point defensively. Give it to Duke on the road here.
In Week 11, they’re on the road again on a Thursday Night, a short week, at Syracuse. The Orange were inconsistent at year ago. While Syracuse is building something for down the road, they don’t have enough weapons to beat the Blue Devils on this night. Its Duke’s road finale and this is a game the Blue Devils win comfortably.
In Week 12, they’re back home for the final stretch of games at Wallace-Wade Stadium, starting with VT. For years, VT had their way with the Blue Devils, but that changed with last year’s win in Blacksburg. I know under to underestimate Frank Beamer and Bud Foster, but they just lost too many weapons on D and Logan Thomas is gone, and there’s no go to guy on VT’s O. Duke’s passing game is rolling here. I can Duke winning this one by 10-14 points in this one.
In Week 13, they host Carolina on ESPN on a Thursday night, and it's not a basketball game! If Duke were to win this game, it would make a major statement that Duke is legit and not a one-hit wonder. It’s another short week for the Blue Devils here. Carolina wants that Victory Bell back and wants to erase the sting of the Blue Devils winning the Coastal on their field. As much as Carolina’s QB Marquise Williams wants to the chance to prove he's something special, at the end of the day, Duke will be again a little too much for the Tar Heels. Duke gets the win over UNC.
In the season finale, they host Wake. While the Deacons are awful, new coach Dave Clawson will make sure they get better each year. However, with a lot on the line, and it being Senior Day, and off a projected big win over an arch-rival 9 days earlier, there will be no letdown here. Duke wins handily to finish 11-1.
My prediction on the Game vs. CANES:
This is a payback game for last year’s embarrassment in Durham. It’s easily the low point in the Golden era. We want to badly pay Duke back for that. Off a projected big win in Lincoln, and given what they did last year to us up there, there will be ZERO letdowns for this one. I think we’re going to win this one and the D will make a key play late to seal the win.
In Part 6 of the 2014 series, I will talk about the
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, our opponent on October 4th up in
Atlanta at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
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