Duke Football: No Longer A Joke

Back in July at the ACC Football Kickoff Duke Head Coach David Cutcliffe told me that one of his goals is for the seniors to have fun this year. That Blue Devil senior class had only won 3 games. Well 4 games into the 2008 season the Duke seniors have equaled that number and have ended a long drought in the ACC.

Saturday’s 31-3 win over Virginia snapped Duke’s 25 game ACC losing streak.

“We were a little more hyped than the JMU game, because it is an ACC game – my first one winning since I have been here.” Duke senior receiver Eron Riley said. “So it was a whole other sense of happiness going along with it. We are just real happy to actually get a win, especially being an ACC win.”

Senior nose tackle Clifford Respress told Michael Tomko of GoDuke.com “I am very happy,” Respress said. “I am excited. The old streak is over. What is even better is a streak starting. We got to go to Georgia Tech this week and we got to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and we are going to go to Georgia Tech and take what we can down there. I am very excited. This is my first ACC win. It is amazing.”

For the past 13 years Duke has won only 22 games including 4 winless seasons. Fred Goldsmith led the Blue Devils to an 8-4 record in 1994, his first year as head coach. That earned Duke an invitation to the long forgotten Hall of Fame Bowl. It all went downhill from there as Goldsmith could only win 9 games the next 4 years.

Carl Franks lasted 4 ½ seasons and won only 7 games. Ted Roof gave it his all but could only win 5 games during his 4 ½ years as head coach. During this decent into college football purgatory Duke became the worst team in the BCS.

Enter David Cutcliffe who is in the process of changing the culture at Duke. No longer is losing acceptable. Cutcliffe has built a team chemistry not seen on the Durham campus in quite a while. He expects his players to work hard, improve but have fun in the process. The players have responded and the results are a 3-1 start and 1-0 in the ACC. Duke is just 3 wins away from bowl eligibility and we are just starting October.

The Blue Devils enter the meat of their schedule beginning this Saturday at Georgia Tech. Then it’s a home game against a much better Miami team then 2 road games in a row at Vanderbilt then at Wake Forest. Road games at Clemson and at Virginia Tech also remain before closing the season hosting arch rival North Carolina.

In other words getting those 3 wins to become bowl eligible will be a tall order for Duke but right now the sky is the limit. For once, the Duke Blue Devils are one hell of a football team.

Photos Courtesy: Getty Images