Q&A With The Devils Den
Thursday, October 29th, 2009With Duke up next on the Cavaliers’ schedule, The Sabre agreed to swap questions with The Devils Den to get both teams’ fans ready for the Halloween football contest. The Devils Den is part of the Scout.com network – click here to visit the site! David Dohrmann, who has been a Duke Football analyst for The Devils Den for nine years, answers some Duke questions – who to watch on defense, Thaddeus Lewis’ top targets, and more – for The Good Ol’ Blog.
Duke snapped a long ACC losing streak against Virginia last season. Do you think that helps or hurts the Blue Devils this week?
TDD: This is a wishy-washy answer, but I think it helps and hurts at the same time at least early in the game. On the help side, the current Duke players know that they CAN beat Virginia. Because of Duke’s horrific past decade, the team’s psyche is still fragile. Having won last year, the Blue Devil players should be able to draw some confidence from that experience. On the hurt side, I expect the Cavaliers to come out with a little revenge on their mind. Despite the game being closer than the score indicated, the bottom line is that they lost by 28 points to a team with the worst D-1 reputation around. There has to be a little payback on the mind of the Virginia players. These factors might matter in the first quarter or so, but at some point those initial emotions fade, and then it becomes a matter of execution.
Duke certainly has improved on the football field since coach David Cutcliffe arrived. What do you think are the top 2 or 3 things that Cutcliffe and his staff have done to turn things around?
TDD: First off, Cutcliffe has brought the confidence of a winning football coach. The guy won five bowl games at Mississippi in six seasons. He knows how to win football games. His players know his track record and believe in his ability to lead them. After that, you have the strength and conditioning aspect. Duke was the most poorly conditioned football team in the ACC year in and year out for the last decade. The Blue Devils had some talent, but were a step slow and tired faster than their opponents as the games wore on. Cutcliffe has this team whipped into shape. Duke is noticeably faster on both sides of the ball than they were two years ago and no longer fades in the second half. Lastly, the staff continuity is paying huge dividends. Cutcliffe brought in a coaching staff that is on par with the best in the ACC. Duke’s QB Thad Lewis will likely end his career in the top-5 all-time in ACC passing, yet this is the first season that he’s had the same offensive coordinator and position coach that he had from the previous year. This continuity with the coaches gives the players at all positions the familiarity with the schemes implemented to execute faster. They can just react now, rather than think and then react.
Virginia coach Al Groh said this at his Monday press conference: “As we understand it, the school has upgraded its commitment to being successful in football, that’s always part of it. And it’s usually, it’s more than just the coach. They’ve upgraded their commitment to being successful and done some things in that direction.” We know this could be hard to answer in this short space, but hopefully you can give us a snapshot look. What sort of changes has Duke made to better support its football program? Anything on the academic front like admissions, majors, transfer credits, and so forth?
TDD: There is a now commitment by Duke University to put a winning football team on the field each and every year. For the better part of 40 years, the University decided that they would pay lip service to football and treat it as a red-headed stepchild. Other than a few blips on the radar under Steve Spurrier and Fred Goldsmith, Duke has basically been an automatic W for the good teams in the ACC. About 4-5 years ago, the light switch went on somewhere that Duke was betraying its school’s mission by allowing the football team to compete in a half-assed fashion. Duke was good at just about everything athletically and academically, except football. The alumni seemed to be the main impetus for change and they took a proactive role in banding together and making their voices heard that it is not acceptable to field a continual loser. By the way, you can thank Wake Forest for this. Duke has a better athletic brand name, more money, and higher ranked school. Many Duke Alumni were thinking, “If Wake can do it, why can’t we?”
Duke is investing heavily in many phases of the program. Hiring a proven, successful D-1 coach like David Cutcliffe was a big step. The stadium is being completely overhauled over the next 5-7 years. Duke hired an associate AD who was full-time for football. The admissions standards have really not changed too much, though the number of exceptions is probably a little higher. They are building an indoor practice facility that should be ready next year. The bottom line is that the University is no longer paying lip service to football, and is investing in the program. I don’t think we’ll become Florida State or Miami, but, Duke will not be an automatic W for anyone in the conference going forward.
Are Duke fans reacting at all to having a better football team?
TDD: They definitely are. In Cutcliffe?s first season, attendance was up almost 10,000 per game. This year, I believe the attendance is slightly down for two reasons. One, we’ve played two home games in terrible weather (NC Central and Maryland). Two, the season-opening loss to Richmond left a really sour taste in many fans’ mouths. The consensus (and rightfully so considering the past) was that we’re seeing the same old Duke. Now that Cutcliffe and staff have righted the ship, the students and community are engaged. Most Duke fans realize that the winner of this game Saturday greatly enhances their chances of a bowl invite. IF Duke comes away with a win either this week or next (UNC), you will see a full stadium for the next home game against Georgia Tech. Hopefully, we can finally get some decent weather and not have to sit through a driving rainstorm for the 3rd time this year.
