With 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.

Virginia fans have heard a lot about Thaddeus Lewis this week. Who are some of his top targets in the passing game? Anyone else to watch for on offense?

TDD: This is the toughest thing Virginia will have to deal with. Duke fans are aware of UVa’s lofty pass defense ranking. Starting corners Ras-I Dowling and Chris Cook are two really good football players. The problem is that Duke has four receivers that are all about the same skill level, and that level is pretty darn good. Junior Austin Kelly and freshman Connor Vernon are both pretty big receivers with skill and enough speed to burn you. Sophomores Johnny Williams and Donovan Varner are small jitterbug types. Lewis has done a great job of reading defenses and throwing to the open receiver. As a result, the three starters (Kelly, Vernon, and Varner) have at least 31 catches apiece. Williams frequently rotates in and has 26 catches on the season. And all four players have at least one reception of more than 50 yards. Even more difficult, all of the Duke running backs and tight ends are also all capable receivers. You cannot just take one guy away and disrupt Duke’s air attack. That is what makes the Devils so difficult to defend.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the vast improvement in pass protection during the course of the season. Duke is still having problems running the ball, but the offensive line is doing a much better job giving Lewis time to find receivers. The first three games, Lewis was getting hurried a lot and throwing lots of balls away. Over the last four games, teams just are not getting consistent pressure on the Duke QB. Lewis is now standing in the pocket with confidence. One thing that has been consistent over Lewis’ career, even when Duke was terrible: If he has time to throw the ball, he will pick a defense apart.

The Blue Devils are allowing 25 points per game (71st nationally) this season. What are the defense’s strengths and weaknesses? Anyone to watch for on defense?

TDD: The strength of the Duke defense is up the middle. Most opposing fans think Duke does not have that much talent, and in some areas that is true. Up the middle of the defense, however, we are as good as anyone in the conference. Senior DT Vince Oghobaase is a first-team all-ACC lock. He’s battled injuries this year and throughout his career. Despite this, teams simply cannot run the ball at him. I watched him consistently defeat double-teams against Virginia Tech and make life miserable for Ryan Williams. It is no coincidence that Duke held Williams to one of his lowest rushing outputs of the season. The Hokies thought they could just line up and run the ball as normal. Teams now are constantly running away from his side of the field. Aside from Oghobaase, Duke has three other ACC caliber players here that they rotate in, keeping everyone fresh. MLB Vince Rey has been among the ACC’s leading tacklers for three seasons now. He’s a big physical linebacker that should be a mid- to late-round NFL Draft pick next year. Duke has pretty good safeties as well in senior Catron Gainey and Matt Daniels. Gainey is a steady veteran presence. Daniels is a fierce hitter that is an all-ACC talent, but is a true sophomore and still is a bit inconsistent.

The scoring numbers are skewed a little bit when you consider that Duke has given up three non-offensive touchdowns this season (blocked punt, interception return, kickoff return). Still, they are not a shutdown defense. Teams have had success running the ball on the edges. Duke has talent at the defensive ends, but consistency has been a problem. Also, the Blue Devils are woefully short on experience at outside linebacker. With the injury to starter Abraham Kromah, the Devils’ second team backers are all true freshman. If they sustain more injuries here, the defense will suffer greatly. Also, while Duke’s defensive line plays the run pretty well, they have not generated a consistent pass rush. Duke and Virginia are tied for last in QB sacks this season. One ray of hope for Virginia fans: The worst defensive games of the season for Duke came against Kansas and Virginia Tech. Both teams really hurt Duke with their QB’s improvisational ability, specifically throwing the ball while scrambling. Despite Virginia’s struggles to date throwing the ball, Jameel Sewell is not an ideal match for the Duke defense because of his legs. He could have a very good game on Saturday

And a basketball question just because you’re Duke … the Devils were picked to finish first in the ACC by the media (tied with UNC)? What are Duke fans hoping to see out of the hoops team this season?

TDD: Duke’s hoops fortunes will rest on the ability of the backcourt to stay healthy. Things were so dire in the backcourt after the transfer of Elliot Williams, the Blue Devils convinced 2010 recruit Andre Dawkins to graduate from high school a year early to play this season. The Devils will count on him to play significant minutes spelling guards Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. They have an impressive guard recruiting haul coming in 2010, but, they will have to make do with three scholarship guards this season. Because of the lack of guards, you might see a lot more zone defense out of Duke. The Blue Devils will not be able to play their typical ball-pressure man defense away from the basket.

As always, expectations are very high in Durham. Personally, I do not think this is a Final Four team. The lack of backcourt players will come back and haunt Duke at some point. Guys like Scheyer, Smith, and Kyle Singler are good enough to lead Duke to the Sweet 16, even with the obvious problems, but that is about the limit for this squad. In the 2010-11 season, Duke should be a national title contender, especially if Singler returns for his senior year.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 10:17 am and is filed under ACC, ACC Basketball, ACC Football, Al Groh, Duke, Football, UVa Sports, theSabre.com. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.