Here's to a good, injury-free game on Saturday
- Thread starter TraBuch
- Start date
trabuch - An injury free game is a great goal, I second that.
As a duke fan, any advice on parking and game day stuff to do near the stadium?
Thanks
Go Cats !
I will try to give a quick scouting report.
Going into this year, there were a lot of questions about replacing a 2-year starter at QB (and winningest QB in Duke history), two starting receivers, two starting o-line, as well as 3 defensive line starters, both linebackers (our stud middle linebacker, Kelby Brown, suffered his 3rd or 4th ACL in fall camp and football career is over). So, lots of legitimate questions. The first two games against Tulane and NCCU have indicated that Duke has some answers and looks good so far, but we will see how we do against better competition like Northwestern.
Our QB is big and fast and while his delivery is somewhat awkward, he has been very effective and largely accurate. Johnell Barnes had 11 catches against Tulane and looks to be a quality lead receiver. TJ Rahming a small, true freshman has looked awesome - super quick and shifty. Running back was going to be a strength with 4 solid returners, but Jela Duncan, a powerful guy, tore a pec (but rumors are he might return this week). Shaq Powell is solid in all phases of the run game and Shaun Wilson is small but fast and makes people miss.
Cutcliffe has improved the quality of recruiting classes almost every year, and Duke has some young guys that are filling in and bringing an upgrade in talent and speed. True freshman Marquis Price started at defensive end, and Brandon Boyce, an undersized nose has been effective. Senior Carlos Wray is the leader of the d-line and only returning starter. Duke finally has depth on the d-line and they have been better than expected so far (at least by me).
Duke linebackers are undersized, but fast. Dwayne Norman has moved from Safety to linebacker and we are playing a lot of younger, faster guys who have looked good - Zavier Carmichael, Ben Humphreys is a stud freshman, Tinashe Bere and others have made solid contributions.
Duke was returning the entire defensive backfield but Bryon Fields joined Kelby with a torn ACL and will miss the season. The other four are very good. Jeremy Cash, an Ohio St transfer is an All-American and all over the field. Devon Edwards is fast and an All-American kick returner. Teams might try to pick on Saxton or McDuffie who are replacing Fields and avoid Breon Borders who is an athlete and playmaker.
Our special teams are some of the best. Punter Will Monday and kicker Ross Martin are 3 year starters and really good. Martin is 52-of-63 in 3 years. Our special teams have consistently give Duke good field position and the national rankings of Duke's kicking units are very high.
We will see if all the solid play so far this year was due to poor competition, or if Duke is as good as they have looked.
We just spent $100 million removing the track, lowering the field and other upgrades so there is a "buzz" about the improved play and improved facilities.
Most Duke fans saw that you were clearly better than Stanford and are looking forward to playing a quality opponent. Should be a great game.
Going into this year, there were a lot of questions about replacing a 2-year starter at QB (and winningest QB in Duke history), two starting receivers, two starting o-line, as well as 3 defensive line starters, both linebackers (our stud middle linebacker, Kelby Brown, suffered his 3rd or 4th ACL in fall camp and football career is over). So, lots of legitimate questions. The first two games against Tulane and NCCU have indicated that Duke has some answers and looks good so far, but we will see how we do against better competition like Northwestern.
Our QB is big and fast and while his delivery is somewhat awkward, he has been very effective and largely accurate. Johnell Barnes had 11 catches against Tulane and looks to be a quality lead receiver. TJ Rahming a small, true freshman has looked awesome - super quick and shifty. Running back was going to be a strength with 4 solid returners, but Jela Duncan, a powerful guy, tore a pec (but rumors are he might return this week). Shaq Powell is solid in all phases of the run game and Shaun Wilson is small but fast and makes people miss.
Cutcliffe has improved the quality of recruiting classes almost every year, and Duke has some young guys that are filling in and bringing an upgrade in talent and speed. True freshman Marquis Price started at defensive end, and Brandon Boyce, an undersized nose has been effective. Senior Carlos Wray is the leader of the d-line and only returning starter. Duke finally has depth on the d-line and they have been better than expected so far (at least by me).
Duke linebackers are undersized, but fast. Dwayne Norman has moved from Safety to linebacker and we are playing a lot of younger, faster guys who have looked good - Zavier Carmichael, Ben Humphreys is a stud freshman, Tinashe Bere and others have made solid contributions.
Duke was returning the entire defensive backfield but Bryon Fields joined Kelby with a torn ACL and will miss the season. The other four are very good. Jeremy Cash, an Ohio St transfer is an All-American and all over the field. Devon Edwards is fast and an All-American kick returner. Teams might try to pick on Saxton or McDuffie who are replacing Fields and avoid Breon Borders who is an athlete and playmaker.
Our special teams are some of the best. Punter Will Monday and kicker Ross Martin are 3 year starters and really good. Martin is 52-of-63 in 3 years. Our special teams have consistently give Duke good field position and the national rankings of Duke's kicking units are very high.
We will see if all the solid play so far this year was due to poor competition, or if Duke is as good as they have looked.
We just spent $100 million removing the track, lowering the field and other upgrades so there is a "buzz" about the improved play and improved facilities.
Most Duke fans saw that you were clearly better than Stanford and are looking forward to playing a quality opponent. Should be a great game.
Brightleaf Square is a couple miles from Wallace Wade. Fun little shopping area with some good food. Worth visiting if you've never been there. The Duke Chapel's always a sight worth seeing. The Duke Gardens are really, really nice if you're into that sort of thing. Tyler's Taproom has a solid selection of alcohol. It's located in the American History Tobacco District, which is a pretty cool place itself.
Can't really help with parking. Haven't been to a game in a couple years and I'm not really sure what the situation is now.
QB: Thomas Sirk is a dual-threat redshirt junior. He's taking over for Anthony Boone, who's the winningest QB in Duke history although that's a bit misleading since he wasn't actually a very good quarterback. Sirk had 14 career pass attempts before this season so we didn't really know what we were getting with him, but he's been pretty impressive through two games (admittedly, against bad competition). Has made a few dumb mistakes and has had more than a few bad throws, but there've been way more positives than negatives so far. Strong runner, tough to bring down.
RB: Strength of this offense. Shaq Powell and Shaun Wilson are both really good RBs. Powell's more of a power guy, and Wilson's a shifty speed back. Both rarely go down on first contact. Both are also capable receivers (Wilson had an 89 yard TD reception this past week, and Powell had a 30 yard TD catch earlier in the same game). Jela Duncan might actually be the best RB on the team, but he was suspended all of last year for academics and has missed the first two games this year due to injury. He might be ready this week.
WR: Inexperienced but talented. McCaffrey is a possession receiver with good hands, not very fast but runs good routes. Johnell Barnes is a speed guy who's looked pretty good. He got open on a lotmof deep throws last year bit was constantly overthrown. TJ Rahming is an undersized true Freshman who's looked really good. Really shifty and fast. Ryan Smith's another speedy, shifty guy. Sensing a trend? Chris Taylor is a redshirt Freshman that looked good in practice but hasn't really shown up in either game yet.
OL: Skura's the leader of the OL, all-ACC type guy. Other than him, there's not much to write home about. Not nearly as good as last year.
DL: A source of constant frustration for Duke fans. They look a bit better this year than in years past, but I dunno. Brandon Boyce is an undersized DT who's done a pretty good job getting penetration, true Freshman. Marquies Price is another true Freshman getting a lot of PT but I haven't seen much out of him so far. Excellent size and skill-set but it'll probably be a while before he puts it all together. Wray's the senior leader. Not much to talk about overall.
LB: Young but talented. Humphreys was our highest rated recruit in 2015 and he looks like it. Fast to the ball. Norman's a safety convert. Carmichael and Bere have been solid.
DB: Strength of the defense, led by a pair of great safetys. Jeremy Cash is a beast and a future first-round pick. Excels against the run and rushing the passer, hits hard. Weakness is coverage but even then, he's not bad. Devon Edwards is more of a cover guy but he's not afraid to hit you, as evidenced by his 130 tackles last year. At CB, Borders is the number 1 guy. Tough to throw against, he's looked fantastic this year. Bryan Fields was our other starting CB but he tore his ACL. He was the weak link of the secondary last year and got picked on a lot. Saxton's filled in for him admirably. Jeremy McDuffie's another true Freshman getting a lot of PT. Talented as hell but hasn't played too well so far. If you're gonna throw on the secindary, it'll probably be against Saxton and McDuffie.
ST: One of the best ST units in the country. Will Monday's one of the best punters and Ross Martin's one of the best kickers. The aforementioned Devon Edwards is one of the best kick returners in the country and has four return TDS in his career. Kick to him at your own risk. Ryan Smith's the punt-returner and while he hasn't really been given a chance to show what he can do, he showed some flashes last week.
Seems to me that Vegas is indicating this game is a pick 'em with that small of a spread for a home team. Should be a very even matchup and we'll know a lot more about each team at this time Saturday.
Thanks. It sounds like it should be a good game. Have they improved the restroom facilities on the visiting side? Also I'm sure the team is hoping that they don't have to travel a half mile to their locker room.
The Duke football stadium was way overdue for renovation. The bathrooms were a joke (there was a trough and a circular urinal thing that was suboptimal), the visiting locker room was a hike and in poor condition, the team did not have a full 100 yard practice field until Cutcliffe arrived 8 years ago. Since that time, Duke built a new indoor practice facility, an updated visitors locker room (it is still a 100 yard walk at the end of our outdoor practice field), some new, modern bathrooms a couple of years ago, and there is a new press box/box suites tower being built, We have a new video board that is the largest in the ACC and generally we are catching up in the facilities arms race.
Actually, I think both teams are. Should be a close game. Special teams may decide it, if so edge to Duke.
How about the kick return squad? Our kick coverage was really bad last week, on both kickoffs and punts. We didn't punt much, though. 
Devon Edwards is one of the best kick returners in the country. He's been at least an HM All-America pick the last two years and all-ACC both years as well. He's already returned one for a TD this year and has four in his career.How about the kick return squad? Our kick coverage was really bad last week, on both kickoffs and punts. We didn't punt much, though.
Ryan Smith is the punt returner and he hasn't really done much, but he had a really nice punt return negated on Saturday after a toe went out of bounds.
I didn't imply that or say that, but you may be right. The line is up to 3, so the smart money might know more than the rankings? Cutcliffe isn't known for running up the score (despite our 55-0 win this week), so I don't think Duke will be too hard on you.
Well, the back-up QB was still throwing the ball with a 41-0 lead in the 4th quarter.............
Just hope we don't get shut out.
