Heather Dinich ESPN blog

[CameronBornAndBred]

I liked this quote from her mailbag. (After she gave her preseason power rankings)

Chris in Atlanta, Ga., writes: Seriously. You ranked Duke ahead of Georgia Tech. I know we lost a lot of starters from last year and last year we weren't that great. But under Duke??? Come on. We have Paul Johnson as our Coach.

HD: Yep. And Duke has David Cutcliffe, an equally good coach with a better quarterback right now.

http://espn.go.com/blog/acc

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

The day is coming. It's on the horizon. Some doubters and uppity people are going to be caught by surprise when Duke begins to roll in football.

[The Football Fan]

You know, I've seen a lot a criticism of Heather, but I always thought she was pretty fair. She didn't predict a bowl for us last year. She was hard on Duke after the Wake loss and I mostly thought she underestimated our chances, but when the year finished, she seemed closer to the mark than I expected.

Predictions can be horribly off, but I think it's a great sign to see someone predicting us out of the last two positions.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Heather thinks Duke will be the surprise team of 2011.
http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/2 ... prise-team

Coach David Cutcliffe is entering his fourth season, and it's time the Blue Devils' progress was measured in wins and losses, not just in the weight room or 40-yard dash times.

[Bob Green]

The ACC Sports Journal Post-Spring Football Power Rankings has Duke at #11:

http://www.accsports.com/articles/20110 ... nkings.php

Seeing as we've beaten the Cavaliers three straight times, plus the uncertainty at QB in Charlottesville, I do not understand them being ranked ahead of us at #10. A case can also be made that Duke is better than #9 Georgia Tech. November is going to be where the rubber meets the road with games @ Miami, @ Virginia, Georgia Tech and @ UNC. As important as a fast start is going to be this season, a strong finish is going to be equally essential.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

The ACC Sports Journal Post-Spring Football Power Rankings has Duke at #11:

http://www.accsports.com/articles/20110 ... nkings.php

Seeing as we've beaten the Cavaliers three straight times, plus the uncertainty at QB in Charlottesville, I do not understand them being ranked ahead of us at #10. A case can also be made that Duke is better than #9 Georgia Tech. November is going to be where the rubber meets the road with games @ Miami, @ Virginia, Georgia Tech and @ UNC. As important as a fast start is going to be this season, a strong finish is going to be equally essential.

I suspect that until Duke has a major break out, sportswriters and others will tend to rely on/revert to their default memories of the old Duke, a team who didn't expect to win and usually didn't.

Speaking of sportswriters, I think one of Bill Brill's greatest contributions was his recurring optimism about Duke football.

[CameronBornAndBred]

HD has a nice article up on Kelby Brown today.
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/ ... the-middle

“As good as I might have seemed to do, there were a lot of mistakes I made that I really need to turn around, missed tackles mostly,” he said. “I’m definitely confident I can go out there and play with just about anybody. Last season boosted my confidence a lot.”

[Bob Green]

HD has a nice article up on Kelby Brown today.

We are going to need Kelby Brown at full strength. Has anybody seen any updates on his rehab status? Here is Coach Cutcliffe on the defense:

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml? ... EM_ID=4200

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

HD has a nice article up on Kelby Brown today.

We are going to need Kelby Brown at full strength. Has anybody seen any updates on his rehab status? Here is Coach Cutcliffe on the defense:

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml? ... EM_ID=4200

Kelby's brother Kyler will be on the 2011 squad, too. Kyler, who's listed on the roster as a linebacker, is actually bigger than Kelby. While Kyler may red shirt, he's likely to give his brother some friendly competition.

[CameronBornAndBred]

“I make him snap every day here,” said Duke offensive line coach Matt Luke. “I don’t think he likes me very much for that.”

HD takes a look at Duke center Brian Moore.
http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/2 ... rian-moore

[CameronBornAndBred]

What HD thinks Duke needs to do to get back to a bowl.

Duke hasn’t gone to a bowl game since 1995 and it’s a realistic and fair expectation for any coach entering his fourth season to reach the postseason. Duke has a talented quarterback in Sean Renfree and some of the best receivers in the ACC in Conner Vernon and Donovan Varner. But the passing game can’t get it done alone. Aside from beating Wake Forest for the first time in 11 tries, here are the top three things that Duke needs to do this fall in order to get to a bowl game:

http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/2 ... -bowl-duke

[Bob Green]

What HD thinks Duke needs to do to get back to a bowl.

Nice link.

Item #1: We can accomplish this but there is no guarantee.
Item #2: This is the big question mark for the season.
Item #3: We will accomplish this. Progress has been made...dues have been paid...the hard work will pay off in 2011.

Thoughts? Let's talk some football!

[CameronBornAndBred]

What HD thinks Duke needs to do to get back to a bowl.

Nice link.

Item #1: We can accomplish this but there is no guarantee.
Item #2: This is the big question mark for the season.
Item #3: We will accomplish this. Progress has been made...dues have been paid...the hard work will pay off in 2011.

Thoughts? Let's talk some football!

I agree on # 3, we are going to be doing a good bit of running this year. I don't doubt the abilities of our backs, but we've got to have the blocks up front to give them room. Hopefully a year's worth of experience and size will help accomplish this.
#2..well, we can't be worse, so I'm expecting improvement there too.
#1..what game was it we had the comedy of errors in? There were so many turnovers in that game that you had to laugh at it because the only other option was crying. Most of them were on Renfree's shoulders, and he suffered for it too. It took him a few games to find his confidence again.

[dpslaw]

CB&B, are you referring to the Army game? If I recall correctly, we had two turnovers early in the first three possessions, both leading to Army scores.

[CameronBornAndBred]

CB&B, are you referring to the Army game? If I recall correctly, we had two turnovers early in the first three possessions, both leading to Army scores.

That's probably the one, we had like 7 turnovers in the whole game, is was gawdawful to watch.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

CB&B, are you referring to the Army game? If I recall correctly, we had two turnovers early in the first three possessions, both leading to Army scores.

That's probably the one, we had like 7 turnovers in the whole game, is was gawdawful to watch.

Wasn't that soon after the Alabama steamroller?

[lawgrad91]

CB&B, are you referring to the Army game? If I recall correctly, we had two turnovers early in the first three possessions, both leading to Army scores.

IIRC, Army returned one TO to our 3 and the other to our 4. Not much a defense can do about that.

That was two weeks after Alabama, I think.

[Bob Green]

CB&B, are you referring to the Army game? If I recall correctly, we had two turnovers early in the first three possessions, both leading to Army scores.

That's probably the one, we had like 7 turnovers in the whole game, is was gawdawful to watch.

It was the Miami game and I agree it was gawdawful to watch as I was there watching it. On the positive side, it was a nice sunny day.

[Bob Green]

The Sporting News has a positive article posted:

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-footba ... ligibility

I like this statement: “With the pieces we have now, if we can put the puzzle together, I don’t see why we can’t go to a bowl game, if not a prestigious bowl game,” says wide receiver Connor Vernon, who led the ACC in receptions last season.

[RSharpe54]

The ACC Sports Journal Post-Spring Football Power Rankings has Duke at #11:

http://www.accsports.com/articles/20110 ... nkings.php

Seeing as we've beaten the Cavaliers three straight times, plus the uncertainty at QB in Charlottesville, I do not understand them being ranked ahead of us at #10. A case can also be made that Duke is better than #9 Georgia Tech. November is going to be where the rubber meets the road with games @ Miami, @ Virginia, Georgia Tech and @ UNC. As important as a fast start is going to be this season, a strong finish is going to be equally essential.

I agree with you Bob, but more importantly I was at the Virginia game last year and I never saw a Virginia team so undisiplined; penalties, penalties, and costly mistakes! It was an unbelievable finish though, but to add to the predictions I think Duke is 4th in the Coastal this year overall. That with Virginia Tech first, Miami, Fla. second, UNC third(Although I do think they could be worse depending on the scandal), Duke 4th, Georgia Tech fifth, and Virginia sixth. Georgia Tech lost alot of talent on offense and they have a young inexperienced defense that's unproven in alot of ways. With over half of our starters returning and a more vetran team I can see us placing 4th in the coastal division this season. November is an important month David Cutcliffe is 1-12 in November and he will need to win at least 2 or 3 of those games to get to bowl elgibility in 2011. Duke will and mark my words Duke will beat Virginia, Georgia Tech at home, and UNC finally to end the year. 7-5 in 2011 Bowl Bound!