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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's football reporter, Tony Barnhart, posted a "5 Questions" piece on the ACC Coastal Division today, and had some encouraging things to say regarding Duke's chances this year:

5. Can the Duke defense take another step forward? We know the Duke offense is going to be pretty good. Senior quarterback Thaddeus Lewis is in his second year in David Cutcliffe’s system and the Blue Devils have some weapons on that side of the ball. What I’m looking for in the preseason is whether or not the defense will improve for the second straight year. Six starters are missing from a group that went from giving up 33.2 points per game in 2007 to 23.4 points per game last season. Two big-time players are still there in DT Vince Oghobaase and LB Vincent Rey. Oghobaase (6-6, 300) has 29 career tackles for loss and is an All-ACC pick. Rey wasn’t a preseason All-ACC pick but he should have been. This guy can play with 100 or more tackles in each of the past two seasons. If Duke’s defense can get a little bit better, it is possible for Duke to improve on 4-8 last season and qualify for a bowl.

Here's the link to the full piece:
http://blogs.ajc.com/barnhart-college-f ... id=sldr_hm

I think we actually have more questions on offense than defense. We lost some big names from the O-line, so even though we know Thad and hopefully Renfree will be good, if they don't have the protection it won't matter. I'm looking forward to a faster team benefitting both sides of the ball, and I'm way excited to see Boyette running again.

CameronBornAndBred wrote:I think we actually have more questions on offense than defense. We lost some big names from the O-line, so even though we know Thad and hopefully Renfree will be good, if they don't have the protection it won't matter. I'm looking forward to a faster team benefitting both sides of the ball, and I'm way excited to see Boyette running again.

I agree about the likelihood of more speed on both offense and defense. I think we'll be more successful running with the ball and I anticipate seeing some great routes run on the way to catching passes.

CameronBornAndBred wrote:I think we actually have more questions on offense than defense.

I'll respectfully disagree. Our running game will be loads better than it's been since Chris Douglas (five years). The D has lots more question marks in my eyes. Agreed on inexperience on the O-line, but all of our skill positions on that side of the ball are solid. The only two known quantities on D are the Vince(nt)s: Oghobaase and Rey.