Duke Football 2023 (8-5, 4-4 ACC) Birmingham Bowl Champions

[devildeac]

In a surprise to likely nobody:

https://sports.yahoo.com/duke-qb-riley- ... Q25YNgdxb9

And I really didn't need another reason to despise ND but...

Go Henry and Grayson!!

I'm happy that Riley will still be with us in Birmingham. (And I'm happy that we don't play them next year.)

ND opens at Texas A&M next season. FWIW.

You already know what I'm wishing for...

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke safety Brandon Johnson has entered the portal. Hopefully he's just testing the waters.

[Bob Green]

Brandon Johnson (#3) is a key member of the defense so Coach Diaz needs to convince him to stay at Duke.

[CameronBornAndBred]

There are a few unconfirmed reports out that Diaz is hiring Jonathan Brewer from SMU for the OC job. They have a connection through Miami, although Brewer was not the OC there.

At the very least, I hope the hire keeps our offense enjoying the success that we've had. Here's a snippet that eases my worry.

SMU ranked among the top 10 nationally in passing touchdowns over the last two seasons. Mustangs passers threw for 7,823 yards and 68 scoring strikes over that span.

https://footballscoop.com/news/manny-di ... nator-hire

[CameronBornAndBred]

Thoughts from Jim Sumner, who is always worth the read. (Literally worth it, I'm a happy subscriber, you should be too!) I like this snippet from his take on Duke hiring Diaz.

But there’s one task I haven’t mentioned. Diaz has to put together a staff. We’ve heard a lot about picking a school not a coach and all that but players want to know their coordinator, their position coach, their support staff. And the clock is ticking.

Coaching holdovers?

“Many of those guys are in a level of uncertainty that they don't deserve to be quite honestly,” Diaz said. “We understand that as coaches in this profession, we all sign up for that. I look forward to meeting with those guys one-on-one and assessing their potential for a future here at Duke as we get down the road.”

Full disclosure. This seemed unscripted, sincere and the best part of the press conference to me.

https://jimsumner.substack.com/p/some-t ... z-and-duke

[devildeac]

There are a few unconfirmed reports out that Diaz is hiring Jonathan Brewer from SMU for the OC job. They have a connection through Miami, although Brewer was not the OC there.

At the very least, I hope the hire keeps our offense enjoying the success that we've had. Here's a snippet that eases my worry.

SMU ranked among the top 10 nationally in passing touchdowns over the last two seasons. Mustangs passers threw for 7,823 yards and 68 scoring strikes over that span.

https://footballscoop.com/news/manny-di ... nator-hire

Link pilfered from TDD:

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2 ... diaz-miami

"Jonathan Brewer, the co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at SMU, will reportedly be the new offensive coordinator for the Blue Devils, per a Thursday report by ESPN's Pete Thamel."

[Bob Green]

Jim Sumner’s latest article:

https://jimsumner.substack.com/p/tre-fr ... birmingham

Tre Freeman and Grayson Loftis both say the Locker Room is in a good place. The players have stuck together.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Our own Hustleplays and his Dear Wife wrote a guest column in The Chronicle.

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2 ... o-betrayal

[lawgrad91]

Our own Hustleplays and his Dear Wife wrote a guest column in The Chronicle.

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2 ... o-betrayal

Thank you for writing this, Hustleplays, and thank you for posting it, CBB.

Good thoughts for all of us.

[devildeac]

Our own Hustleplays and his Dear Wife wrote a guest column in The Chronicle.

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2 ... o-betrayal

Thank you for writing this, Hustleplays, and thank you for posting it, CBB.

Good thoughts for all of us.

I'll echo lawgrad's sincere thank you to Hustleplays/Dear Wife and CB&B for linking.

[CameronBornAndBred]

What a great way to end the year!
Chandler Rivers got the MVP trophy, and was wonderfully humble in his acceptance. Wasn't him, it was the team.

[lawgrad91]

What a great way to end the year!
Chandler Rivers got the MVP trophy, and was wonderfully humble in his acceptance. Wasn't him, it was the team.

Congratulations to Trooper Taylor and our team.

Chandler Rivers was everywhere. A well deserved award and a great acceptance.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Best wishes to DeWayne Carter, I'm looking forward to watching him on Sundays.

On Thursday evening, redshirt senior defensive tackle DeWayne Carter — the team's only three-time captain — officially announced his declaration for the 2024 NFL Draft, bringing his lengthy and accolade-filled stay in Durham to a fitting close. Carter leaves Duke as one of its more successful defensive players in recent memory and leaves a sizable hole in the team's leadership after the departures of fellow captains Ja'Mion Franklin and Jacob Monk to the Draft and Riley Leonard to Notre Dame, respectively.

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2 ... manny-diaz

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke ends the '23 season "ranked" 36th, with 6 votes in the final AP poll.
Mack Brown and The Cheaters...well, to quote the esteemed Willy Wonka..."You get nothing!"

Other ACC teams and teams we've played this year. Pretty crazy that we played every ACC team that finished ranked. We had a hell of a schedule.

FSU 6th (tie)
Notre Dame 14th
Louisville 19th
Clemson 20th
NC State 21st

Troy 10 votes
Northwestern 2 votes

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

[devildeac]

Duke ends the '23 season "ranked" 36th, with 6 votes in the final AP poll.
Mack Brown and The Cheaters...well, to quote the esteemed Willy Wonka..."You get nothing!"

Other ACC teams and teams we've played this year. Pretty crazy that we played every ACC team that finished ranked. We had a hell of a schedule.

FSU 6th (tie)
Notre Dame 14th
Louisville 19th
Clemson 20th
NC State 21st

Troy 10 votes
Northwestern 2 votes

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

Good observations. We led Eff-$-U entering 4Q, were one play away from a W vs ND , beat Clemson and NCSU and Loovil was a damned disaster with 6-8 of our starters out/injured . Oh, and the f'ing acc assclown refs gifted the cheats a W in our game over at their dump . What could've been.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke gets a B+ from USA Today in the grades they gave out to all FBS teams for this past season. FSU got an A+, Louisville got an A, State got an A-.
Georgia Tech joined Duke with a B+. All of the other ACC teams finished with a B or lower. (Cheaters got a C+, way to go Mack!)


https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... 095056007/

[CameronBornAndBred]

In their "Final Rankings", CBS Sports puts Duke at 41. That's fair, but what makes this post worthy is they called Duke one of their "Biggest Movers".

No. 41 Duke (+7): The Blue Devils went 2-4 over their final six games after a 5-1 start, creating a slow slide down the rankings. Then, Mike Elko left for Texas A&M, Riley Leonard left for Notre Dame and interim coach Trooper Taylor was left to lead Duke into the bowl game against Sun Belt champion Troy. The program's resolve and depth was on full display in a hard-fought win against the Trojans, giving our voters motivation to bump Duke up in the ranking of eight-win teams.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ports-133/

[Bob Green]

Duke was 31 in the final Sagarin ratings:

http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke was 31 in the final Sagarin ratings:

http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

Suck on that, Mack! By the way, Mack spoke to media folks this week begging Carolina fans for more NIL money "so they can compete".
UNC could do that, and maybe succeed, or they could toss Mack overboard and get a guy who isn't going to coach them towards a flailing end of the season again.
(I'm very happy that they haven't tossed him yet)

[OPK]

Duke was 31 in the final Sagarin ratings:

http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

Suck on that, Mack! By the way, Mack spoke to media folks this week begging Carolina fans for more NIL money "so they can compete".
UNC could do that, and maybe succeed, or they could toss Mack overboard and get a guy who isn't going to coach them towards a flailing end of the season again.
(I'm very happy that they haven't tossed him yet)

Maybe they recycle Fedora in next to keep up the strategy of retread losers.