December 2020 – Bull City Coordinators

2020 Concludes – Thanks to Everyone

With 2020 coming to an end, I’d like to take a moment to say thanks to the folks involved in making this such a good season (from the perspective of my blog as opposed to the team’s win-loss record). First, I’d like to thank the readers and the folks who follow me on Twitter. We appreciate you being involved. Second, I’d like to thank the other folks who provide great Duke Football coverage, primarily Duke Maven and the guys from Section 17. I really enjoy the Section 17 podcast and you will too if you haven’t listened to it yet. They teased some off-season podcasts and I hope they follow through on it.

Third and final, I would like to thank the guests who came on and agreed to do interviews. Big thanks to Charlie Gelman, Carlos Wray and Lee Rodio. I’d also like to thank the other folks who have agreed to do interviews that we will get to in 2021. I’m not naming names yet, but I think you will enjoy them when we get to them. I hope we can get some more people associated with the program to come on. I’ve enjoyed the interview format much more than writing articles. You can listen to all our interviews here.

Happy New Year and Go Duke!

Interview – A Wide-Ranging Talk with Lee Rodio

We hope you enjoy an interview with Lee Rodio, a former Duke Football walk-on. During our talk, we cover Lee’s musical interests, the intersection of politics and sports, church, his future plans and the legal profession. Turns out Lee is in law school and that became a significant portion of our discussion. And because Lee was at the Duke-Miami game in 2015 as a high school student, we talked about that. Again. Thanks to Lee for his time and for his contribution to the program. We hope you enjoy.

Lee Rodio, Duke football walk-on, lending voice in Durham ... — Lee Rodio sang the National Anthem at Cameron.

You can listen to the interview here on Anchor.

Interview – An Outstanding Discussion with Carlos Wray

We hope you enjoy a long talk about Duke football with Blue Devil Alum Carlos Wray! Wray was part of a special class that went to four bowl games from 2012-2015 which culminated in a Pinstripe Bowl victory over Indiana in 2015. We discuss how he got to Duke, his time as a Blue Devil, the current state of the program and the 2015 Miami game. Consider this a warning if you’re not emotionally ready for that last part of it.

Top 10 most important Duke football players: No. 6 Carlos Wray | Raleigh News & Observer — Get ready to hear about Carlos Wray’s favorite Duke moment.

Listen to the interview here on Anchor.

2020 Season Recap – Duke Football?

As the end of this season approached, it struck me as a bit coincidental that I was in the process of finishing up The History of Rome podcast. If you haven’t listened to it, you should. The podcast clocks in at around 180 episodes and is narrated by Mike Duncan, the best podcaster out there (other than the guys from Section 17).

Why am I bringing this up? The History of Rome details the rise to glory of a small Italian settlement populated by misfits and castaways. From extraordinarily humble origins, the descendants of the first Romans built a proud empire that conquered so much of the known world that it lives on in our collective memory more than 1500 years after the Western part of its empire collapsed.

ACC Coastal Division Champs! Duke Beats UNC 27-25 - Duke University — Duke’s 2013 ACC Coastal Championship stands as the crowning achievement of the Cutcliffe era.

While Duke hasn’t accomplished anything close to what Ancient Rome accomplished, David Cutcliffe has achieved great things in Durham. There is no denying that. He took over a program in complete shambles, much like Rome was after it was first sacked by the Gauls. And, like the Romans, Cutcliffe, the staff and players slowly rebuilt the mess that years of neglect created. The results speak for themselves – an ACC Coastal Championship, playing the ACC Championship game, the Peach Bowl (that’s its name, sorry), the Sun Bowl and then wins in the Pinstripe, Quick Lane and Independence Bowls. The Blue Devils also beat North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame and actually had a lead against Clemson in 2018. Duke even played Alabama tough in 2019 before the Blue Devils fell apart as that season progressed.

Unfortunately, Duke’s expansion and domination hasn’t continued. Whereas Rome defeated the Carthage in the Punic Wars and the Italians in the Social War, Duke is losing to teams it once consistently beat. Whereas Rome overcame its internal and external enemies, the Blue Devils have faltered in a series of embarrassing blowouts.

There is no disputing that the program is in a state of decline. When Rome faced a similar crisis, The Crisis of the Third Century, it found leaders like Aurelian, Diocletian and Constantine. These men used a combination of tactical and political genius to right the ship of the Empire. They stabilized it and allowed it to continue (the Eastern Empire survived until the 1450s) The question for us is whether Cutcliffe can do the same thing. We know that he’s done it before. What is uncertain is whether he can do it again.

The biggest challenge facing the team heading into next season is the loss of so many talented defensive players and having to start a fourth quarterback in four seasons. On top of that, the recruiting situation looks a little murky. While I said on Twitter that I would do a deep dive on the incoming class, Duke Maven covered it pretty well. They pointed out that the quality of incoming players may be slipping and that other ACC programs are winning the recruiting battle.

Next year will be a critical year for Duke. It will tell us whether the football program is headed for the resurgence that Rome experienced once Diocletian came into power and ended The Crisis or whether, like Rome, the Blue Devils have been surrounded by Visigoths and Vandals. And not to give away the ending, but when those guys show up, you get sacked.

Let’s hope for the former. Go Duke!

Interview – Analytics Expert Charlie Gelman

In what is a first for Bull City Coordinators, Charlie Gelman, analytics guru for Duke Football and Wrestling, joins Ben for an interview about his work, his background and, of course, football. Big thanks to Charlie for agreeing to participate in the interview. If you want to learn more about Charlie and what he does, listen to this podcast interview. You can also follow him on Twitter. Thanks, Charlie, for doing this, and Go Duke!

Listen to the interview here.

Recruiting Update – Another Transfer Portal Loss

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, Drew Jordan announced he’s entering the transfer portal. While he’s a senior and, but for COVID-19 and the NCAA’s free year rule, he’d be leaving no matter what, it still hurts to see guys choose not to come back for another season. While Jordan often got overlooked thanks to being on the line with Victor Dimukeje and Chris Rumph, he is very, very good. He was a stalwart on the line and always seemed to be right around the ball. He either made a big play or helped someone else make one.

Drew Jordan on Twitter: "I WILL NEVER STOP PURSUING WHAT I WANT👿😤🦁. #passrush #TheHunt… " — Drew Jordan is running to figuratively murder the opposing offense.

As if replacing Dimukeje and Derrick Tangelo weren’t enough, we’re down another member of the defensive line. We are now real thin at that position. Duke has done remarkably well of late at finding talent on defense and having it ready to play. Think about how we lost Jeremy Cash and never missed a beat. Ben Albert, the DL coach, may be Coach Cutcliffe’s best hire.

Coach Albert and the rest of the staff have their work cut out for them. Let’s hope they succeed. Go Duke!

Recruiting Update – Transfer Portal Madness

You’ve all heard by now that Marquis Waters is leaving Duke. Despite losing a big play maker, the Blue Devils picked up offensive lineman Kade Parmelly and defensive tackle Ja’Mion Franklin (who comes in from Notre Dame) through the portal.

Marquis Waters, Duke, Safety — Marquis Waters was one heck of a player. I’m going to miss him.

But, more important than those changes to the roster, it was just announced that Chase Brice, who transferred in to play quarterback last season, is transferring out to play elsewhere next season. That leaves Gunnar Holmberg and Luca Diamont on the QB depth chart. Looks like we’ll finally get to see a mobile quarterback run a mobile quarterback offense.

Duke QB Gunnar Holmberg back healthy after missing last year — We may finally get to see Gunnar Holmberg next season.

While Brice leaving is a sigh of relief for most of us as we’d all gotten tired of him turning the ball over, it’s probably a bad look for the program. All the hype of bringing in a major recruit like Brice is dashed against the rocks of reality. When the can’t miss prospect crashed and burned so badly, it doesn’t say a lot for the staff’s ability to recruit and develop talent.

I think this means that Holmberg is more likely to stay. Let’s hope he lives up to the hype. Go Duke!

2020 Game Recap – History Continued to Repeat Itself

By now you all know that Duke lost. Badly. Again. And the defense gave up more than 50 points for the third time in the last four games. At least the offense scored this time – 35 points. But that makes the game look a little closer than it was. The Seminoles ripped off 28 straight, notching big play after big play and methodically putting up first downs, yards and points.

And that was just the first quarter.

After that, Coach Cutcliffe called the team together on the sideline and actually, you know, coached. It worked – briefly. The Blue Devils dialed up three straight touchdowns thanks to big plays from Eli Pancol, Mataeo Durant and Deon Jackson. Chase Brice even threw some nice passes.

It really looked like Duke had a chance. With the first half winding down, the Blue Devils put a nice drive together, had a chance to score and then … Well, this team did what it normally does. It committed three holding penalties on consecutive plays and went from a first and 10 to a 1st and, you’re going to read that right, 40. You know, just a casual 40 yards to go on four downs. That drive ended in classic Duke fashion – 3rd and 40, a timeout left and a kneel down. Yep – Cutcliffe dialed up taking a knee on third down to run out the clock in lieu of throwing over the middle and trying to make something happen. Which made sense because it isn’t like the Blue Devils would start the second half with the ball or anything. Wait, hold on, I’m getting a call. “What’s that you say? Duke was starting the second half with the ball? So, they had a chance to score at the end of the first half and go into the final thirty minutes with possession and they chose not to? Are you sure that’s what happened? Because that can’t be right. No coach in his right mind would do that.”

But it did happen. It totally happened. I watched it. And I’m still pissed off about it.

The second half was a giant cluster of a disaster of a nightmare. Brice came out of the game, Luca Diamont came in (Gunnar Holmberg didn’t make the trip due to injury) and the wheels fell off. Brice tried to scramble to get a first down, he got hurt, fumbled, turned the ball over and then Florida State scored on the next play. Brice went to the locker room with what looked like a banged up shoulder. Taking advantage of the shift in momentum, the Seminoles scored touchdown after touchdown after touchdown. The Blue Devils didn’t entirely quit and scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, one of which came on a nifty pass from Jackson, but it was too little too late.

The game ended in a familiar, and painful, way. A blow out.

We could talk about how Duke shouldn’t have lost the game this badly. Florida State is bad this season and hadn’t played in weeks. Despite that, the Blue Devils couldn’t take advantage and got beat. By a bad team? The question is why did this happen. Or, more accurately, why did it happen again?

I think it goes back to Cutcliffe’s mismanagement of the quarterback situation. Last season Cutcliffe stuck with Quentin Harris when he played poorly, not Chase Brice poorly, but still poorly. Instead of pulling Harris, giving him a few series on the sidelines to get his head straight, Cutcliffe kept running him out there. The result was a disastrous string of losses to Virginia, UNC, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Wake Forest (the Wake game was “close” thanks to DPJ, not the rest of the offense). In fact, the team started to look bad in the second half of the Georgia Tech game that year (I know, I was there. They looked off in the second half which I erroneously attributed at the time to scaling the offense back while up big. I was wrong, but three points in the second half should have been a sign.).

Cutcliffe had Chris Katrenick to turn to, a veteran who had been in Durham for a number of years and understood the offense. Instead of turning to a veteran with a throrough understanding of the scheme the team ran, he stuck with his guy. And the result was a 5-7 season and a jump pass away from going to a bowl game.

Imagine if Cutcliffe had used Katrenick last season. Odds are Katrenick doesn’t opt out this year and doesn’t decide to transfer. I don’t know about you, but I would have very much liked to have seen a veteran quarterback step in for Brice this season. And not having Katrenick as a backup became problematic for this team last night. Without Holmberg, Duke didn’t have a quarterback with experience to turn to. And while Diamont played well at times, his inexperience got the better of him early. His first several throws looked like screwballs and he threw a bad pick while trying to make something out of nothing. While he settled down and got comfortable, and actually looked good running, I think most all fans would have much preferred to see what Katrenick could have done. Being a senior, don’t you think that the team would have turned to him for leadership and followed his direction? I think so. It could have been one heck of a story for Katrenick to finish his time in Durham.

But we didn’t get that opportunity because the Quarterback Guru mismanaged this situation. Badly.

There were other reasons that this team lost to Florida State. Multiple turnovers, giving up big plays on defense and a litany of penalties (everyone drink – Chris Rumph jumped offsides!). In season 13, this team looked like it had never been held accountable. No one got benched for making mistakes. Nothing was done to correct, during the game, the penalties, the turnovers or the lapses in coverage. Brice keeping the starting job is the perfect example. I gave up counting how many times he turned the ball over and I don’t want to come across as kicking a guy who got injured.

The question before us now is whether this will change for the better next season. I have to doubt it. This was season thirteen and it sure seems like Cutcliffe lost control of the program. (I have heard similar things from multiple sources.) While we can hope that he will right the ship and instill a sense of discipline, I wouldn’t expect it. Since the Georgia Tech game, Duke has lost by 20 or more points a total of 8 times (3 in 2019 and 5 times in 2020). The Blue Devils have a total of 2 conference wins in that time.

This program is trending in the wrong direction. There’s no denying it. This is going to take a monumental amount of work and effort. The offense needs to change and accountability needs to be restored. Can Cut do it? I sure hope so. But I have my doubts.

We’ll see what happens next season. Go Duke!

2020 Game Previews – Let It End

Duke will (mercifully) finish its football season this Saturday in Tallahassee. If the Blue Devils’ history against the Seminoles is any guide, Duke will lose. If this season, particularly the last three games, is any guide, the Blue Devils will lose. Badly. I thought about doing an analysis of FSU’s relative struggles this year, Duke’s anemic offense and now horrendous defense (you can’t say you have a good defense when you give up 48 or more in three straight games) and how two pretty lousy teams will match up against one another.

But what’s the point of that? It presupposes that the Blue Devils will actually show up and put together a complete game in all three phases. When was the last time that this team did that? Charlotte? How can a team play well when the offense is insistent on turning the ball over at every opportunity. Let’s be honest, all indications are that this team quit, gave up, mailed it in (it’s hard to blame them when the head coach doesn’t demand accountability). Other than the punter and the kicker, this team is just plain awful.

Instead of analyzing how two bad teams will match up against each other, I am going to put this team’s final record, win or lose, in historical perspective.

If Duke loses on Saturday, it will finish the season with 2 wins. You read that right. 2 wins. That would be the fewest under Coach Cutcliffe’s tenure and Duke’s worst season since 2007 when Ted Roof was the head coach. The Blue Devils finished that year 1-11 and Duke got a new coach. A 2-9 finish would be the same record Roof put together in 2004, his first full season at the helm, and the same as Fred Goldsmith’s 1997 team, his second-to-last in Durham.

If the Blue Devils somehow win the game, the team would finish 3-8 – one win fewer than Cutcliffe’s first year and practically the same result his teams put together in 2010 and 2011. 3-8 would be the same record Carl Franks amassed in 1999 during his first season as head coach. Goldsmith had the same record in 1995, his second season on the Wallace Wade sidelines. Barry Wilson put together a 2 win season in 1992 and a 3 win season in 1993. He was then asked to leave. So, regardless of whether Duke wins or loses the game, the result is a season that is in line with when the program was at its absolute worst. Like I’ve been saying all year – we’ve come full circle.

Win or lose, there is no disputing the fact that the program has regressed. Cutcliffe supposedly raised the bar in Durham. More is expected of the Blue Devils in football. And, if that is true, then Cutcliffe has to be held accountable.

Oh, and before I conclude, I am going to predict a Seminoles victory. Sorry, but I don’t see it happening any other way.

2020 Game Recap – It Got Worse (Somehow)

Duke lost again. This wasn’t really a surprise to anyone given that the Blue Devils hosted a top ten in Miami and had to play at night. In Durham. Against the Hurricanes. Yeah, fate pretty well told us what to expect.

While we all were mentally prepared for a loss, we weren’t prepared for one of the ugliest losses in Coach Cutcliffe’s history — a 48-0 walloping at the hand of a team that Duke beat last season (this is the second straight game that Cutcliffe got bested by a team he beat last year and the first shutout since 2008, Cutcliffe’s first year). It was ugly and we knew it was going to be rough when the Blue Devils forced a turnover on Miami’s first possession that led to a stellar negative 4 yards of offense from Brice and Company.

This game had everything we have come to expect – 5 turnovers, no passing touchdowns and an anemic offense. Chase Brice was a stellar 20/25 for under 100 yards (yes, you read that right). The OL got blown up all night and you couldn’t help but think it would have helped to have had a mobile QB who could at least try and make plays with his legs. But I’ve gone through all of this before and I won’t do it again.

Here’s what I will note – the media is starting to point out just how bad it is in Durham in game recaps as opposed to random tweets. The News & Observer correctly pointed out that Duke isn’t playing competitive football and that the team is losing in ways similar to the pre-Cutcliffe era. Even The Chronicle referred to the game as depressing. Everyone is, finally, staring the cold, painful truth in the face – this is a bad football team. And it has been bad since last season (if not longer). Going back to last season, this is the latest in a string of blowouts (which we’ve gone over before and I won’t do it again). While Cutcliffe may preach patience and comprehensive, detail-oriented reviews of everything the team is doing, do any of you think that he can turn this around?

I don’t. And it doesn’t sound like the professional media does, either.