2021 Game Recap – Duke Went Winless (in the ACC)

When I first met my wife in 2001, Carl Franks roamed the sidelines in Durham as Duke’s head football coach. Back then, the Blue Devils were bad, real bad. In fact, when my wife and I met in August of that year, Duke was in the midst of a 12 game losing streak that would turn into a 23 game losing streak before it ended. I remember when the Blue Devils finally won a game in 2002 and followed it up with another win that season – two in a year, what?!?! – and we went out for a beer to celebrate. That’s how rare wins were for Duke back then.

So, when my wife and I drove down to Durham to watch the Blue Devils close out a disappointing season, I felt a little like we were traveling back in time to the start of our life together. And while I had great time at the game with my wife, I couldn’t say that I had a great time watching the game itself. Unfortunately, the people who say you can never go home again are wrong. You can always go home again, especially if you never leave. And that’s what it feels like watching Duke football right now. We’re stuck in a weird time loop that has taken us right back to where we were when Franks and Roof were coaching. As proof, look no further than the fact that, after finishing an underwhelming 3-9 this year, David Cutcliffe has a 77-97 overall record as the Blue Devils’ head coach. That isn’t a misprint – Cut is just three loses away from 100 for his career and is twenty games under .500 in Durham. Not great, Bob, doesn’t even begin to summarize where we are right now.

But enough of that. Let’s turn to Five Things. We’ll start with what I liked:

1. The kickoff returns. Stinson showed up with our only touchdown of the day on his second return of the game. I won’t let the fact that he scored our only touchdown depress me. Too much.
2. The people I got to see. It was nice to touch base with The Hard Hat Guys, The Section 17 guys, Michael Torbert, Lee Rodio and his brother and a number of different Duke parents family members. Lummie Young has one real proud grandfather. All of you family members are great. You support your kids no matter how rough the season gets. It wasn’t easy for you, but you are one special group.
3. The soft pretzels get an A+.
4. Did I mention I mention I went to the game with my wife? Here we are having a great time together

Now, let’s turn to Five Things I Didn’t Like.

1. Too many Miami fans. Back in the old days, the opposing team’s fans would significantly outnumber the Blue Devils’ fans. That’s what it was like today. The Miami fans were on our side of the stadium which caused us to move seats. And because so few Duke fans were there, we didn’t have a hard time. But at least we got to be near the Blue Devils’ parents, so that was cool. Putting that aside, poor fan turnout means the program is backsliding. Something has to be done about it.
2. The offensive plays were fairly bland and predictable. I didn’t like the 4th down run it up the middle call, letting Calhoun try and pass for a TD so early didn’t make sense and the fake punt coming just a week after Porter pulled it off … Sorry, that’s probably enough for now. But even worse than the “Let’s throw a bunch of short routes and never stretch the defense” offensive strategy was …
3. The bad personnel grouping. I still don’t think that we ever got the right WRs on the field at the same time. I also think we subbed too many people in too frequently and prevented them from getting into a rhythm. Now, I am not criticizing the staff for utilizing depth, but I am saying that they didn’t get the right offensive guys on the field at the right time. It was the same with the defense. Franklin didn’t play enough today. Given that we went to a 3-3-5 for a lot of plays, which I commend the shakeup, I don’t understand why he wasn’t the starting nose tackle. I also don’t understand why we always seemed to use a LB as a fourth DL in that formation and did it in a way that didn’t confuse anyone. While I respect the DCs for trying something different, I think the execution was poor. There’s more that I could say about the defensive personnel issues, but I am afraid it will come across as critical of players and I don’t want to do that. Those guys play hurt, through pain and put it all out on the field, so, if you want to hear more about that just DM me on Twitter.
4. Can we get people in charge of gameday operations to do better? How about playing music with the word “Devil” in it at set times during the game? (H/t to The Hard Hat Guys.) Why are we playing Sweet Caroline at all? If the goal is to intimidate your opponent, Sweet Caroline won’t do it. If the goal is to play music your mother or grandmother liked, you’ve succeeded. While victory may be in how you define the parameters, you’re still losing if you play that song. I mean, I don’t even understand why anyone plays Sweet Caroline. It isn’t a song that pumps people up. “Carolina” isn’t in our name like it is for the Panthers down in Charlotte which gives them some reason to play that song (not that they should play it, I’m just pointing out they have a reason to do it, no matter how dumb that reason actually is). Are you telling me there isn’t a better song in the entire history of music you could play? A simple Google search uncovered 10 rock songs, mainly metal, with “devil” in the title or the lyrics. This isn’t hard. And why do the Red Sox play it after they win? What is wrong with you people?!?!
5. A winless conference season. You can’t sugarcoat this one – this is just pathetic. From 1996 until 2008, Duke went winless in conference eight times. EIGHT. Over twelve seasons. The word you’re looking for there is pathetic. The fact that we’re back to doing that again says a lot about what we’re in for if we stay the course and keep this coaching staff intact. I’m not rooting for anyone to lose their jobs, but I am pointing out that what the current staff is doing isn’t working.

I’ll have a lot more to say about what happened to the Blue Devils in 2021 when I do my season recap later this week. But I’m going to turn away from that for a few days because I need to decompress and, more important, because we are going to drop episode 2.1 tomorrow! Check out the site and follow our podcast to get notified when the episode is available.

Let me know what you think about what I think in the comments or on Twitter.

Go Duke!