To try and make sense of a disappointing Duke football season and a disappointing, but not totally surprising, loss to UCONN, Bull City Coordinators is back with a voicemail episode. We have calls from Jason, Freddie, Eli and yours truly which all try to process what in the world is going on with our Blue Devils. Thanks for calling in guys, and see you all at Wallace Wade on Saturday.
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Our old friend Lee Rodio returns to the podcast for another schedule breakdown. As we go through each game, you’ll see that both me and Lee are pretty high on Duke this year, although Lee is a little higher on the Blue Devils than I am. If either of our predictions are close to right, it’ll be a fun year in Durham.
Also, I got one voicemail that I play at the end of the episode. Who left the message? Why did that person call? What is the mysterious message contained in the voicemail? Listen to the entire episode and you’ll find out.
Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode.
Our old friend Steve Wiseman stopped by to bring us up to speed on where Duke is at this point in “fall camp”. (I know you can’t call it a “summer camp”, but it’s August – let’s be serious.) Before we get into the Blue Devils, Steve talks about his recent promotion, how you can subscribe to Inside Sports and our kids and college tours. After that, Steve takes us through the position groups at Duke and what to expect from each this season. Sounds like there’s some depth at key spots which is a good thing. And we’ve got a new quarterback who may be pretty darned good.
After we wrap up the football talk, we cover how things fell apart for Duke in the Final Four. You’ve been warned. And if that weren’t enough, Steve makes a big announcement about a project he’s working on. And speaking of big announcements …
As I mentioned last year, I will be cutting back on podcast episodes. And while I planned to do fewer episodes this season than in the past seasons, I decided to cut back on them even more significantly. Doing a weekly podcast during football season, along with all the work associated with it by myself, takes up a lot of time. Between work and obligations to my children (they both play fall sports), I need to cut back. What that means for this season is that I’ll probably do a season prediction episode, another one around one of the bye weeks and then an end-of-year wrap-up episode. After that, I’m not sure. Doing this podcast has been a privilege and an honor. I appreciate the fans and friends of the pod I’ve made over the years. Thank you for your support and for your time. I can’t wait to see you guys at Wallace Wade this season.
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Our old friend Steve Wiseman stopped by the podcast to recap Duke’s big win over NC State and assess how the Blue Devils have done through ten games. We discuss that while it’s defense first in Durham, the offense is starting to click. On top of that, Coach Diaz and his staff have spent time shoring up the kicking teams after Duke lost a tough one against SMU. As you’d expect, we talk about Coach Feeley taking teams into the sewer. With two games to go and a chance to get to nine wins, you best believe that the Blue Devils will do all they can to drag Virginia Tech and Wake Forest there.
Now, before the interview portion of the episode starts, I give my thoughts about NC State fans talking smack about how State shouldn’t lose to Duke and how embarrassing it is for Doeren to be 1-3 against the Blue Devils. Let me be clear, NC State fans should get their facts straight. I hope you enjoy my take.
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After losing two straight, Duke looks to get right against NC State on Saturday. It’s a big game for the Blue Devils which I discuss briefly. Why a brief discussion? Well, just like Duke hopes to turn a page after two straight losses, I have to turn a page on weekly podcasts. I’m a little slammed at the moment and will cut back on the frequency of the episodes. I do plan on a few more episodes this season, but you won’t get one each week. Regardless of my schedule, I’m taking the Blue Devils to win on Saturday. Let’s speak win number seven into existence, folks!
Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode.
Coach Fred Goldsmith returned to the podcast to discuss how teams handle hot streaks, the importance of bye weeks and his 1994 Duke team that finished 8-4 and played in the Hall of Fame Bowl. Coach told some stories about what his team accomplished that year and drops a real nugget about a basketball coach who helped fire up the team before a big win. It’s always great to hear more about that wonderful season. We had some audio problems here and there, but it doesn’t distract from the great talk we had.
Also, it turns out that Coach Goldsmith, and a lot of other legendary Blue Devils are coming back to Durham for for the SMU game this season. I plan to be there and hope to see Coach then.
Before the episode starts, we hear from former captain and podcast guest Ben Erdeljac. We also mention a few charities that are providing relief to people suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
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Duke legend Lee Rodio returns to the podcast and provides us with his win-loss prediction for the Blue Devils this season. We go through each game and tell you who we think will win and why. We also check in with Richlandia to get an update on the status of the OG Optimistic Duke Football fan. You’ll like all our predictions as we’re very optimistic about what the Blue Devils can do this season.
One thing you’ll notice as we go through Duke’s schedule is how much time we spend discussing the differing degree of schedule difficulty the Blue Devils’ opponents have. This is one of the unfortunate side effects of conference restructuring – unbalanced schedules providing easier paths to a conference championship game. Sorry for an old man rant here, but there really is an upside to small conferences.
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Our old friend Steve Wiseman stopped by the podcast to cover a few different topics. We start off by dissecting what all happened to Flip’s draft stock and discuss the strange family dynamic that may have played a role in him falling as far as he did. After a brief detour from there to The ACC’s fight for survival, we do a deep dive on what to expect from Duke this season. While the Blue Devils have some unknowns, there is a lot to be excited about. Steve brings us up to speed on the QB situation, talks about our four-game murder’s row stretch and tells us why we should be cautiously optimistic about this season. The offense is going to be a Power Spread and will apparently involve the TEs. How can you not be excited about that?!?!
Trigger warning – we discuss Duke’s recent history of underutilizing its TEs. Noah Gray is mentioned. Consider yourself forewarned. And it turns out that David Feeley is pretty darned important. Who knew? (That’s sarcasm, we all know it.)
As you know, Bull City Coordinators is part of the College Huddle Network. As part of that, and as an attempt to try and bring our country together in these trying times, I reached out to my colleagues The Heel Brothers and asked them to come on and talk about the upcoming season for the Heels. You can follow them (if you want to) here.
Sorry for the audio not being normalized. I’m not sure what happened, but we had issues from the very start.
Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode.
Our old friend Conor O’Neill stopped by to give us his thoughts on Wake Forest and Duke as the programs head into 2024. Conor covers both programs for Rivals. He’s got a good thing going over at Devils Illustrated – sign up, folks!
Before talking football, we took a few minutes to discuss the legacy of one of the greatest recording engineers (also known as a record producer) in music history, Steve Albini, who, sadly, passed away recently. He was a member of influential industrial rock bands like Big Black and Shellac. Albini’s career as prominent independent musician gave him an opportunity to start recording for other bands and he made the most of it. During his legendary career, Albini worked with a wide variety of bands including the Pixies, Nirvana, The Breeders, The Jesus Lizard, PJ Harvey and Man or Astro-man?. The story behind the initial recording of Nirvana’s In Utero is worth the time to read about. I enjoyed Albini’s sound as a young kid living in a fairly boring town. RIP, man. RIP.
After discussing what the Deacs can expect, we spend some time talking the Duke QB battle and how we shouldn’t overlook what Grayson Loftis might be able to do if he gets a shot. While we’re both high on Maalik Murphy, it’s hard not to think that Loftis might be able to make a name for himself in Durham. Oh, and Murphy has a canon for an arm and will showcase it as the Blue Devils will run a variation of the Air Raid. All right, all right, all right!
Conor and I also discuss the portal, NIL and how the NCAA needs to let schools employ athletes. And we get into a little basketball, too!
This is another good talk with a guy who is close to the program. I know you’ll enjoy it.
Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode.
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