2020 Season – Duke versus Notre Dame

We’re back! It’s been a while thanks to COVID-19 and all the upheaval we’ve dealt with. But that’s over. The season starts today at 2:30 p.m. on NBC. Duke travels to South Bend to take on the 10th ranked Irish. This is going to be a tough game, there is no question about it. The Irish dominated the Blue Devils last year by a cool 38-7. We’ve covered all the changes during the off-season, so while we can’t say things will be the same as they were last year, there’s also reason to expect a loss. Notre Dame is ranked 10th. Duke isn’t. Notre Dame consistently outperforms Duke. The game is at South Bend. Jack Wohlabaugh is out for the season. Need any other reasons to be pessimistic?

How about reasons for optimism? It starts with Chase Brice.

Chase Brice - 2020 - Football - Duke University

A good quarterback will elevate your team and get you wins you shouldn’t. Remember Daniel Jones against UNC? We do because we were there. It was one of the greatest performances by a Blue Devil we ever saw on the football field. So, there’s one reason.

The WR corps is also better than it has been throughout most of Cutcliffe’s tenure. While he may not have a Jamison Crowder just yet, this is a deep group (Damon Philyaw-Johnson, Jalon Calhoun, Darrell Harding, Jr., Eli Pancol, etc.). And Noah Gray at TE is a big plus. There are a lot of weapons for Brice to get the ball to. If Duke can keep the defense honest by running the ball effectively (Deon Jackson and Mataeo Durant, anyone?), Cutcliffe’s next NFL QB may have one heck of a season. The weapons on offense give us a second reason for optimism.

The defense, while it had some turnover, should also be strong (especially with Mark Gilbert coming back which is freaking great).

Mark Gilbert on Twitter: "How's Reconstruction Going?? Me: 😁👍🏾🌴… "

Ben Albert is a heck of a coach and the talent level has consistently improved especially since he came on board. These guys can make plays and will give the Irish their best. Cutcliffe has generally gotten his team ready for big games at the start of the season. Remember how well an undermanned team played against Alabama last year? Remember the year before that when, while it was later in the season, Duke actually lead against Clemson? Cutcliffe, with time to prepare, can give better teams fits. So that’s a third reason for optimism.

But, speaking of Cutcliffe, I’ve been throwing cold water on him as the play-caller ever since he announced he was taking over the job. Just scan through our Twitter account — it’s there. Cutcliffe ran predictable plays in the red zone, messed with the offense’s flow by switching QBs and wasn’t always the best at clock management. As much as we love Cutcliffe here, we are honest about the fact that he gave up those duties for a reason. And his talking about a goal line package should give us cause for concern (he said it isn’t a priority for this week, but history tells us to be worried).

Final prediction? Irish to win, but a fun game. Go Duke!

Mark Gilbert Back?

If any of you guys follow our Twitter account (which you should, duh), you’ve noticed that Mark Gilbert has been tweeting some pretty awesome pictures lately. What are these pictures of? Him suited up to play some football.

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HOLY. MOTHER. OF. GOD.

Gilbert, a shutdown, game-changing corner who lived on the eponymous Gilbert Island, hasn’t been on the field since 2018 when he suffered a possibly career ending hip dislocation against Northwestern. That was the same game Daniel Jones broke his collar bone and what looked like a promising season turned into one plagued by injuries. While Duke finished with 8 wins, that season is forever a “What if?” season that included the Blue Devils leading eventual national champ Clemson 6-0 after the first quarter. It turned into a loss, but it makes you think. Oh well.

When Gilbert went down, I thought he may never play again. The images had a Bo Jackson feel to them. While going through the recovery process, Gilbert required a second surgery last year. We all hoped he would come back, but many of us had to wonder. And, fortunately, it looks like any of us who did have been proven wrong.

We could spend a lot of time posting about how Gilbert playing would make a tremendous impact on the secondary, the defense and the team as a whole. We could talk about what to expect from him after not playing for so long. We’re not, though.

Instead, we’re going to say how amazing it is that Gilbert may suit up and play this season. Not every player could come back from this terrible of an injury, two hip surgeries and the recovery process. It isn’t easy to come back from what Gibert went through and we here couldn’t be happier to see him making what appears to be a full recovery. Gilbert playing would be great – but him being healthy and happy is more important.

Congrats, Mark! Your perseverance is an inspiration to all of us.

Cutcliffe To Take Over Play Calling

Following a big weekend filled with additions for the Blue Devils, Duke announced that head coach David Cutcliffe would be taking over the play-calling duties.

Offensive coordinator Zac Roper, who was much maligned after a less than stellar performance from the Blue Devils offense in his tenure, will remain on staff and coach the quarterbacks, but the responsibilities for directing the offense falls squarely on Cutcliffe’s shoulders.

New Quarterback inspired moved?

Over the weekend Duke landed highly sought after transfer quarterback Chase Brice who left National runner up Clemson and has served as Trevor Lawrence’s back up.

The prevailing thought is that Cutcliffe’s history as a quarterback guru helped steer Brice to Durham and perhaps this fact was the inspiration for Cutcliffe to dust off the coordinator hat and take over an offense which took several steps back this past season.

If you buy a new car chances are you don’t want your teenage kid behind the wheel.

And while a lot of the blame for the offense’s short comings fell on Roper, Cutcliffe, ever the loyalist to his staff, kept him on staff but is taking the keys to the car.

A Familiar Role

Cutcliffe led the offense at Tennessee where he famously coached Peyton Manning and helped the Volunteers win a National Title in 1998 with quarterback Tee Martin.

He then took the head coaching job at Ole Miss coaching Eli Manning and, after being fired for failing to bend to the wills of the boosters, accepted the offensive coordinator job at Notre Dame.

Cutcliffe was unable to coach the Irish following a health scare and after time away to recover returned to Tennessee as offensive coordinator before taking the job at Duke.

Weapons to Choose From

Cutcliffe, who said in a conference call that he has been missing and wanting to get back into the game management of the offense, has plenty of weapons.

The offensive line picked up some additions in the off season and return a lot of experienced players. The running back stable featuring Mataeo Durrant and Deon Jackson could be electric if healthy and the receiving corps has a lot of young talent who should give Brice a lot of reliable targets.

Time will tell whether Cutcliffe’s move to primary offensive play caller will pay dividends for the Blue Devils but it may be the change to maximize what is suddenly turning into an intriguing football season ahead for perhaps a run at the ACC Coastal title.

2020 Outlook – Two Big Additions

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It’s our new QB!

It was one heck of a 72 hours for the Blue Devils. Clemson backup QB Chase Brice and Stanford OT Devery Hamilton visited on Saturday. Then on Sunday, word broke that Brice was coming to Duke. On Monday, Hamilton made the same announcement. What does this mean for the program? The only way to describe it is that these commitments are a big freaking deal.

Hamilton is 6-7 / 300 and from Maryland. He chose Duke over Pittsburgh and Indiana – no small accomplishment for the Blue Devils coaching staff. Hamilton came out of high school as a 4-star recruit which is out of step with the 3-star recruits Duke customarily lands. Hamilton also started at Stanford until the injury bug hit him.

As for Brice, he has two years of eligibility left. He comes to Durham after backing up some pretty good Clemson QBs. I’ve seen different things about Brice coming out of high school. Some list him as a pro-style QB, some say dual-threat. That said, most agree he was a 3-star recruit who isn’t the best runner, but is a smart player. The buzz is overwhelmingly positive. Word is Dabo Swinney really talked him up while he was transferring and the Clemson players love him. Around 30 schools were after Brice including Miami, Maryland and Purdue. He chose Duke.

Let that sink in. He chose Duke.

To ask my earlier question again, what does this mean for Duke? It means there is a talent upgrade and more weapons for Greg Frey, the new OL coach, to work with. It also means there will be a veteran QB to compete with Duke’s young guys, Holmberg and Diamont. This adds a level of excitement to the off-season that hasn’t been present for a while.

But more important, it signals a big change at Duke. These moves to me say that Cutcliffe & Co. are upset with last season’s 5-7 record and are willing to make big changes to prevent that from happening again. Cutcliffe doesn’t want to get caught with a QB who can’t make plays or run the offense consistently. The coaches aren’t okay with more of the same and are willing to take risks to do better. Fortune, as they say, favors the bold.

And with these big changes comes some big responsibility. My very scientific gut tells me that these moves put a lot of pressure on OC Zac Roper. He has a good group of WRs, a well-respected OL coach, some good RBs and three talented QBs (plus Katrenick who I think is better than we realize). While the QBs don’t have a lot of playing experience, I don’t see a lot of excuses for this team. If the offense continues to struggle, Roper is going to have to answer for that.

Duke made investments this off-season. If the results aren’t positive, the program will require more changes. If I’m Roper, I understand this and spend a lot of time upgrading the offense. He needs to review his own performance, figure out what worked and figure out what didn’t. The offense will need to be changed to better fit the talent.

While these 72 hours were a great start, it’s time for Duke to start capitalizing on them.

Duke Hires New O-Line Coach

After parting ways with its previous offensive line coach, Duke finally pulled the trigger on its new man landing Greg Frey.

Frey replaces Jim Bridge who left to take a job with Memphis. Frey comes to the Blue Devils, a 20-plus year veteran college coach including stints at West Virginia, Indiana, Michigan and Florida State.

The new line coach will have a bit of rebuilding as the line struggled to protect the quarterback in the passing game this past season. With a new quarterback, one destined to have far less experience under his belt, it will be all the more important for the line to improve.

Frey will also be working on opening things up for the running game as Duke has a talented and capable stable of backs to work with.

Up front Duke replaces several key components including center Jack Wohlabaugh and guard Zach Baker. Maurice McIntire, Robert Kraeling, Jacob Monk and Rekavius Chambers all players with experience return, so their is some experience to work with for Frey.

2021 Recruiting Update

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Another three to be precise.

Starting last night and ending today, Duke landed three commits for the 2021 class. Three-star DE Aaron Hall was the first to join the Blue Devils. He was followed today by lineman Andrew Jones and Anthony “Tre” Freeman, a linebacker. All three are from NC. Hall is from South Durham, Jones is from Pfafftown and Freeman is from Northern Durham.

Hall is the gem of the three. He’s a three-star DE/TE. At 6-6/220, he could really make an impact at Duke. Jones looks to be a prospect for new OL coach Greg Frey. Jones also plays on special teams which is always a good thing to see. Freeman, like Jones, is unrated and, like Hall, plays on both sides of the ball. In addition to playing LB, Freeman rushed for over 1,000 yards last season.

While none of these are 4 or 5-star recruits, they chose Duke over schools like Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Louisville (among others). Not a bad start for Duke 2021 recruiting news.

2020 Schedule

It’s out — the 2020 football schedule. Here’s the breakdown:

September 5 – vs. Middle Tennessee

September 12 – vs. Elon

September 17 – vs. Charlotte

September 26 – at Pittsburgh

October 3 – vs. Wake Forest

October 10 – at NCSU

October 17 – vs. UNC

October 24 – open (win the bye week!)

October 31 – at Notre Dame

November 7 – at Georgia Tech

November 13 – vs. UVA

November 21 – vs. Virginia Tech

November 28 – at Miami

Duke plays seven home games, gets one bye week and has all of its Carolina games in October. That could be a rough stretch. The end of the schedule also looks rough as Duke will have to battle three teams that went to bowls last year. Duke has a real shot to start well, but then things will get rough. Pitt, Wake and UNC will all present challenges. Notre Dame will coast to a second straight win against Duke. If Duke can start well, finish well and hover around .500 during the middle of the season, the Blue Devils may get back to a bowl game.

We previously predicted 7-5 this season with the caveat that 5-7 wouldn’t be a surprise. I’m standing by that after looking at the schedule. In fact, I’m trending closer to 5-7 now. I hope I’m wrong and that the Blue Devils turn things around and get back to winning games this year.

Keep those fingers crossed!

Duke Alumni Update – Max McCaffrey Joins Northern Colorado Staff

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Max McCaffrey catches a pass and turns down field.

Max McCaffrey played at Duke during the Golden Era of the early 2010s. He came to Duke in 2012 was part of teams that went to the Belk Bowl, the Peach Bowl, the Sun Bowl and won the Pinstripe Bowl. In 2015, McCaffrey led Duke in receptions, receiving yards and TD catches.

While Max has spent time in the NFL, he didn’t get drafted and only recorded one catch for 4 yards. Max planned to play for the XFL and was drafted by the DC Defenders. While not the freak athlete his brother Christian is, Max always ran good routes and was a solid WR.

His famous father, Ed, must have taken note of this and added Max to his staff at Northern Colorado. We assume he’ll coach the WRs. Congrats, Max!

Duke’s Bridge Parts Way with Team

A busy off season which has featured some notable departures just added one more to the list as Duke offensive line coach Jim Bridge has resigned his position with the Blue Devils on Wednesday.

Bridge, who joined the Blue Devil coaching staff joined the program in 2016 after stints at Boston College and NC State, coached the offensive line the last two seasons. During that time the offensive line struggled.

This season the line struggled mightily in pass protection, and despite only giving up 28 sacks, was rated second worst in the nation in pressure allowed following the snap.

Duke fared slightly better in the running game, but the offensive line woes seemed to permeate the entire offensive scheme. Bridge had to juggle a line featuring a lot of younger inexperienced guys along with injuries.

No word yet on the reason for the resignation but the line was considered by many a weakness and a change may be necessary to help the Blue Devil’s offense, which will feature a new starting quarterback next season, right the ship.

The new offensive line coach will have some talent to work with, but improvements will be needed for Duke to get back to their recent winning ways.