No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. The computer screen you’re staring at or the newspaper you’re reading is telling the truth. Duke really is favored to win by 7 points against Virginia in tomorrow’s game kicking off at noon, and I myself am cited on the back of this sports section picking Duke to win. It’s hard not to.
Duke has simply been the more impressive team this season. How could one possibly justify a Cavalier win against the Blue Devils? Duke blew out James Madison 31-7, a respectable Football Championship Series program in its own right that just knocked off three-time defending FCS champion Applachian State last weekend.
Duke then narrowly lost 24-20 to Big Ten team Northwestern, which, though it has had a weak schedule, is 4-0 this season.
The Blue Devils’ most recent game was a 41-31 win against Navy. You may say Virginia has a bye week to get prepared for tomorrow’s game, but so do the Blue Devils, as they played the Midshipmen Sept. 13, nullifying the effect a bye week could have for the Cavaliers.
The common denominator of these games for the Blue Devils is that they have scored at least 20 points in every game. Virginia, on the other hand, has yet to post more than 10 offensive points in a game (Vic Hall’s interception return for a touchdown accounted for 6 of the Cavaliers’ 16 points against Richmond). In light of those statistics, how could someone possibly pick Virginia to win?
“But this is Duke,” you may say. “Duke ... you know, the ACC laughingstock during the past several seasons? The team that went 4-42 overall and 1-31 in the ACC from 2004-07. The team that has not won an ACC game since a 2004 defeat of Clemson.” (Don’t ask me how that one happened. Just one more example of Clemson underachieving under Tommy Bowden.)
Yeah, I know — but the Blue Devils are just a better team this year. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. There were signs of life last year amid Duke’s 1-11 season. Narrow losses of fewer than 7 points to Navy, Wake Forest and North Carolina barely kept the Blue Devils from being a decent 4-8 squad. And, don’t forget, Virginia needed a late touchdown pass from one Peter Lalich last season to finally pull away from the Blue Devils during the second half of the game.
Now, Duke football is looking to a bright future with new head coach David Cutcliffe, who has the credentials to be a good coach for Duke. He was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee when Peyton Manning was throwing bombs and singing “Rocky Top” and was the head coach at Ole Miss when Eli Manning was learning the ropes as a Rebel. I believe those two rather famous brothers are now the owners of rather gaudy rings.
The Volunteers went 173-54-7 during Cutcliffe’s 19-year tenure as an assistant, winning five SEC Championships and the 1998 BCS Championship (the first year of the BCS, by the way).
As head coach with the Rebels, Cutcliffe went 44-29 during seven seasons, winning the SEC West in 2003 and being named SEC Coach of the Year during the same season.
“OK, OK,” you say, “he seems like a good coach. But we just have more talent on our team.”
Well, I didn’t want to, but you made me pull out more statisics — and they aren’t telling a good story.
Duke is second in the ACC in total offense, gaining 410.7 yards per game. Virginia is dead last, at 233.7 ypg. The Blue Devils rank sixth in total defense, allowing 308 ypg while Virginia is again dead last in this category, giving up a staggering 419.3 ypg. (Yes, I too am sobbing about losing the likes of Chris Long, Mike London and Jeffrey Fitzgerald.)
Duke’s quarterback isn’t bad either. Junior Thaddeus Lewis is in his third year starting and has appeared in every game of his career, starting in all but one of them (26 starts total). It seems as though his trial by fire is bearing fruit this season as the dual-threat quarterback has passed for 238 ypg (first in the ACC) and five touchdowns. Most importantly, he has yet to throw an interception.
Marc Verica, on the other hand, is expecting to start only the second game of his career, has passed for 158 career yards, has yet to throw a touchdown and tossed one interception against Connecticut last weekend.
“Enough,” you say. “I get it, the 2008 version of Duke is not the same team of previous seasons. But the students at Duke still can’t wait until basketball season, right?”
Apparently not. Duke’s athletic Web site states that an average of 27,079 fans are attending games. That’s not a lot you say. The problem is Wallace Wade Stadium only holds 33,000 people. That’s not a bad turnout given the recent history of Duke football.
I know you’re devastated by this point, but maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps the troubles surrounding Lalich were distracting the team. Maybe the players will be more focused and are better off without him.
And though Duke has improved, it is not USC — or Connecticut, probably, for that matter. The Blue Devils still have not won an ACC game since 2004. They still need to prove themselves to a conference team, and they get their first chance this year with Virginia. We can also hope Duke serves the same function as last season, being the springboard the Cavaliers need to a surprisingly successful season.
Read More
Virginia annihilated 41-14 in a must-win contest versus North Carolina
By Peter Kriebel | 11 hours agoJust about everything that could have gone wrong for Virginia football went wrong.
No. 24 women’s soccer not to be denied in late win over Clemson
By Sam Chun | 16 hours agoThe Cavaliers topped Clemson 1-0 in front of a packed out Klöckner Stadium.
Men’s soccer, totally discombobulated, capitulates early to No. 5 Pittsburgh
By Michael Liebermann | 17 hours agoPittsburgh set a program record for the quickest cluster of three goals.
