sportsjabber.net

Let us talk Duke football. Yes, football. The sport played at usually empty Wallace Wade Stadium. The Cameron Crazies rarely venture much around this part of campus, but the 2009 team gave them some reason to be optimistic as they came close to earning their first bowl berth since 1994.

Duke coach David Cutcliffe had a prolific passing team in 2009, which ranked 9th nationally, but he must replace QB Thad Lewis, who owns many of the school’s passing records. Sean Renfree must try to fill the void. He needs to step up to help an anemic running game a year ago, which averaged 63.5 yards per game and ranked 120th nationally. Runningbacks Jay Hollingsworth and Desmond Scott return, and the Blue Devils hope that an experienced offensive line can improve on their blocking to open up some running lanes and take some pressure off the new quarterback.

Defensively, Duke has to replace 3 starters from a unit that allowed 368.6 yards per game. Because of the depleted front line, the rest of the defense will have to step up. That could start with senior linebacker Damian Thornton, junior safety Matt Daniels and senior cornerback Chris Rwabukamba. They hope all that experience can help a defense that ranked 61st and a turnover margin ranked 50th nationally.

Duke won 5 games a year ago. If they hope to improve on the number of wins, they cannot lose to teams they are expected to beat. Cutcliffe enters his third season at Duke, and he has given their fans some reason to show up at Wallace Wade Stadium. Cutcliffe has had almost as many wins in his first 2 seasons there (9) as Duke did the previous 8 seasons before he got there (10). And it won’t take very long before they get tested as defending BCS champ Alabama travels to Durham in the third game of the season. Furthermore, the Blue Devils must travels to ACC favorites Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech later in the season.