beo

Honestly might be the darkest chapter in franchise history coming up this Sunday. The stadium will be like 60-70% Cowboys, there will probably be more empty seats than Panthers fans come the end. 1-8, with that atmosphere in your home stadium, AND it's probably going to be a complete blowout. Woof. It's kind of crazy to think the team went off the rails this fast after failing to properly build around our previous core.

Damn my stream is delayed as poo. Gonna have to check outta the game thread to avoid spoilers xD

Never change ACC refs, lol.

I never said the team had no or bad talent, there's plenty of good players on the roster. Didn't mean to insinuate that if I did. Duke was never really as bad roster-wise as the record said during Cutt's last couple years, he was just really having the game pass him by. Even just down to playstyle though, these teams are very different from one another. To me that's what's making this game so entertaining to watch.

Like I said earlier these teams are pretty much pure opposites lol. A clash of Jimmies and Joes vs Xs and Os.

Elko pulling out all the stops tonight.

Ballsy call! Good poo!

Elko's redzone D is legit man. Pretty much singlehandedly has kept Duke in this game.

Well I'll be damned, we actually have a game here. Good poo Grayson! Genuinely thought this game might get ugly after getting put in a 2 score hole, Duke isn't really built for high octane comebacks.

I will say, later in the Wake game Loftis started to show some progress. Before it was just pure wet nurse ball, but in the second half he started hitting some throws. Hitting some now too. Long-term he could have some potential, dude's a true freshman who wasn't expected to get much of any playing time this year and this is only his 2nd game.

Lmao. You're probably right and I'm just deep in denial because I wanna see a good Duke football team dammit. At the very least though I'm hoping he stays long enough for him to get some recruits in and put together a couple good seasons from here.

UNC actually has a higher 247 talent composite than Florida State (17/20). I think a lot of y'alls struggles are just player development. Mack's a hell of a recruiter but as a coach I feel he leaves a decent amount to be desired, both in-game and outside of it. Duke's the exact opposite, ranked 67th on the same metric. Elko's a hell of an in-game coach but he hasn't really had a chance to get his guys in yet far as recruits go. Looking forward to the next few years and hopefully Nina King sees the writing on the wall that in order for Duke to survive in this modern college athletic landscape, we need a good football program. Elko was extended before the year but as we all know that won't stop TAMU oil money from paying the buyout. With the K Money freed up, I'm hoping the bag gets thrown at him for him to stay long term and I do think there's a better chance of it happening than the greater CFBscape gives credit for. Duke's been investing more into football ever since Cutt came through and gave the program a taste of success.

I can't help but find it humorous how both fanbases are absolutely positive that they're going to find a way to lose, lol. You could be right, just can't see Loftis hanging around with Drake Maye. Duke's defense pretty much needs to put on a clinic in spite all the missing parts and the rushing O needs to be clicking for there to a chance. I'd be happy with merely keeping it close considering the circumstances. I think it'd take a monster rushing game from Waters and Moore for Duke to steal one here. UNC's run D against Tech was absolutely pitiful though, so hey, here's hoping.

Doubt Duke can win this unless UNC's run defense looks similar to how it did against Tech. Gonna be without Riley and to be frank, Duke's backup QBs just aren't ready to be getting significant action yet. Every game Riley's been out you can tell they're basically playing wet nurse with them to keep them from sinking the game. There some shaky message board rumors that Duke may be getting some of it's injured defenders back but i'll believe those when I see them on the field, lol. Teams' been decimated by injuries down the stretch and doesn't have the depth to replace them.

The MSU game all of a sudden has become very important. Duke's got a tough non-con schedule this year; it softens up for a bit after the MSU game but there's also @Arkansas down the road which seems like it'll be a very tough matchup in it's own right. Hoping to see some progress and hopefully, Mark Mitchell will be at 100% for this game.

The sort of cheating Harbaugh was doing isn't something that can be done in the NFL anyways because most communication is done via headsets in helmets, something that doesn't really exist in the college game because the NCAA is perennially stuck in 1942. I wouldn't be surprised if this fiasco is what finally forces the NCAA's hand in modernizing things, and I also don't think it's relevant with regards to his NFL prospects.

It's just grandstanding. A lot of people around here claim to hate watching a soft team with no identity oopsie it's way into garbage football year after year yet every time an opportunity to actually develop an identity presents itself all of it sudden the tide shifts to pearl clutching along the lines of "Wait.. no! I'd rather keep losing than win in THAT way." This place would've hated Cam if he was on a different team because people in general tend to hate on successful people who have polarizing personalities. So the cope to justify it is that he "burned out" at his other locations. One thing that the Huddle does often is manufacture a narrative and then it gets regurgitated over and over again until eventually it becomes the one truth and if you disagree with it, clearly you're just some conspiracy nut who's off his pills. I find it very difficult to even fathom the argument that Harbaugh wouldn't be a great thing for this team. He didn't grow "old" in SF, he got ran out by a new, big shot owner who wanted to put his stamp on things. Sound familiar? The evidence given for this "he grows tired with his players" spiel is often just sighting his last season in SF, like going 8-8 is some horrible year when it'd be the best year we've had in SIX SEASONS. And that's while ignoring the context behind the scenes that he had the owner and notoriously god awful general manager breathing down his neck and ready to axe him the second an opportunity presented itself because there had long been a power struggle brewing in SF. Oh, and that one Deion Sanders report (lmfao) that often gets cited as the gospel ignores the very real possibility that it was leaked from someone within the organization who had it out for him in the power struggle (probably Baalke himself.) Something a SI article even reported on in the wake of the entire fiasco. (https://www.si.com/nfl/2014/12/29/jim-harbaugh-jed-york-san-francisco-49ers-coaching-search If y'all ever want to see Tepper get his hands out of football ops, you go and hire Harbaugh. We need a vocal coach that will come in and stand up to Tepper's bullsh!t. Because as egotistical as Tepper may be, he clearly doesn't enjoy losing either. We've been stuck in utter futility for 5 years doing things the Tepper way. If Harbaugh comes here, does things his way, and we start winning games? That could be the catalyst for change in Tepper's approach to running this team that we need to see. We should be practically begging for Harbaugh. He could be the difference long-term between us becoming a perennial, Lions-esque loser and actually morphing into a competent football organization. And no, that isn't even slightly hyperbole. Remember what the Niners were like after Harbaugh got pushed out? They were WORSE than we are now. York, similar to Tepper, was hiring yes-men like Jim Tomsula and what that got them was a cumulative record of 17-47 (.265) from 2015-2018. Even assuming this incredibly flimsy narrative is true and he does wear out his welcome after a few years.. if those few years not only showed Tepper that there are more ways than his and encouraged him to stop meddling in football ops, but we also made the playoffs a few times? Like are people seriously trying to argue that would somehow be a bad thing? Having a transitional coach just to get this team even on the general right TRACK would be good for us. Giving any coach personnel decisions makes me uneasy but if that's what it takes to get him here I'd honestly drink the bitter chalice and do it at this point. Harbaugh or a coach like him is the exactly thing this team needs. We need a coach that will show Tepper that there are more ways than his or the spiral into ownership hell is only going to get worse and we're just going to become the new Browns.

Don't forget the cherry on top; meddling ownership! I really don't even see how we're going to attract anyone to this place. Probably just get stuck with another uninspired retread or an extremely green up and comer that had no other options. Late Al Davis Raiders style!

It is legitimately unreal that man continued to get DC jobs after his Duke tenure. He was terrible at all of them too, held back CPJ's Tech teams immensely. I think he's now listed as OU's but I'm pretty sure Veneables calls all the plays there so he's a glorified high level assistant. Still fascinating, shows that coaching really is more about knowing people than anything.

Gameday! Mostly just cupcake matchups but hey, maybe something crazy'll happen.

Here's the funny part, we were 9th in attendance last year. 7th so far this year: https://www.espn.com/nfl/attendance/_/year/2022 If we don't buy the tickets, the transplant fans of other teams will. We're basically fuged no matter how you slice it. I think the point of his post though was that if they moved we could maybe get another expansion team with a hopefully not meddling owner and get to start over. Won't happen though because there aren't really any better markets out there. All we can do is pray that Tepper is visited by three spirits and vows to change his meddling ways. Which... lol.

The Carolinas are too profitable of a market when put up against other options. Where would he move it? San Antonio? Texas has the Cowboys, Texans and a lot of college teams to compete against and San Antonio itself is a Spurs town. What else is there in the US? Portland? St Louis? San Diego? Lol. We're fuged unless Tepper backs off and stops meddling because he isn't selling either.

Not usually one to care much about scrimmages/exhibition matches but Louisville just lost an exhibition to D2 Kentucky Wesleyan, who are projected to finish 8th in the G-MAC. Not sure if Payne will make it through the season given how much of a disaster that whole thing was last year. https://sports.yahoo.com/louisville-basketball-bullied-paint-drops-014003757.html

Since the season's coming up and I don't see a thread, decided to just make one myself. Starting off the morning with some big recruiting news as 5 Star forward Cooper Flagg has committed to Duke at like 7 AM sharp in the morning for some reason, dude must be an early bird or something lol. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/38778660/projected-top-pick-25-nba-draft-cooper-flagg-commits-duke

Congratulations to the Virginia Cavaliers for their first FBS win this season!