It was with a bit of irony that I walked into my classroom Monday morning and my Duke Football poster lay on the floor having fallen off the wall. I simply laughed out loud, walked over to it lying on the floor, picked it up and put it back up. Basically a metaphor for how the Blue Devils have to approach their loss in the ACC Championship game.
I received more than a good bit of ribbing for the results of this past weekend’s championship game. The general consensus for Duke’s
David Cutcliffe has his program at Duke headed in the right direction despite a lopsided loss in the ACC Championship Game.
45-7 loss to Florida State was that I should be embarrassed for the team I pull for. My simply response was, “was your team there?”
I further explained that I was not the least bit embarrassed about the team. I pointed out the obvious. Duke held the No. 1 team scoreless in the first quarter, a feat not accomplished by any other teams this season. I pointed out that the Blue Devils had opportunities to score on the Seminoles early and actually get a lead but they just didn’t make plays
And as I am apt to do to anyone willing to listen I imparted a bit of a history lesson for those would be persecutors, who just don’t realize how far the Duke program has come in such short period of time.
There was and is nothing to be ashamed about. When asked after the game, tightend Braxton Deaver reiterated that the Blue Devils weren’t just glad to be in Charlotte or the conference championship team. They deserved to be there and they certainly did. Unfortunately for Duke the opponent was the nation’s best team. The fact they were playing Duke made no difference to the Seminoles, they likely would have provided a similar outcome for any opponent, they are just that good.
Consider this, Duke finished a season, one in which they were picked to finish dead last in the Coastal Division, as the outright Champion of that very same division. They finished with 11 All-ACC picks, 10 wins (a program best), and a No. 24 ranking in the BCS. That was all good enough to garner them an invitation to the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta on New Year’s Eve.
David Cutcliffe, who continues to wrack up rewards has won ACC Coach of the Year and won the same award for the Walter Camp Foundation. He has also been named as a finalist for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award.
This is a team that has raised some national interest even if the overall feeling is that the team’s success has been more of a novelty. Those who still don’t known the program will continue to over look Duke in the future, and they are many of the same people who will snicker at Duke fans following the ACC Title game.
Make no mistake Florida State was the better team, by a lot. Still having watched nearly ever single meeting of the two programs since FSU joined the conference, the Blue Devils are closing the gap. It may not lead to a win anytime soon, but there are more than a few Seminole player who woke up Sunday morning feeling perhaps a little sorer than they used to after playing Duke.
The Blue Devils are a much more physical team now. They have better athletes who can compete with some of the great athletes teams like Florida State has. They are stronger than ever before.
This team has tasted victory, and they like it. Instead of a generation of players use to losing, this generation is expecting to win and play in bowl games.
If national interest continues to pick up you can expect recruiting interest is sure to follow, and Cutcliffe and company will begin to attract even more talented prospects to Durham.
This is a program on the rise. There is still a long ways to go but just six short years removed from being the worst team in Division I college football, they were competing in a conference championship. It may have been a lopsided loss, but it wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about.
The years of loss after loss. Winless, season after winless season have hardened Duke fans. The program as of right now has never been healthier and a 45-7 loss to a team that has beaten everyone, save Boston College, significantly, does very little to discourage the players and fans.
While the loss most certainly stings, it isn’t anything to be ashamed of. This team has worked too hard and accomplished too much for any Duke fan or any Duke player to feel ashamed.
