Now that it has been a few weeks since Duke’s amazing 2013 football season came to an end it is time to start thinking about the season that will be in 2014.
Trust me when I say that if you are now just thinking about this you are approximately three plus weeks behind the rest of the Duke program who most likely set their focus on 2014 shortly after they wrapped up the post game meeting following the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
The masses marveled at the Blue Devils season that saw Duke win 10 games, win the Coastal 
Division and play in the ACC Championship, all for the first time in school history. Duke finished the final polls, basically all of them, ranked for the first time since 1994.
David Cutcliffe won several national coach of the year awards as well as the ACC Coach of the Year, that one for the second consecutive year. Duke had All-Americans, in football, who weren’t just Academic All-Americans.
Guys like Jamison Crowder, DeVon Edwards, Perry Simmons all were recognized for their on field exploits as well as their classroom exploits. It was a hell of a year for the Blue Devils who, as it has been mentioned time and time again, were predicted to finish last in the Coastal Division and next to last overall in the ACC.
All of those accolades are easy to dwell on but if Duke is to evolve into a consistent winner in football, something they haven’t done since perhaps the 1960s and before. they are going to have to put all of that behind them and move forward.
It is easy sometimes to forget all of the failures of the program over the years once success takes hold, but a key for a developing program maybe to hold on to some of those failures and use it to drive motivation. The successes can be used a benchmark and a goal, but never the end result.
Heading into next year Duke has a benchmark and thus a goal: Get back to the ACC Championship Game. And while no one is likely to project such a thing, save Columnist David Teel who did just that, there are plenty of reasons that next year’s team could be just as good, possibly better than this year’s.
The Blue Devils do lose some serious talent on both sides of the ball. Gone will be most of the starters on the defensive line including Sydney Sarmiento, Kenny Anunike and Justin Foxx. Duke loses defensive backs Ross Cockrell, Garrett Patterson and Anthony Young-Wiseman as well. Those guys played a lot of snaps and will be difficult to replace.
They will retain guys like safety Jeremy Cash, linebackers Kelby and Kyler Brown, but younger guys like DeVon Edwards and Breon Borders as well as the young guys on the line are going to have to step up. Who replaces guys like Cockrell, Anunike, Foxx and Sarmiento full time will be crucial in Duke repeating and building on their 2013 success.
Scottie Montgomery will take over as offensive coordinator for Kurt Roper who left to take the job at Florida.
Offensively the biggest hit comes on the offensive line where Perry Simmons and Dave Harding will both be gone. The teams best running back Jela Duncan will miss all of the 2014 season as he serves a university suspension for violation of the school’s academic policy. Other than that Duke returns all of its weapons including Crowder who one the team’s MVP award at the football banquet.
The quarterback combo of Anthony Boone and Brandon Connette return and will be joined by a healthy Thomas Sirk who could challenge both for playing time. The Blue Devils have some extraordinary depth at quarterback with redshirt freshman Parker Boehme and true freshman Nico Pierre both potentially in the mix.
Should injuries come into play there will be plenty of depth there. The running back position looks solid with a senior Josh Snead and rising junior Shaquille Powell likely to be the top two rushers following the suspension of Duncan. Redshirt freshman Joseph Ajeigbe likely will get some carries as well.
The biggest question mark for the Blue Devils offensively is who steps ups and joins Crowder as the consistent number two receiver. Duke did not really have one in 2013 as it turned into a receiver by committee. Many thought Max McCaffery was going to be that guy but he never really materialized as a consistent threat.
Issac Blakeney, like McCaffery, showed glimpses but was never really consistent either. Brandon Braxton also stepped up big at times but he will be gone after graduation. Tightend Braxton Deaver came on strong towards the end of the season.
Guys like Ryan Smith and Johnell Barnes are expected to step up into more prominent roles next year and there is always the hope that Anthony Nash (6-foot-5, 200 pounds) who has been a bit of a project, but who has the physical tools to make an impact might actually materialize as a threat.
Offensively Duke will have the talent to put them back in a position to make another run at the ACC Coastal Division. The keys will be quarterback play and the play of the skills players, but don’t overlook the importance of the offensive line.
Replacing Simmons and Harding is no easy task. There is depth and experience on this line but it is never easy to replace long-term starters. Takoby Cofield and Laken Tomlinson both return and have a load of snaps under their belts. Matt Skura will again be the starting center. As for the rest of the line you have a lot of youth that will be expected to step up. The line should be solid they just have to stay healthy and show consistency.
The talent is there to be a good football team but they have to adjust to a new offensive coordinator, Scottie Montgomery was pr omoted to replace Kurt Roper. They have to adjust to losing key guys on both sides of the ball. They have to adjust to changing expectations of the program. They will be hunted, they will be respected and they will not have the luxury of sneaking up on teams because they are being overlooked.
For the second straight season Duke will have a favorable schedule starting with four winnable non conference games against Elon, Troy, Tulane and Kansas. The conference schedule features, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Pitt, Georgia Tech and Syracuse. It won’t be easy but it is a favorable schedule to not feature Florida State or Clemson in the regular season.
In years past it was a struggle to find six games Duke could win to get bowl eligible, however, the program and the expectations have evolved. This is a team that can now compete and beat the best teams on its schedule. There is real reason to believe this could be a team that could win 10 or more games again.
There will be questions that have to answered first but this program is clearly on a different level and fans are hoping that after such an incredible year this past season, that this is just the beginning. Time will tell.
