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Duke Blue Devils Football: 2015 Season Preview and Prediction

By Patrick Schmidt

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Can David Cutcliffe continue the stunning work he’s done with the Duke Blue Devils in the 2015 season and contend for an ACC championship?

David Cutcliffe has built the Duke Blue Devils into a consistent winner with three straight bowl games for the first time in program history, 19 wins in the last two seasons and an ACC Coastal division title in 2013, but will this be the year he can lead Duke to their first bowl win since the 1961 Cotton Bowl Classic?

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Offensive Outlook

Duke loses two-year starting quarterback Anthony Boone after he accounted for 42 total touchdowns the last two years and in comes junior Thomas Sirk who attempted 14 passes last year in mop-up duty. Cutcliffe has a reputation as one of the game’s best quarterback coaches so he should be able to develop the physically talented Sirk into a reliable arm and field general.

Sirk won’t have wide receiver/return man extraordinaire Jamison Crowder to help him get comfortable in his position after he graduated. Crowder led the team with 85 catches and 1,044 yards and Isaac Blakeney must be replaced after he led the team with seven touchdowns. Max McCaffrey is the leading returning receiver after he had 37 catches for 385 yards and three touchdowns and tight ends Braxton Deaver and Brandon Reeves give Sirk reliable options to work with. Redshirt freshman Chris Taylor, Anthony Nash and Johnell Barnes will see plenty of targets as well.

The offensive line should be a strong point of the offense with center Matt Skura arguably the top pivot in the ACC and Lucas Patrick and Casey Blaser anchoring the line that lost Laken Tomlinson to the first round of the NFL Draft. They pave the way for running backs Shaquille Powell who led the team in carries and yards (618) and Shaun Wilson who ran for 598 yards on 7.7 yards per carry and a team-high five touchdowns.

Defensive Outlook

The Blue Devils were a bend-but-don’t-break unit last year. They were 12th in the ACC with an average of 399.7 yards allowed but tied for fourth with an average of 21.8 points allowed, which was good for 24th in the country. The strength lies in the secondary where all the starters return, including DeVon Johnson and Jeremy Cash who are All-ACC candidates after finishing second and third in tackles with 133 and 111, respectively. They also were first and second on the team in sacks as they did everything they could to help Duke on defense. Bryon Fields, Deondre Singleton and Breon Borders provide depth, experience and the ability to make plays on the ball.

The front seven has to play better in front of them though after finishing second to last in rushing defense in the ACC last year, allowing an average of 193 yards per game on the ground. Linebacker Kelby Brown returns after receiving a medical redshirt and has the potential to be one of the better players at his position in the conference and could lead Duke in tackles. His younger brother Kyler is playing a hybrid end/linebacker position and has to find a way to generate a pass rush for a team that returns only 2.5 sacks from its defensive line.

Carlos Wray is the only returning defensive line starter so the rush defense may not improve much and a pass rush hinges on a hybrid player but at least the secondary should be among the best in the ACC.

Prediction

Cutcliffe has done a tremendous job in building Duke into one of the perennial candidates to win the ACC Coastal considering how bad things were before he arrived. He has raised the expectations that anything short of eight or nine wins is a disappointment, but he can also be the victim to his own success if Duke slides to a six-win season. That used to be a cause for celebration in Durham, but now it would be a letdown.

How well Cutcliffe gets Sirk ready for ACC play will be the biggest reason this team either meets or misses expectations and I tend to believe he will be a quality player. However, I have serious reservations about the front seven in this defense and their ability to get off the field on third down against some of the tougher teams in the ACC.

The schedule isn’t too bad with home games against Georgia Tech, Boston College Miami and Pitt in ACC play and I think a 3-1 record is very manageable from that group.

Road games against North Carolina Virginia Tech, Virginia and Wake Forest has the potential for a 4-0 record and the non-conference slate is friendly with road games at Tulane and Army and home games against NC Central and Northwestern.

If the rush defense can be league average and Sirk doesn’t experience too many growing pains I think an ACC Coastal division title and 10 wins is within reach.

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