ACC Football 2018: Midseason awards and superlatives

Biggest surprise

The biggest surprise of the 2018 season has to be the Duke Blue Devils sitting at 4-1. David Cutcliffe’s Blue Devils are sitting at 42nd overall per the S&P+ which is a 23 spot increase from the end of 2017. Much of this spark has come at the hands of the return of starting quarterback Daniel Jones. Jones has returned from a broken clavicle and thrown five touchdowns while averaging 8.2 yards per passing attempt. Jones took over for backup Quentin Harris who threw six touchdowns and for over 400 yards.

Cutcliffe, one of the nation’s best schematic coaches, has managed to beat Army West Point, and win on the road in Evanston against Northwestern and in Waco against Baylor. Duke beat a strong FCS opponent in NC Central but did lose badly to Virginia Tech. Many felt Coach Cutcliffe, who is 64 years old, was in the twilight of his career and winding down but with Duke at 4-1 a reassessment has to be made.

Duke hasn’t played the meat of their ACC schedule yet, which includes UVA, Miami, and Clemson. However, I thought that through Week 6 Duke would be 1-4 instead of 4-1 and that says something about the coaching staff’s ability to motivate and prepare. Duke will never acquire the talent like their ACC counterparts Florida State and Clemson but the Blue Devils have an edge over most in the way of talent development and deployment.