LooseOnTheLead
Pretty much a regular
great stuff as usual..GL
I think they come ready and in better form. Don’t worry too much about the home field edge here for duke. It simply does not exist.
David Cutcliffe ventured to the Blue Zone for the early minutes of Saturday's Tailgate festivities to plead just one last time. He told them the game would be worth the students' time-he even promised, he said Sunday afternoon.
Cutcliffe and Duke held up their part of the bargain, and students found the dominating victory worth their presence.
Not even an 88-minute rain delay could dampen a newfound student spirit surrounding football games, as an area filled with blue-clad shirts in Sections 20-23 made Wallace Wade Stadium look more like Cameron Indoor Stadium, right down to the Cameron Crazies' wiggling fingers.
"It far exceeded my expectations," Cutcliffe said Sunday of the students' efforts. "I really was thrilled with that sea of blue there, surrounding the band-that was pretty neat looking from the field."
And the players certainly noticed the effect of having a supportive crowd, too.
"This is almost unreal really," Greg Akinbiyi said. "We never had this kind of crowd, never had this atmosphere. This feeling in the air is like Christmas."
Cutcliffe had campaigned and marketed for greater attendance numbers since he was hired in December and began another blitz on students last week, when he ramped up his public appearances, offered free T-shirts and almost begged students to make the short walk from the Blue Zone to Wallace Wade. And unlike almost all games in the Ted Roof era, students packed the newly moved student section behind the Duke bench. Most sat through the delay; some left and came back at 8:15 p.m., the announced kickoff time.
And while Cutcliffe made a point to open his post-game press conference by recognizing the students, he made his feelings clear earlier in the night. During the delay, the head coach walked to the tunnel to check on the weather. He immediately saw the students and ran across the field to pump his fist three times and rile up the Blue Devils' new 12th man.
"I couldn't believe how many people were there," Cutcliffe said. "I kind of instinctively went over to see them. That was as much fun as I had all night."
The goal posts came down after the game-but not at the hands of students. A group of stadium officials lowered the uprights and security officials blocked off entrance to the field. When the Blue Devils last won at Northwestern in Sept. 2007, Duke students entered the empty stadium and carried the goal posts all the way to the Duke Chapel.
Cutcliffe said he was against taking down the goal posts Saturday night, as he believes it is a celebration that should be reserved for "big wins."
"I don't know that you can pinpoint one, but those moments in time happen," he said. "It's a bad habit to do it every time you turn around.... If it happens at the right time, it happens. But I just didn't think it was the right moment."
And now more than ever, students might be in the bleachers to witness it.
Just in response to this VK....I'm about to lock in NW as well as I've had this one on my radar for some time and am happy with the line and just going over articles and checking on injuries from Saturday..came across this article on how the students supported Cutcliffe's efforts Saturday...I understand you are syaing home field from a money standpoint...i.e W/L and ATS trends....but this was atleast interesting that he's trying to change that trend...
yea thanks for that UTEP side last week, homer lol. you being so knowledgeable with that team I thought you'd have a good feel. There was Way too much unproven for UTEP defensively, traveling across the country, worst play of the week for me I capped that wrong.
Wisconsin play hurt, but Tennessee is what screwed me over considering it was such a large play. Went with everyone on Wyoming as it sounded good. Went 8-5 but lost money.
----Looking back, just about ALL games in which experienced vs. inexperienced matched up, expecially NEW coaches, who won?? EXPERIENCED, except Tenny. Look, Stanford, Rice, Troy, Temple, Michigan, Buffalo, Wake, Texas A&M, Colorado, TCU exp held, on and on I'm missing some I'm sure.
My week 2 Plays
PENN STATE
USF
WYOMING
ARIZONA
KANSAS
AUBURN
NEBRASKA
OKLAHOMA
FLORIDA
BUFFALO
WAKE
OHIO<LINK href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CDan%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel=File-List><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:smarttagtype class=inlineimg title=Embarrassment alt="" smilieid="2" border="0" redface.gif="" smilies="" images="" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com</o:smarttagtype>
Kyle
Great Thread,on NW with you. Curious to hear your thoughts on Notre Dame game.
I like notre dame to put a beat down on sdsu. I want them to prove it once first, though. The disparity in talent level for this game is pretty big. You know how i feel about laying those huge numbers though. A lot has to go right and you rarely feel comfortable. SDSU obviiously played poorly against a decent fcs team in cal poly, picking up the loss. They were minus 4 in turnovers there. That would be one of my concerns with the notre dame side as well .... sdsu has a game under their belt and this is notre dame first game. might be rusty , and the offense showed last year the ability to make boneheaded plays. Just the same , Notre Dame should roll and sdsu should struggle offensively. When I lay three td i like to KNOW what my favorite can do .. here i just THINK notre dame will be improved. I want to see it once first.
BC not a team that is going to put up a ton of points .... GT will be competitive and the game will be low scoring ... and will be lined low scoring. the 7.5 will always be in range.
Kyle- I'd be surprised if you are not correct on this assessment. BC offense, so so. BC defense- excellent.
GT- ball control team
When do you go back to the USU avatar?? And why USU in the first place? I would think UTEP Miners or maybe a Texas Longhorn ?
BTW- Shouldn't your sides record at the top of the thread read 2-4 ?
GL this week.
bull
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__________________
Just leave the damn Utah avatar up.
Like that Utah over. A small worry on my behalf about a potential shutout. I know the Ute defense will want it. Of course I've been pimping UNLV overs all year as I think they have a talented offense and not much on the other side. If I was more shore that Clayton wasn't going to go another game w/out a turnover I'd be all over this one. He can't go two games w/out one can he?
What do you think about the new Mike Leech at Arizona this week. After seeing what he did last week, against a bad Toledo team and his job on the line, hard to imagine him not being relentless at home once again?
Also, i had an initial lean to ecu this week but as the line has dropped and given wvu history of success in games with rain and after looking deeper into the game i actually like the west virginia side of the game. put zero stock into the villanova game. 600 yards to 160 advantage or thereabouts for this game last year for mountaineers. That is a lot of improvement to keep it within the number. wvu was added to talk me offs and i actually am starting to like this a little bit as it sits 7.5 now. if it hits 7 i might even consider buying the half point and laying 6.5 We'll see though. By power rating this is off a bit , and the VT victory may look a little less impressive by years end.
oh good. we do have something to argue about this week :36_11_6:
Alright Kyle, question...
Last week Kent St was only a 10 pt dog at home against a top tier ACC team. Now, they go to the 11th or 12th best Big 12 team and get only a FG less. Was the BC performance that bad, or is this line completly off? You'd figure if the books think they had last weeks' line at -10 correct, with the loss, it would seem this line should be at about ISU -2 or so simply because of HFA. This one screams Kent St. to me. Your thoughts?
well, fwiw, I too do not like to lay 20 point chalk.
seems that whenever I do lay it-which is rarely- it's the kiss of death for the FAV.
Enjoy those beers.
bull
agree w/ you on Pitt as i suffered through the loss last week, but i really look for BG to bring it against Minny.I have to disagree w/ your opinion on Syracuse and there improved ground game, my eyes saw a pathetic performence. If you eliminate 3 plays, there ypr was disgusting. i do like the stable of backs they have and the best of the bunch could be a FR who didnt see action, but the OL was still just awful even w/ the new OC. a rival coach while scouting the orange last year said it was the slowest and fattest he has seen, while they have collectively lost some pounds they still are a bad bunch.if they have any success at all it will be a reflection on Akron. GL w. your play!Alright i added a couple of plays and eliminated a couple more. first i eliminated ohio and stanford. I have just had a fear of cardinals melting in second half to arizona st. ( see sun devils second halves at home last year ) and like the sun devils run defense matched up against the bruising back of stanford.... just enough to eliminate it. ohio i am worried that buckeyes play hareder than they normally would to prove they can do it without beanie. it is a question of want to here and the big edge for ohio is that usc is on deck. not sure about the anser so letting it go.
Added syracuse -4 and pittsburgh -13. have a feeling that at some point the cuse line hits 3.5 but as i have said ... i am leaving town and wont have time to check on it.
syracuse -- competitive i thought vs nw and i was impressed by their improved run game. That should work out well againt akron who struggled vs the run last week. back to back roadies for akron and i make syracuse the favorite on akrons field so find the line drop slightly puzzling. i have akron as bad as any team in their conference and will take my chances with the cuse here.
pittsburgh -- my eyes deceived me a little bit with the BG game. pitt actually dominated them a little bit and now instead of swelled heads you have an angry team facing a buffalo squad fresh off a victory. i like the spot and i like pitts chances of pounding the hell out of the ball. the line seems to indicate that buffalo is basically on par with Bg and i simply dont agree. throw in the difference in attitude that should be brought to the stadium and i like it even more. pittsburgh going away.....
agree w/ you on Pitt as i suffered through the loss last week, but i really look for BG to bring it against Minny.I have to disagree w/ your opinion on Syracuse and there improved ground game, my eyes saw a pathetic performence. If you eliminate 3 plays, there ypr was disgusting. i do like the stable of backs they have and the best of the bunch could be a FR who didnt see action, but the OL was still just awful even w/ the new OC. a rival coach while scouting the orange last year said it was the slowest and fattest he has seen, while they have collectively lost some pounds they still are a bad bunch.if they have any success at all it will be a reflection on Akron. GL w. your play!
hope any of you that played miami florida this week had a winning number.