Other side of Saturday's matchup

[Chard]

Jim Sumner is a veteran ACC reporter that covers Duke and yes, is also a fan. Of course, he's focused on Duke basketball but Coach Cutliffe has given him a reason to cover their football team much more than in previous years. He checks in with a run down of what Duke is dealing with on their side of the field.

"David Cutcliffe isn’t ready to acknowledge that Duke has taken next-man-up as far as it can go.

It’s called youth. You can’t give up gaps. You have to be consistent with your stance. The explanation for the game is that we just didn’t get it done. There were lots of corrections [in practice today] as you might imagine. But we worked those same fundamentals but it was obvious to me that when you get people banged up and they can’t practice full speed, it’s been difficult to keep people consistently going, especially in the defensive line, where some of them who are playing are missing practice time because of various injuries.

....It was inconsistency and failure to win the fourth quarter.

I don't know but does this sound familiar to anyone? Anyone?

UM's oline should eat, and then some.

Now, Jim is trying to negate the reputation I'm trying to highlight here with some gems that he lets Cutliffe get away with. Obviously, Jim doesn't watch UM football and Coach Cutliffe is most likely serving up some gamesmanship here with these quotes:

"Cutcliffe describes Miami in glowing terms, “probably a football team without a weakness,”

What?! Okay, okay. Let's proceed

“a defense that is arguably the best in the country,” “terrific, pro-prospect type of players,” “big, athletic,” “great kickoff return team,”

<Record player skreeeeeeeeetch>
I hope you didn't have food/drink in your mouth when you read that. Thankfully, I didn't either. Again, obviously Jim doesn't watch, Coach is coach speaking.

“so many different receivers,” “as talented as anyone.”
You get the drift.

Yes, lots of receivers, some who are freshmen. Still, just reading some of those quotes had this UM fan chuckling. Anyone that has watched UM would see the deficiencies of the QB, Oline and special teams. There are weaknesses aplenty. Coach Cut just doesn't want to focus on them.

Anyways, UM should be able to put a good game together as Duke's defense just isn't up to snuff for a P5 team. I expect a similar score and result as the Toledo game.

 

[305407cane]

David is a nice guy. Or maybe he is just mocking us. Who knows

 

[UMFarArcher]

It's called, "Sandbagging."

Wow. He's really good at it!

 

[Chard]

David is a nice guy. Or maybe he is just mocking us. Who knows

He's a good guy and knows his stuff. Duke is lucky to have and keep him. Tennessee tried to get him to come back as head coach but he said no. He's stuck to his commitment at Duke. UT would have been a big step up for most coaches.