Friday September 2nd the Elko Era Begins

[Inveigle]

Well, this time of year is always exciting. Schools begins again, Football begins again, and Duke's Football coaches begin anew again. Throw all of last year out the window. Coach Cut was great when he was great. But recently his style was slowly dying and Duke Football was being choked out. Welcome Mike Elko to the fray. I believe he can turn the program around. But it's going to take some time.

Bring in Temple. They were just about as bad last season as Duke. Neither team was able to gain a win in their last five games from a year ago. Duke enters the game as a -7 favorite, but this game is a toss up as both programs are in a quest for a win.

Prediction:
Duke 27
Temple 25

 

[Devilsforlife]

Duke 31
Temple 17

 

[Inveigle]

Look for Jordan Moore to play quite a bit too. I see a bunch of dual QB play this season. But for now Riley Leonard is the starter.

 

[Inveigle]

Updated odds now have Duke -9.

My wife asked what Junior High Team Duke was playing.

I got nothing.

 

[DrKlahn]

indeed, that is the good shit

 

[Devilsforlife]

The kicker still fucking sucks, but tonight was great otherwise. So happy to have a competent coaching staff again.

 

[aiw]

Even though Duke has been one of the worst teams in any sport over the last 40 years, it is astonishing to me that this was the first shutout since the UNC game in 1989 and the first one at home since 1978. Seems almost impossible.

 

[CK86]

Thank you Duke football for the $1.43 in gambling winnings off a $5 bet lmao

 

[Devilsforlife]

Attendance was announced as 20,722. Higher than any game last year, but well below the 32,000 that turned out for Cut’s first game back in 2008.

Duke is going to have its work cut out getting fans in the stands going forward, unless Elko starts consistently cranking out 9 win seasons. The demographics are not great, with many of the loyal oldheads who watched the great teams of the 50s/60s aging/dying out. COVID definitely did not help there, either.

It also doesn’t help that we failed to build on fan engagement as the Cutcliffe peak came to an end. How many eggs did we lay at home in front of solid crowds in prime time in his last five or so years? Five or six?

 

[dukeberto]

Other than the missed FGs, we played a pretty great game. It helped that Temple was inept, but we didn’t make a ton of stupid mistakes and were fairly aggressive throughout the game.
Build on this next week.