{"id":528579,"date":"2017-07-14T14:16:59","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T18:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=528579"},"modified":"2017-12-19T16:20:26","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T21:20:26","slug":"duke-with-more-experience-and-offensive-targets-expects-to-be-better-than-a-year-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=528579","title":{"rendered":"Duke, with more experience and offensive targets, expects to be much better than a year ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite coming off a 4-8 season that produced just one ACC win, Duke feels like it can win the Coastal Division but before verbalizing that goal, Coach David Cutcliffe wants the team to tell him its purpose \u2013 and the players have until July 30 to come up with an answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know what their purpose is and then we\u2019ll get specific about the goal,\u201d Coach Cutcliffe said at the ACC Football Kickoff event in Charlotte Friday. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a real purpose, you\u2019re not going to reach goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gave the example of being stranded in the middle of the ocean with a goal to get to dry land. \u201cIf your purpose isn\u2019t first to live, you don\u2019t get there,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are the people who die.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2013 team that won the Coastal Division came to Cutcliffe and told him their purpose was to prove that you can win big at an institution that has high academic and behavior standards. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018we want to make believers out of people that you can do every little thing right and win big. How mature is that? That\u2019s what you want to hear as a coach,\u201d he said. \u201cBy how they worked on the field, you could tell they meant it. You knew we had a chance to be a championship football team.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s version of the Blue Devils better prepare an answer because he\u2019s asking them the question when they get together next on July 30.<\/p>\n

\"Duke<\/a>
Duke QB Daniel Jones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Quarterback Daniel Jones, who took over when starter Thomas Sirk went down with a season-ending injury prior to the first game, admitted that he doesn\u2019t know if he can define the purpose right now. But he does know this team has been working hard in the offseason and is enjoying it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see it in how people are working,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThis team is unique in that they are enjoying the process of working toward the season. We\u2019re not going out and working because we feel we have to do it. Everybody is enjoying doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutcliffe might not want to talk about goals yet but Jones, a sophomore who was considered a quiet leader last season, isn\u2019t shy about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like we have an opportunity to play some good football and be at the top of the division,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the goal of every team to win the division and be at the top of the ACC. That\u2019s a big emphasis of ours. We certainly feel like we\u2019re winning each game on our schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duke is considered deeper and more talented at skill positions than it has been in a while, and the Coastal Division is expected to be more wide open this season, but expectations still aren\u2019t high for the Blue Devils.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hurt by what occurred a year ago,\u201d Cutcliffe said. \u201cWe should have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. It\u2019s ok to operate that way at times. But right now the most important expectations are ours and what we believe. We\u2019ve raised expectations about ourselves\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we do as well as we should, and that starts with me, we\u2019re going to have a good football team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duke has seven returning starters on offense including receivers Johnathan Lloyd and T.J. Rahming Jr. But there are other receivers expected to make an impact including Chris Taylor (29 catches a year ago), Quay Chambers (15 catches), Aaron Young (11 catches), tight end Daniel Helm (21 catches) and tight end Davis Koppenhaver (17 catches). Add in redshirt freshman Scott Bracey, who Jones said has been impressive during informal workouts, and you have a lot of weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvancing down the field passing is important to us this year,\u201d Jones said. \u201cBeing an explosive offense with down-the-field passing is an emphasis of ours. We have the speed to do it. The protection is there. It\u2019s more about timing than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutcliffe said he believes his team will put more points on the board this year with Jones starting his second season under center. \u201cHe\u2019s got the arm. He\u2019s got all the tools,\u201d he said. \u201cHe knows this is a very gifted group of fast receivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said sometimes last year Jones was just \u201cchunking the ball\u201d down the field. \u201cThere has to be a purpose in the deep ball,\u201d Cutcliffe said echoing the \u201cpurpose\u201d theme. \u201cWe played some effective offense last season but we didn\u2019t have enough explosive plays. We emphasized that in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones emphasized it during informal summer workouts as well, saying that he hopes the deep ball will open up the running game.<\/p>\n

Cutcliffe said he likes his running backs, especially his returning starter at tailback. \u201cI\u2019m anxious to see Shaun Wilson,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel strongly about his approach and his talent. The biggest consistency we have to have is the mechanics of blocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The running game is better right now than it was a year ago, Cutcliffe said. \u201cWe have a quarterback that can beat you running and a group of backs I\u2019m excited about,\u201d he said. \u201cOur best chance to be a contender is to run the football at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Cutcliffe knows it all starts at the quarterback position and he\u2019s impressed with what he\u2019s seen from Jones. He said Jones has been \u201csignificantly different\u201d this season and that even offensive linemen have come to him touting what Jones is doing in the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn conversations we have football wise, it\u2019s like talking to a different guy,\u201d Cutcliffe said adding that Jones has what he calls \u201ca functional understanding\u201d of what to do on the field. \u201cI probably shouldn\u2019t reveal this \u2013 I had Peyton (Manning) have some conversations with him at camp and report back to me about what he thought and he was all thumbs up.\u201d<\/p>\n

After an underwhelming season a year ago, team expectations are all thumbs up as well but goals will have to wait until the players prove to Coach Cutliffe that they have a purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite coming off a 4-8 season that produced just one ACC win, Duke feels like it can win the Coastal Division but before verbalizing that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,79,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duke-blue-devils","category-featured-stories","category-uncategorized","wpcat-82-id","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=528579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528584,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528579\/revisions\/528584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/528580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=528579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=528579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=528579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}