Football, like most sports, is a game of routines. You follow a set schedule during practice. You do the same things before each game. It's all done to get you in that familiar attitude you need to play your best.
Duke, fortunately, will not have to break its normal pre-game itinerary for its game Saturday. Although the Blue Devils are traveling to a different time zone, kickoff is at 11 a.m. CST -- or noon Eastern, as it was against Army.
"We're really playing at the same time we did last week," head coach David Cutcliffe said. "We're going to honor Central Standard Time, but we've really got the same itinerary we had last week. That's pretty cool. We've got a routine."
While Duke will not be faced with a brand-new routine, early morning kickoffs are nothing new to Cutcliffe. He said that, while at Ole Miss, most games were played at 11:30 a.m. One Cotton Bowl he coached was even at 10 a.m., he said.
"The kids like it," he said. "You wake up, eat breakfast, then play some football."
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