The recent relative success of the football program has brought with it increased hopes, but along with those hopes come increased expectations. Despite the growing attention, however, the Blue Devils finished last year with a 3-9 overall record and just one win in the ACC, tying Wake Forest for last place in the conference.
Even with last year’s dismal results, Duke is yet again facing the pressure of fulfilling high expectations from fans, media and the team itself. But even as the hype builds before a new season, players and coaches alike realize that winning requires more than just talk.
“I want us to challenge ourselves, and I want us to be the kind of football team we expect ourselves to be,” head coach David Cutcliffe said. “We have to create the expectations within ourselves, and you don’t talk about what you’re going to do, you do it. A lot of people tell you what they’re going to do and don’t back it up. I want us to create expectations and [accomplish] them with class.”
Cutcliffe’s demands come as no surprise to his players, who likewise expect only the best performance from themselves.
“The goal is to win the ACC championship and nothing more, nothing less,” said safety Matt Daniels, who has played for Cutcliffe for the past three years. “We don’t come into the season only trying to win six games and go to a bowl game.”
Daniels’ goals may be lofty, but the team’s core of quality players, including quarterback Sean Renfree and wide receivers Connor Vernon and Donovan Varner, provides a glimmer of hope.
Renfree—the team’s returning starting signal caller—has completed 319-of-415 passes in 17 career games for 3,461 yards and 18 touchdowns. Against Navy last year, he set the school’s single-game records for pass completion percentage (93.3 percent), as well as consecutive pass completions, with 16.
The redshirt junior co-captain hopes to add to this list of kudos after fully recovering from a torn ACL in early 2010 and feels very prepared for Saturday’s season opener against Richmond.
“I think my confidence started in the last six games of the season,” Renfree said. “The less pressure I try to put on myself, the easier everything becomes. Obviously this offseason has been good for me—getting a lot of reps this spring and being more comfortable on the offense, and being physically healthy—that all contributes to being more comfortable.”
With a boosted offensive line and a strong set of veterans, as well as a fresh crop of first-year players, Cutcliffe said he is confident about the team’s prospects this year.
“Now we have guys playing, and all they’ve ever known is our systems, and you start becoming a program more in those fourth, fifth, sixth years,” he said. “We have a lot to be excited about, and the two things that excite me the most [are that] we have a lot of players that we’ve seen perform at a high level before…[and] I expect 15 to 16 freshmen or redshirt freshmen to play a significant part in this ballgame.”
Despite mounting expectations from all sides, the team has managed to stay optimistic for the coming year while still acknowledging some of its shortcomings.
“We certainly added some depth and some athleticism to our team [and] this team had a camp that you like to have,” Cutcliffe said. “I think we’re ready systematically. Are we as grown up as we would like? No. I realize we’ll be a work in progress, [but] I know we’re well ahead of where we were a year ago systematically, and I don’t think there’s any question athletically as well.”
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