Head coach David Cutcliffe held his weekly press conference today. Here are some highlights from his 30-minute Q&A.
Injuries are not an excuse but Duke has suffered an unusual amount of injuries.
Coach Cutcliffe counted eight starters were unable to play at halftime of the Virginia contest. This number includes defensive standouts Kenny Anunike and Kelby Brown. He added that 15 or 16 starters have missed complete games, including kicker Will Snyderwine, whose injury has made him significantly less effective than he was last year. The injury bug is unfortunate, but every team suffers multiple injuries during the long, grueling season.
"Asack will handle kickoff duties, we may not use a placekicker this week."
Cutcliffe laughed after this remark and went on to say that Snyderwine has been kicking better than the other kickers on the roster this week. However it may not be such a bad decision given the fact that Snyderwine has missed nine of his 16 field goal attempts this season. The Blue Devils have converted 19 of 32 fourth down attempts this season, and if the Georgia Tech game turns into a high-scoring affair, look for Cutcliffe to keep his offense on the field.
This Saturday's contest marks the final game at Wallace Wade for the seniors.
Even though the seniors' hopes of playing in a bowl game have been dashed, the team has been finding its motivation in playing for the team's seniors. Matt Daniels and Donovan Varner have had distinguised careers at Duke and the team hopes to rally around them, as well as the rest of the senior class, for the final two games of the year.
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