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By Stephen Cheek
SouthernPigskin.com State of North Carolina Columnist
SouthernPigskin.com State of North Carolina Columnist Stephen Cheek talks about football in North Carolina after week 8.
Last season, NC State head coach Tom O’Brien made headlines in North Carolina when he proclaimed that his school was “the best program in the state” due to defeating Duke, Wake Forest, ECU and UNC all in the same season. Add that to the fact that O’Brien’s RS Freshman QB Russell Wilson was voted the best QB in the conference and it was a hard point to argue against. What a difference a year makes though, as NCSU has proceeded to collapse and Wilson has become a non-factor in games. It really goes to show how important the QB position is to a team. One only needs to look 20 miles to the northwest of NCSU’s campus to see that importance played out again this season. Fifteen seasons removed from their last bowl, and two weeks removed from a 49-28 thrashing of said NC State that sent the Pack into a dismal slump, the Duke Blue Devils have come out of nowhere to become a factor in the ACC. While remaining rival opponents UNC (with a win over ECU under their belt as a reminder to all Pirate squawkers) and Wake Forest (with a win over Elon under their belt for all the SoCon backers) have proceeded to lose games to inferior teams due to a lack of offense, Duke has embarked on a two game win streak in the ACC with an explosion of yards and points. My what a difference a year makes indeed!
So who should get the majority of credit for this turn around? Thad Lewis, Duke’s senior 4th year starting QB should. He has played himself into being the best QB in the ACC. Of even more significance, Duke is on the verge of becoming the best team in the state for the first time since Steve Spurrier was the coach and Dave Brown was the quarterback. If the Blue Devils win at Charlottesville on Saturday and UNC loses to VT on Thursday as expected, Duke will even likely be favored in upcoming matchups with Carolina and Wake! That fact alone is amazing for all those Duke fans that have sat in Wallace Wade Stadium for the better part of two decades and watched the ineptitude of Duke Football. It is a complete validation of the rebuilding job that Coach David Cutcliffe has embarked on, and should be a point of pride for all Duke Fans from the shores of the Hudson down to the banks of the Delaware River! Of more importance to residents of the Old North State, it should serve as a wakeup call to the coaching staffs at both UNC and NCSU who have vastly larger fan bases, recruiting pools and expectations, and are not living up to their billing.
Now, for those of you who don’t pay attention to Duke’s football record let me give you a little reminder. Duke was last ranked back in the 1994 season, the first under Coach Fred Goldsmith. The team raced out to an 8–1 record, and was briefly as high as #13 in the country before losing the last two games of the season 24–23 to North Carolina State and 41–40 to arch-rival North Carolina. The team was rewarded with a trip to Tampa, Fl to play in the Hall of Fame Bowl, now known as the Outback Bowl where they fell to Wisconsin 34–21. Between then and now, the Blue Devils have embarked on a string of losing and winless seasons and have started and stopped numerous losing streaks to conference and non-conference competition. While Duke has a ton of football tradition from about 1960 and earlier (Wallace Wade left the University of Alabama to come to Duke, Duke is the only school in America to host the Rose Bowl, Duke beat Alabama in the 1945 Sugar Bowl, so on and so forth), but all that is ancient history and seemingly from a galaxy far, far away. Unfortunately for Blue Devil football fortunes, it has also been little help in ending different streaks of futility in more recent seasons. End history lesson.
After opening this season with a loss to FCS member Richmond, it looked like 2009 was more of the same for Duke. Senior QB Thad Lewis was limited at the start of the season due to unfortunate circumstances in the preseason. Lewis was hit not only by a nagging ankle injury, but also the swine flu outbreak that engulfed his team in August. The lack of practice showed on the field, and the Blue Devils struggled in the opener. "He never lost his spirit, and you wouldn't believe how many times he tried to practice or tried to go through it and I just had to pull him out," David Cutcliffe said recently. "I think his team saw that.” Since the opener, the Blue Devils have responded with wins over Army, NCCU, NCSU and Maryland. While they have also lost to VT and Kansas, the Devils have been competitive in those games. Continuing the praise, Cutcliffe stated "He is a special young man," in reference to Lewis. "It goes beyond what he does on the field for us. He is a tremendous leader.”
Lewis has backed this praise by throwing for over 300 yards for the third consecutive game and fourth time this season on Saturday against Maryland. He ended the game with 371 yards on 30-of-43 (.698) passing and two touchdowns. So far on the season he has a QB rating of 144.7 and has passed for almost 2000 yards and 14 touchdowns. These numbers have been drawing interest from top NFL scouts. "I am getting a lot more questions and a lot more interest from what I consider the top line of scouts," said Coach Cutcliffe in a recent press conference. "I do watch tape [of NFL games] and I see a lot of backups that end up playing and I have seen guys that have made rosters, and he [Lewis] is better than a lot of guys in that league." Cutcliffe should know. He coached both Manning brothers in college and a host of other QBs at both Tennessee and Ole Miss.
More importantly than all the individual stats though, the Blue Devils under Lewis are winning and have a chance to go to a bowl. It won’t be easy for with five games remaining, two come against currently ranked teams and three are on the road. Rivals North Carolina and Wake Forest both have long win streaks against Duke but all of the recent games have been close and hard fought. This would be a great year to pay them both back with a bowl at stake and a chance to end a decades and a half of futility. UVA is beatable, just ask Bill and Mary, and there is always a chance that Duke could spring an upset against GT or Miami no matter how unlikely. But while Duke may or may not make a bowl this season, one can be sure it won’t be due to a lack of production from the QB position. Thad Lewis has been a good player on a bad team for his entire career. Now, he is getting a supporting cast that can help him win and his stats are going through the roof. As a college fantasy player, I am glad he is my starting QB. Funny thing though, I bet the UNC and NCSU coaching staffs wish he was their starting QB too, and I am not talking about fantasy football! My what a difference a year makes…or in Duke’s case fifteen.
Week 9 Old North State Power Rankings
1. Duke – First time ever at the top of the ONS Power Rankings as Duke takes their turn on the Kiss of Death seat. See above for reasons why…
Record 4-3 overall 2-1 in the ACC Next up: at UVA
2. North Carolina – Terrible loss after being up 24-6 in the third quarter against an FSU team that was in complete disarray during the first half of the game. The Tar Heel defense was the team’s strongpoint but it is also the unit that lost this game. They simply disappeared in the second half after the offense had spotted them the lead. Tar Heels can still make 7 wins and a decent bowl. With Duke looking good and hungry for payback and VT in addition to Miami remaining on the schedule though, the Tar Heels missed a golden opportunity on national TV last Thursday. Record 4-3 overall 0-3 in the ACC Next up: at VT Thursday Night
3. East Carolina – Still on track to C-USA title game against Houston, the Pirates are winning the games they need to. Memphis is another game that the Pirates should win, but also a game ECU has found away to lose in previous seasons. Record 5-3 overall 3-1 in C-USA Next up: at Memphis
4. Wake Forest – Losing to Navy was probably not on Wake fan’s projections for this season, but that is just what happened on Saturday. A rainy, muddy field was right up the Academy’s alley with their power option attack. The Deacs had the ball with 3 minutes to go and only needing a field goal, but they couldn’t cash it in and a big 40 yard run on 3rd down got Navy the 1st down they needed to run out the clock. A bowl is still a possibility but doubtful for the Deacs after this latest loss. Record 4-4 overall, 2-2 in the ACC Next up: Miami
5. NC State – Pack fans hope a bye week might help heal some of State’s wounds. Tom O’Brien’s teams traditionally win big after bye weeks, but they also tend to get better as the season wears on. That has not happened this year, and instead State seems to have gotten worse. State fans are hoping to win a few more games and beat UNC to end the season but it is hard to look at 2009 as anything but a disappointment for the Pack.
A bowl game is unlikely but still possible. Record 3-4, 0-3 in the ACC Next up: at FSU
Tied for 6. Appalachian State – Mountaineers cruised to a win against GSU. App is playing at championship form and the way they are playing there is little reason to expect a hiccup before the showdown with Elon. The Mountaineers have been here before and they are playing like it. Record 5-2 overall 3-0 in the SoCon Next up: Furman.
Tied for 6. Elon – The Phoenix did not allow a touchdown until the game was decided while Terrell Hudgins caught three more touchdowns in a 45-10 rout of Chattanooga. The Elon bandwagon is growing and everyone is looking forward to App State in November. Elon needs to focus on Wofford and not the Mountaineers as they head out on the road. Record 6-1 overall 4-0 in the SoCon Next up: at Wofford
8. Western Carolina- A week after spotting the Citadel 10 and coming back to win, Western spotted Wofford 21 and climbed back to being down 28-26 in the second half. It was too much to overcome in the end though as Western fell 35-26. I have a suggestion. How about not spotting opponents big leads to start the game! Just a thought…Record 1-6 overall 1-4 in the SoCon. Next: at Chattanooga
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Old North State Pigskin is a blog focused on the North Carolina schools in the ACC and Southern Conference. Referencing the state’s Revolutionary War nickname to include all the schools with its borders (and not just the Tar Heels with the state’s civil war nickname) this blog is written from a fan perspective, nothing more, nothing less. I am not a current or former coach, administrator or player of any university. I am not a professional journalist. While I am a graduate of the University of North Carolina, I am also the son of a lifelong Duke Football fan, and the son-in-law of an NC State alumnus. I just make observations as I see them…and try to leave the bias out. Comments, criticism, suggestions and corrections are all welcome at .
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Comments
Really good read. I enjoy this blog each week.
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