DURHAM, N.C. -- As the defending Coastal Division champs get ready to start the season, head coach David Cutcliffe said he is excited -- nervous, of course, but excited.
The nerves come before any season-opener, he said, just because there's so much uncertainty going into every season.
But Cutcliffe insists that he's not nervous about one thing that makes a lot of outside observers nervous. Losing starting tight end Braxton Deaver and linebacker Kelby Brown to torn ACLs hurts, he said, but he's not worried about his team's ability to make up for their absence.
"Although it's emotional and you hurt, you don't miss a beat," Cutcliffe said. "It happens. It can strike any time, any way. That's what you have spring practice for. You already have those moves in place and people ready to go play football. I'm excited about that."
At linebacker, Duke moved the ACC's leading tackler David Helton to Brown's spot at middle linebacker, and he's happy about the way C.J. France (a redshirt senior) has stepped up at the weak-side spot. He also likes what redshirt freshman Chris Holmes has done.
At Deaver's spot, it's a bit more complicated. Deaver was Duke's second-leading returning receiver, but junior David Reeves is the new starter at tight end. He has plenty of experience, and he feels like he's ready.
"I knew that my role would be amplified with (Deaver's) absence so I just took that on personally," Reeves said. "It's always hard to see one of your boys go down. But after that, you always know you have to keep the ball rolling. I just want to embrace that and just do my job."
Fifth-year senior Isaac Blakeney used to be a tight end. At 6-foot-6, it's easy to see why, but he has the kind of athleticism that can be a game-changer at wide receiver. Cutcliffe said he didn't want to move Blakeney there after he had the best camp of his Duke career. That's partly because he likes what he's seen so far from Reeves and backup Erich Schneider.
"David Reeves and Erich Schneider are going to play (at tight end). That'll be the bulk of what we do. Then you've got other contingencies, other personnel groupings, other different things that we can display at any time that we can also answer a loss of a tight end, God forbid at this stage," Cutcliffe said.
Cutcliffe has learned over his many years in the game that contingency plans are key, and so he always has one. With Brandon Connette leaving in the off-season, Duke lost not only their backup quarterback, but also the leader of many of Duke's goal-line packages.
The Blue Devils have an answer for that, too.
"Thomas Sirk is going to be part of the plan, no question about it. He is a tremendous threat running and passing the football. He's big. He's really fast," Cutcliffe said. "I think Sirk is probably the fastest quarterback I've had at this point."
Not a bad contingency plan to have.
But it will be tough to replace Connette's rushing touchdowns (he led Duke with 14). Many of those came around the goal line as the physical, burly quarterback barreled his way through opposing defenses, even as they knew exactly what he was in the game to do.
"Systematically, everything is still there," Reeves said. "I think we'll still hit the ground running with our short yardage package."
Part of the contingency, then, involves not only different personnel groupings on offense (bringing in an extra tackle as a tight end around the goal line, for example), but it also involves Duke's existing personnel stepping up in various ways.
Center Matt Skura said that Duke's offensive line -- a veteran, talented group -- has taken the goal of becoming a more run-oriented team very seriously in the off-season.
"You definitely have to be a different kind of personality, a different kind of team to want to run the ball smashmouth every single play," Skura said. "That's one of the big things for the offensive line this year is we want to be a hard-nosed offensive line that tires out the defense. That's what we've been working on this off-season, just trying to become a physical, nasty offensive line."
It starts in Week 1 with Elon, where we'll get a better sense of the Blue Devils and the various ways in which they'll make up for the holes left from last season and this off-season. But one thing we can be sure about is that Cutcliffe and his staff have a plan.
Considering the success he's had so far, no reason to think that plan won't work.
