The Alabama Death Star looms large over college football in coach Nick Saban’s 13th season, but Dave Harding is convinced Duke’s players are confident they can play with the Crimson Tide when the teams open the season Saturday in Atlanta.
He has good reason to feel that way.
As a Duke letterman from 2010-2013, he faced Alabama in 2010. In his next life, he still has a grasp on the program as Duke’s radio analyst for game broadcasts in addition to his role as Director of the Blue Devil Network.
In retrospect, Harding remains amazed Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who in 2010 was in his fourth year of rebuilding a program that hadn’t experienced a winning season since 1994, actually had the overmatched 2010 roster believing it could compete with Alabama, the then-defending national champion featuring the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram.
The Crimson Tide rolled, 62-13. Belief and emotion can carry players only so far.
“Coach Cutcliffe did a fantastic job back in 2010 of having each person in that locker room really believing that we had done the preparation needed to go out and be successful,” Harding said. “Now, our talent wasn’t anywhere near what it should have been to compete with the likes of Julio Jones and Mark Ingram. But heading up to that game we believed that we had done everything to prepare – to give ourselves the best chance to win the game.”
Ingram and Jones toyed with the Blue Devils. Ingram carried only nine times for 151 yards and two touchdowns. Jones, an NFL first-round draft pick the following spring, caught five passes for 106 yards and one TD.
Alabama is still a powerhouse, ranked No. 2 for the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, but Duke’s program has matured the past decade. Cutcliffe has had the Blue Devils in bowl games six of the last seven seasons, although Alabama is a 33.5-point favorite.
Nevertheless, Harding is curious to see the result from mixing Duke’s improved talent along with Cutlcliffe’s patented preparation.
“I really think he is a master at getting people to buy in to believing in the process,” he said. “And there is no doubt in my mind this team will feel the exact same way we did.
“And, oh, by the way, the talent gap has closed tremendously since 2010. I’ll be excited to see a group of players go out and play with the confidence and swagger that only a Coach Cut team can play with.”
Something else Harding, an All-ACC honorable mention in 2012 and four-time All-ACC Academic team member, knows about this matchup compared to 2010 is line play, his bailiwick.
Duke’s defensive line has four returning starters, not to mention backups that could have started on that 2010 team. Phil Steele’s football preview magazine ranks Duke’s defensive line grouping No. 39 in the nation. That’s not elite, but it’s not chopped liver, either.
Edgar Cerenord, a 6-foot-1, 305-pounder, is a sixth-year defensive tackle alongside junior Derrick Tangelo (6-2-285). Trevon McSwain (6-6, 285) is a backup tackle with nine career starts.
The defensive ends are junior Victor Dimukeje (6-2, 265) with either senior Tre Hornbuckle (6-4, 255) or junior Drew Jordan (6-2, 260) on the other side. Duke is one of only three ACC teams that lines up multiple players with 16.0-plus career tackles for a loss with Dimukeje (16.5) and Hornbuckle (16.0).
“Our defensive line is amazing,” said junior right guard Rakavius Chambers (6-3, 315), who is on the Outland Trophy watch list. “We have some great tackles that are big, strong and physical. That has helped the guards come off the ball. They’re helping us to prepare to go up against big tackles like Alabama’s.
“Our defensive ends are great; they’re helping our young tackles get to the next level against an Alabama defense that is going to come at you at all different angles.”
Chambers and redshirt junior center Jack Wohlabaugh (6-4, 305), an Ohio State transfer, are returning starters.
Phil Steele doesn’t rank the O-line among its top 57, but Cutcliffe points to upgrades with younger talent. He told his assistant coaches that they didn’t have to take the safe play with a veteran as the starter if they felt a freshman had the better preseason camp.
At right tackle, true freshman Jacob Monk (6-3, 305), an early enrollee, has beaten out returning starter Robert Kraeling (6-7, 300). The left tackle is redshirt freshman Casey Holman (6-4, 295). He played in four games last season, the maximum allowed to retain a redshirt season.
Zach Baker (6-4, 295), a redshirt senior Cutcliffe praised for his work ethic to be ready for his final season, won the job at left guard. Senior Julian Santos (6-3, 325), a backup at right guard, has 20 career starts.
Duke’s older players have been looking forward to the Alabama game since the matchup was announced in 2016 – the rest since they stepped on campus.
“We’ve all embraced that challenge going into camp and now game prep,”
Chambers said. “We and understand that this is our moment, our time to shine; to show why Duke Gang is a great team and great program.”
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
— Raye of Light featured at 2019 National Sports Media Association Book Festival
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
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