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Duke Football's Next Opponent Modeling Their Program After Blue Devils
Conference rival Wake Forest is attempting to develop and improve their football program similar to Duke Football the last few years.
Duke and Wake Forest will compete on Saturday in an early Atlantic Coast Conference game this season. Despite the in-state conference rivalry with the Demon Deacons, they are trying to build up their football program by following Duke’s development.
Leading up to the game this weekend, Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson noted that he’s trying to model his program after Duke Football. He praised the work that David Cutcliffe has done at Duke saying “Moving forward, we travel to Durham to play a good Duke football program. I say good program because they’re not just a good team, they’re a good program. They’ve been to four straight bowl games, including winning one (Pinstripe Bowl) last year.”
The Demon Deacons have finished with 3-9 records in back-to-back seasons, but Clawson is using that to help players gain experience. Coach Cutcliffe had a similar plan when he first started at Duke, encouraging players to “leave Duke better than they found it“, which translated into wins as players got older. After a long postseason drought, every returning player on the Duke roster this season has experience playing in a bowl game and the seniors playing in one every year they’ve been with the team.
Both teams will head into the this weekends matchup 1-0 with Duke routing NCCU and Wake Forest squeaking by Tulane in a 7-3 win. The Blue Devils have won four straight against the Demon Deacons but Wake Forest won the previous 12 in a row. They are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their ACC championship in 2006
Additionally, both schools were heavily recruiting Charlotte quarterback Daniel Jones as a high schooler, with Jones ultimately picking Duke. Jones is now starting for the Blue Devils as a redshirt freshman and will take the field against Wake Forest this Saturday.
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