David Cutcliffe has taken the Duke football program to new heights during his tenure in Durham. The Blue Devils have won 27 games combined the last three seasons, and that 27th victory was especially sweet: a 44-41 victory over Indiana in the Pinstripe Bowl. This was Duke’s first bowl win since the 1960 Cotton Bowl, when they Blue Devils defeated Arkansas in a 7-6 shootout.
While the Blue Devils lost some high-end talent from a year ago, including ACC Defensive Player of the Year Jeremy Cash, they return plenty of talent on both sides of the ball to contend for their fifth-straight bowl appearance. That picture became complicated, however, when senior quarterback Thomas Sirk was lost for the season following a partial tear of his left Achilles tendon.
Sirk will be placed at quarterback by redshirt freshman Daniel Jones, which has caused a sharp decline in some of their projections for 2016.
Duke still has plenty of firepower, like running back Shaun Wilson and cornerback/return man DeVon Edwards, but without Sirk, how many games do you think the Blue Devils will win this season?
