Well…it will be a quick Duke NFL Recap.

No One Was Drafted.

However there was some good news on the Duke football front on Saturday. Matt Daniels signed a free agent contract with the St. Louis Rams.

Daniels earned ACC first team honors in 2011 and second team All-America honors after leading the Blue Devils in tackles with 126. He finished third in the balloting for ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors.

He also represented Duke and the ACC in the East-West Shrine Game. Daniels is set to graduate May 13th with a degree in public policy studies. He made the All-ACC Academic team three times.

Best of luck to Matt in the NFL!

The fall sports season has officially come to an end at Duke. Basketball season has fully heated up, with conference play set to begin in less than month.

Let’s take a look back at what the Fall of 2011 was all about:

Women’s Soccer

It was a great season for the Duke women’s soccer team that just fell short of their expectations, a 1-0 loss to undefeated Stanford in the College Cup final (their first trip since 1992). The team finished the season 22-4-1. They won the ACC regular season title for just the second time in school history. The Blue Devils beat nine ranked opponents. Head coach Robbie Church was named the Southeast Region Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Duke had a record six players to earn All-ACC honors.

Natasha Anasi, a sophomore defender, is one of 15 semifinalists for the Missouri Athletic Club’s Hermann Trophy, the most prestigious award given out in collegiate soccer (the first in Duke history). She was named the ACC’s top defender, as she started all 27 matches this season. Anasi was one of the six Duke All-ACC players. She was second on the team in minutes played and helped the team reach school records in shutouts (16), wins (22), and conference wins (8). She was also named to the first-team All-America team.

Kaitlyn Kerr also earned All-America honors (third-team). She was also an All-ACC selection and was named to the College Cup All-Tournament Team. In just two years, she has become the Blue Devils all-time leading scorer in NCAA Tournament games with six (she scored five this season). In her breakout season, Kerr recorded 11 goals, five assists, and 27 points in the midfield.

Both Anasi and Kerr were joined on the All-Southeast Region team by Tara Campbell and Kelly Cobb, who earned second-team honors. Campbell, the junior goalie, recorded a school record 14 shutouts while being named to the All-ACC second-team. Cobb, a freshman, scored 11 goals, had nine assists, and 31 points. Her goals and points were a Duke freshmen record. She also had six game-winning goals.

» Continue reading “Duke Fall Sports Recap”

vs.

Duke-North Carolina is a big rivalry…on the basketball court.

Duke football coach David Cutcliffe believes the two football teams need to elevate their programs to get to the level of the basketball rivalry.

“When it comes to basketball, it’s at the top – the best rivalry in all of college basketball – no ifs ands or buts about it,” Cutcliffe said. “The reason it is, they both have been national championship contenders. They’re playing at an extremely high level. That’s what it takes to get you to become an Alabama-Auburn. Both of those programs have won national titles in the last few years. That brings a lot of history with it.”

The chance to rebuild that rivalry is on Saturday at 3:30pm ET in Chapel Hill. UNC has won seven straight and 20 of the last 21 games (actually its five of the last seven as the Tarheels vacated victories in 2008 and 2009 as part of its self-imposed punishment). Six of the last eight losses for Duke against UNC have come by a touchdown or less. None of the Duke seniors have beaten the Tarheels.

Up for grabs is the Victory Bell, which was reclaimed by UNC in 2004 at Wallace Wade Stadium. The only one connected with the program who has rung the bell is linebacker coach Jim Collins, who beat the Tarheels in back-to-back season (1998-1999).

The Duke players believe that UNC has big-boyed them, run right at them over the last few years. Matt Daniels, a senior safety, talked about being overpowered:

“It kind of seems like that’s what they do – just big-boy us, run right at us,” the senior safety said.  “Two years ago, they probably ran the ball like 43 times. From watching film from last year, they ran the same play on us like 29 times – it was a running play, a power action.”

“I think being able to big-boy up for the first play of the game and show that they are not going to be able to knock us down and run all over us will definitely make a statement,” Daniels said.

Daniels added that “this season comes down to this game and this game only”.

It’s been that kind of season for the Duke Blue Devils. They have lost six in a row and are just 3-8 (1-6 in the ACC) on the season. However, some good things have come with this season.

The current Duke senior class is the winningest senior class since the 1995 seniors graduated with 16 wins. Currently, this class has 15 wins. Daniels believes a win versus UNC would help him realize that he left Duke a better place than he found it when he arrived.

Receivers Donovan Varner and Conner Vernon are the top pass receiving combo in ACC history. Varner could become the first player in ACC history with three straight seasons of 60 receptions. He needs seven catches on Saturday to reach that plateau. Vernon, a junior, could make a run at the ACC career record for catches next year (232), as he needs four receptions to reach 200 for his career.

Quarterback Sean Renfree needs 262 yards passing to become the fifth quarterback in ACC history (second in Duke history) to reach 3,000 passing yards in two straight seasons.