Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Duke football, Cutcliffe and Crazy Towel Guy

Duke coach David Cutcliffe said today there was no way he was going to replace Phil Fulmer as the head coach of Tennessee.

Now this is serious progress. For about the past decade, early November was the time where the Duke head football coach was:

1) Headed straight toward 0-11 and/or:

2) Receiving a dreaded "vote of confidence" from some Duke administrator.

3) Fading into total irrelevance as the Duke basketball season began.

But the Blue Devils deserve serious plaudits this season. Although the ACC standings show that Duke is in last place in the Coastal Division, Duke is a respectable 1-3 in the ACC, nearly beat Wake Forest last week and is 4-4 overall. The Blue Devils may end up being bowl-eligible this season.

So congrats to Cutcliffe -- who has some serious Tennessee connections but apparently isn't going anywhere -- for being able to say something like that today and not making folks break out in gales of laughter.

Incidentally, I have it on very good authority that Duke will end up 7-5 this season. You know who told me?? I'm serious about this -- it was Crazy Towel Guy, the old fella who shakes a towel wildly in the stands at basketball games (and is a major football fan, too).

Crazy Towel Guy (in real life Herb Neubauer, a former Food Lion exec) told me that during last basketball season during an interview. I thought he was, well, crazy. But the Blue Devils might just reach 7-5, so Not-So-Crazy Towel Guy seems like Nostradamus to me right now.

1 comment:

MichaelProcton said...

7-5 could well happen for the Blue Devils. They could well win two or even three out of NCSU, Clemson, or UNC, and six wins would probably send them to a bowl like the Congressional, where they could play a team they already beat in Navy.