If You Are Looking For This Year's "Appalachian State"

**GoldRush7** · 09-02-10, 05:55 AM

with all due respect, how could that be considered even close to as big as an upset that app st was?

**Las Vegas Tom** · 09-02-10, 06:20 AM

Cutcliffe has Duke going in the right direction.

**Doc JS** · 09-02-10, 06:37 AM

Elon has done the same thing in football that they've done in baseball...scooped up kids that originally went to a bigger school and for whatever reason it didn't work out and transfer to SoCon Elon.

Doc

**LT Profits** · 09-02-10, 07:14 AM

Originally posted by GoldRush7

with all due respect, how could that be considered even close to as big as an upset that app st was?

LOL

Good point. I was mainly referring to FCS school beating FBS school outright in Week 1, not the gravity of the upset.

**jjgold** · 09-02-10, 08:51 AM

Duke really is a division 2 football team.

Taking points might be a good bet,

**statnerds** · 09-02-10, 10:17 AM

i would much rather take the ECU Pirates +9 (back to 8 and 7.5 now) at home vs the Golden Hurricane.

**OmgUrMom** · 09-02-10, 10:19 AM

gl on your pick LT

anyone remember how many points michigan was a favorite in that game?

**whatsgood5** · 09-02-10, 10:21 AM

I'm offended as a Duke fan, but can't actually argue.

**THE PROFIT** · 09-02-10, 11:35 AM

Originally posted by statnerds

i would much rather take the ECU Pirates +9 (back to 8 and 7.5 now) at home vs the Golden Hurricane.

These are 2 FBS schools though, not the same thing LT is talking about

**LT Profits** · 09-03-10, 04:49 PM

Originally posted by OmgUrMom

gl on your pick LT

anyone remember how many points michigan was a favorite in that game?

-31.5

**chiliv5** · 09-03-10, 05:29 PM

love it LT lets roll

**The Madcap** · 09-03-10, 06:43 PM

Duke beats Elon by 21. Mark it down. Duke has enough starters coming back that there shouldn't be too much of a drop off from last season, and Elon is not as strong as they were last year. They lost their best play-maker, WR Terrell Hudgins, who is the best player you've never heard of. His numbers are insane, video game insane. He holds the NCAA record for career receptions, yards, and 100 yard games. The Cowboys cut him in preseason because they've got so many good WRs. I hope the Panthers pick him up. Dwayne Jarret sucks.

I think there's only one game that could be a bigger upset than App St.-Michigan, and that's Duke beating 'Bama. Never gonna happen right? Well that's pretty much the criteria to be bigger than App St.-Michigan.

And there's a lot of weird angles surrounding the Duke-Bama game. For one, Duke coach Dave Cutcliffe was born in Birmingham and played his college ball at Alabama for Bear Bryant, and was then later a part of Bryant's coaching staff there.

When he was OC at Tennessee the Vols went 5-1 against Bama. When he was head coach at Ole Miss their overall record against 'Bama wasn't great, 2-5, but two of those losses were less than a TD. And they were 2-1 at home. And if you consider that in the last 40 years, Ole Miss has only gone 6-34 against Bama, I'd say that's a pretty good track record.

The game is being played at Duke in Wallace Wade stadium, which is named for Alabama's first great coach, who led 'Bama to their first three national titles. But then Wade left Bama for Durham, turned Duke into a perennial power, and Bama fans gave him a lot of flack for it.

'Bama's first game this season is against San Jose State, whose new head coach is Mike McIntyre, who just so happened to be Duke's defensive coordinator from last season.

A few years back Duke played Bama in Tuscaloosa, and were winning at half time. Granted, that Bama team finished 6-7 and led to Shula getting fired, but then Duke was being coached by Ted Roof and didn't win a single game that season.

Bama's defense will be vulnerable eary in the season, notably the secondary. And Duke's passing game is sneaky good. Yes Duke lost Thad Lewis, but the new guy was a parade All-American coming out of high school.

Does any of this add up to anything at the end of the day? "No" would be the obvious answer. It's just a feeling, but it's similar to the feeling I had a few years back leading up to the App St.-Michigan game. Now I can't technically claim that I called the upset, because I didn't put any money on it, mainly because I was broke and not gambling at the time, but I told people I thought App St. could definitely win that game. And of course they all thought I was crazy, but my reasons were simple:

Michigan had never learned how to defend against the spread offense and always got burned by it. And you knew they'd be overlooking App St, most people would. But people around here know that App St. had quality talent and that they could compete with D-I teams as evidenced by games they had against local ACC schools. Michigan was coming off a strong season, but against a weak Big Ten. They lost a close one to Ohio State, then got routed by USC in their bowl game. Ohio State later got trounced by Florida. We remember this. But what most people don't remember is that Michigan struggled to beat Ball St. that year. They don't remember the inconsistency on both sides of the ball, and that there was a ton of turmoil and uncertainty surrounding the program because so many alumni wanted Carr gone. I just had a feeling. Michigan was down and would be taking the game lightly, and you knew App St., a veteran team with a great coach, and some real playmakers, would be taking that game as the biggest game in their life. It added up to me.

And something about these weird Duke-Bama connections this year are adding up to me. Call me crazy. I know. But that's why I'm the Mad Cap.