Associated Press
The college football notebook …
DURHAM ó David Cutcliffe hasn’t been all that interested in dwelling on the years of struggle that came before his arrival at Duke. That’s not to say he won’t mention it occasionally ó like this week.
The Blue Devils haven’t won an Atlantic Coast Conference game in nearly four years, a run of 25 games that is flirting with their record 30-game league skid that ended in 2003. They have a chance to end the streak this weekend against Virginia, the final contest in a four-game homestand that has provided the platform for a strong start to Cutcliffe’s tenure here.
“We’ve got to get in the game,” Cutcliffe said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. “I mentioned it to them. Somebody asked me about that, do you bring those things up? Well, I try to talk truth to players. I don’t try to sugarcoat when they don’t practice well and when they do practice well, I’m going to tell them.
“The fact of the matter is our seniors are 0-24 in their three-year career playing in the ACC. We’ve got a few redshirts (seniors) and they’re 1-31.”
Coming off a bye week, Duke (2-1) still figures it has the chance to carry the momentum from that fast start into the league schedule.
GUNDY ANNIVERSARY
STILLWATER, Okla. ó Mike Gundy’s rant quickly took its place in college football lore. Measuring its effect, though, is hard to do even a year later.
Word of what Gundy did buzzed through the Internet and YouTube. Then television networks got hold of the “I’m a man! I’m 40!” clip and played it over and over again.
The outburst spawned countless spoofs of Gundy standing in front of a bright orange backdrop and pointing his finger angrily at a newspaper columnist. The postgame tirade lingered as the lasting image of Oklahoma State’s season.
Those 3 1/2 minutes came at a pivotal time for a team now on the rise. But exactly one year later, what impact, if any, did they have on the 3-0 Cowboys, now knocking on the door of the Top 25?
“I don’t think there’s any question that we’re more settled with where we’re at as a team than where we were a year ago,” Gundy said.
CHARLOTTE
CHARLOTTE ó Fundraising efforts to start a football program at Charlotte are off to a fast start.
The school had reserved more than 1,500 personal seat licenses at $1,000 a pop through the close of business on Monday. Chancellor Philip Dubois said last week that 5,000 seat licenses would need to be sold in six months to help pay for a $45 million stadium.
Dubois has recommended starting a football team by 2013. The board of trustees will vote on the issue in November.
Even if all 5,000 seat licenses are sold, the school would still need to find major corporate sponsors and larger private donations to have enough money to start a program.