The Pursuit of Excellence: CLW's NCAA Football 11 Duke Dynasty

[CLW]

THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE:
CLW'S NCAA 11 DYNASTY

Welcome aboard my NCAA 11 dynasty. I will be reporting the progress of my offline Duke dynasty. All suggestions/comments will be greatly appreciated!

SETTINGS

Difficulty: Heisman

Quarters: 8 Minutes

Sliders: Custom - Will only adjust before the beginning of a new season

Current Slider Settings:


Game Speed: Slow

Player Min Speed Threshold: 35

Difficulty: Heisman

Penalties: All 100 except: False Start (65); Holding (50); Face Mask (50) and Clipping (50)

Platform: PS3

Rosters: The Gaming Tailgate

Recruiting Rules: #1 Only True Freshman may be cut. #2 Only True Freshman may be redshirted.

[CLW]

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA

Durham is the fifth largest city in the state of North Carolina and the 85th largest in the United States by population, with 229,174 residents as of July 1, 2009. It is the home of Duke University and North Carolina Central University, and is also one of the vertices of the Research Triangle area (home of the Research Triangle Park).

Durham's growth began to rekindle during the 1970s and 1980s, with the construction of multiple housing developments in the southern part of the city, nearest Research Triangle Park, and the beginnings of downtown revitalization. A new downtown baseball stadium was constructed for the Durham Bulls in 1994. A large-scale renovation of the historic American Tobacco Company (formerly Bull Durham) complex commenced in 2003. Major employers in Durham are Duke University (39,000 employees, 13,000 students), about 2 miles west of the original downtown area, and companies in the Research Triangle Park (49,000 employees), about 10 miles southeast. These centers are connected by the Durham Freeway (NC 147).

[CLW]

DUKE UNIVERSITY

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James Buchanan Duke established The Duke Endowment, prompting the institution to change its name in honor of his deceased father, Washington Duke.
The University is organized into two undergraduate, ten graduate and professional schools, and seven institutes. In its 2010 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the university's undergraduate program 10th among national universities, while ranking the medical, law, and business schools among the top 14 in the United States. Duke University ranked 14th in the 2009 THES - QS World University Rankings.

Besides academics, research, and athletics, Duke is also well known for its sizable campus and Collegiate Gothic architecture, especially the Duke Chapel. The forests surrounding parts of the campus belie the University's proximity to downtown Durham. Duke's 8,610 acres contain three contiguous campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. Construction projects have updated both the freshmen-populated Georgian-style East Campus and the main Gothic-style West Campus, as well as the adjacent Medical Center over the past five years.

In the 2008 fiscal year, research expenditures surpassed $766 million. The first working demonstration of an invisibility cloak was unveiled by Duke researchers in October 2006. In 2002 and 2006, three students were named Rhodes Scholars, a number surpassed by only one other university both years. Overall, Duke has produced 42 Rhodes Scholars, including 21 in the past 15 years. In August 2005, Duke established a partnership with the National University of Singapore to develop a joint medical program, which had its first entering class in 2007.

Duke's student body consists of 6,400 undergraduates and 7,262 graduate and professional students. The university has an "historical, formal, on-going, and symbolic" affiliation with the United Methodist Church, but is considered a non-sectarian institution.

In the 2010 U.S. News & World Report ranking of undergraduate programs at doctoral granting institutions, Duke ranked 10th and finished 8th in undergraduate teaching quality. In the past decade, U.S. News & World Report has placed Duke as high as 3rd and as low as 10th. Also, The Chronicle of Higher Education rankings puts Duke 7th among the nation's universities. Duke was ranked 11th best by PBA top 100 colleges,and 10th world wide by the 2010 World University Rankings top 200 universities in the world. Duke was ranked the 14th-best university in the world in 2009 both by the THE - QS World University Rankings (known from 2010 onwards as the QS World University Rankings) and by Newsweek. Duke was ranked 31st best globally by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2009, focusing on quality of scientific research and number of Nobel Prizes. The Wall Street Journal ranked Duke 6th (5th among universities) in its "feeder" rankings in 2006, analyzing the percentage of undergraduates that enroll in what it considers the top 5 medical, law, and business schools. Also, Duke ranks very high on the Center for Measuring University Performance. The most recent report in 2009 puts Duke at 6th behind Columbia University, MIT, Stanford University, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania.As one of the premier universities in the East Coast of the United States, Duke attracts many National Merit Scholars. In 2005, Duke enrolled 117 National Merit Scholars, the 6th university in rank to have enrolled so many.

[CLW]

DUKE FOOTBALL

The Duke Blue Devils football program represents Duke University in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The program has 17 conference championships (7 ACC championships and 10 Southern Conference titles), 53 All-Americans, 10 ACC Players of the Year (the most in the ACC), and have had three Pro Football Hall of Famers come through the program (second in the ACC to only Miami's four). The team is currently coached by David Cutcliffe and play their home games at the Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

The most famous Duke football season came in 1938, when Wallace Wade was head coach and the "Iron Dukes" were born. Wade shocked the college football world by leaving Alabama for Duke in 1930, later rationalizing the move by saying that Duke shared his belief that a school should provide its athletes with a strong academic background. Wade's success at Alabama (three national championships) translated well to Duke's program, most notably in 1938, when his "Iron Dukes" went unscored upon the entire regular season. In fact, that Duke team is one of three in college football history to have gone undefeated, unscored upon, and untied in the regular season. Duke reached their first Rose Bowl appearance, where they lost 7-3 when Southern California scored a touchdown in the final minute of the game on a pass from a second string quarterback to a third string tight end. Wade's Blue Devils lost another Rose Bowl to Oregon State in 1942, this one held at Duke's home stadium in Durham, North Carolina due to Pearl Harbor. Wade's achievements placed him in the Hall of Fame.

The football program also proved successful in the 1950s and 1960s, winning six of the first ten ACC football championships from 1953 to 1962 under coach Bill Murray. From 1943 until 1957, the Blue Devils were ranked in the AP Poll at some point in the season. The football program also had a string of successful years in the late 1980s when the team was coached by Steve Spurrier. Spurrier led the Blue Devils to three consecutive winning seasons from 1987–1989, culminating with the Blue Devils sharing the ACC title in 1989 and playing in the All-American Bowl, where the Blue Devils lost to Texas Tech. The 1989 ACC Title was the last title won by a school in the state of North Carolina until Wake Forest won their second ACC Title in 2006.

The team also rose to prominence in 1994, the first season under coach Fred Goldsmith. The team raced out to an 8-1 record, and was briefly ranked as high as #13 in the country before losing the last two games of the season 24-23 to North Carolina State and 41-40 to arch-rival North Carolina. The 1994 team played in the program's first New Years Day Bowl game since 1962, falling to Wisconsin 34-21 in the Hall Of Fame Bowl, now known as the Outback Bowl.

Since 1994, however, Duke's football program has declined, with the team lacking a winning season since. From 1999 to 2007, Duke's football win-loss record was at 13-90;from 2005 to 2007 Duke suffered a 22-game losing streak. In 2008, a judge ruled in favor of Duke after they pulled out of a four-game contract with the University of Louisville; the judge stated that it was up to Louisville to find a suitable replacement as he wrote, in the ruling, that any Division I team would be equivalent or better. Duke's 2009 season gave them five wins and seven losses, the closest the school has come to bowl eligibility since 1994. The Blue Devils are currently coached by David Cutcliffe.

Duke has won seven ACC Football Championships, which is the fourth most in the ACC trailing only Clemson, Florida State, and Maryland. Duke is consistently ranked at or near the top of the list of Division I-A schools which graduate nearly all of their football players. Duke has topped the list 12 years, earning it the most Academic Achievement Awards of any university. Notre Dame has been honored six times, while Boston College and Northwestern have won the award four times each.
The winningest coach in school history is Wallace Wade, with a record of 110 wins, 36 losses and 7 ties. His percentage of 74.2% is the best of any Duke coach with multiple seasons, while Floyd J. Egan's 1920 percentage of 90.0% (4 wins, no losses and 1 tie) makes him the Duke coach with the best all-time percentage. Duke's three unbeaten seasons came in 1889 (2-0-0), 1891 (3-0-0) and 1920 (4-0-1).

Duke in the AP Poll


Duke has never been ranked #1 in the AP or Coaches polls.

There have been 253 straight AP Polls without Duke since 1994 (the 13th longest streak in the NCAA).

Bowl records


Rivals

While the Blue Devils traditional football (and all sport) rivalry is with the North Carolina Tarheels and is called the Carolina–Duke rivalry (in football, the teams fight for the Victory Bell each year), the Blue Devils also have other unofficial rivalries. One such rivalry is with the Maryland Terrapins called the Duke-Maryland rivalry. Another is the Tobacco Road rivalry with Wake Forest. Duke's other rivalry is the Research Triangle rivalry with NC State. The series with UNC is 57-35-4 in favor of UNC (41-20-1 in favor of Carolina since the introduction of the Victory Bell trophy). The Maryland series is 30-19-0 in favor of Maryland. The Wake Forest series is 53-32-2 in favor of Duke. The North Carolina State series is 40-36-5 in favor of Duke.

Conference championships

Southern Conference: 1933, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1943–1945, 1952
Atlantic Coast Conference: 1953-1955 (co-champions in 1953 & 1955), 1960–1962, 1989 (co-champions)

All-Americans

53 Total
4 Consensus
23 First-Team
20 Second-Team
16 Third-Team

Duke football Consensus All-Americans:
1933 - Tackle Fred Crawford
1936 - Halfback Ace Parker
1971 - Defensive Back Ernie Johnson
1989 - Wide Receiver Clarkston Hines

Duke football's most recent All-American was linebacker Michael Tauiliili, who was selected to the second team of the 2008 postseason All-America Team by the Walter Camp Foundation.

Other awards

Outland Trophy
Mike McGee (1959)

ACC Coach of the Year
Bill Murray (1954, 1960 and 1962)
Steve Spurrier (1989)
Fred Goldsmith (1994)

Wallace Wade Media Coach of the Year (Southern Conference, first awarded 1948)
Wallace Wade (1949)
Bill Murray (1952)

[CLW]

WALLACE WADE STADIUM

Wallace Wade Stadium is primarily the home field of the Duke Blue Devils. It opened in 1929 with a game against Pitt, as the first facility in Duke's new west campus. The horseshoe-shaped stands are elevated six feet above the track. Seating for the stadium is for 33,941 people. Originally named Duke Stadium, it was renamed in 1967 for the legendary Duke football coach, Wallace Wade.

The stadium is most notable for being the site of the 1942 Rose Bowl Game. Duke had won the invitation to the game as the eastern representative for the second straight year. However, with the attacks on Pearl Harbor coming just weeks after the end of the 1941 season, travel restrictions were placed on the West Coast, thus meaning not only could the Rose Bowl itself not host the game, but neither could Oregon State, the host team from the PCC. The Rose Bowl committee originally planned to cancel the game, but the University invited the game and Oregon State to Durham to play the game. The offer was accepted, and on a cold, rainy January 1, 1942, 55,000 fans, 22,000 of which sat on bleachers borrowed from nearby NC State and UNC, watched the heavily favored Blue Devils fall to the strong defense of the Beavers 20-16. It is still the only time the game has been played outside of Pasadena.

On October 8th, 2005, the stadium hosted a large crowd for a Rolling Stones concert, as part of the band's A Bigger Bang Tour.

[CLW]

HONORS AND AWARDS

Honors and awards from CLW's dynasty:

[CLW]

PAST SEASONS

2010

[CLW]

SERIES HISTORY

CLW's ACC Series History with the Blue Devils:

MIAMI HURRICANES



NORTH CAROLINA TARHEELS



BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES



CLEMSON TIGERS



FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES



GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS



MARYLAND TERRAPINS



NORTH CAROLINA STATE WOLFPACK



VIRGINIA CAVALIERS



VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES



WAKE FOREST DEMON DEACONS

[CLW]

ACC STANDINGS

ACC Standings from Previous Seasons:

[CLW]

Feel free to post now.

[morsdraconis]

Good start man. Looking forward to reading Duke's ascent out of mediocrity.

[CLW]

Good start man. Looking forward to reading Duke's ascent out of mediocrity.

Thanks! Although Duke would probably be happy with "mediocrity". Duke successfully argued against Louisville that they were the worst 1A program in the entire country allowing them to break their contract with the Cardinals for a series of games. The new recruiting is going to be really interesting with a bottom of a "power" conference team like Duke.

[morsdraconis]

Absolutely man. I'm interested to see how tough it is to get guys to come to Duke when you pretty much only have Academics, Playing Time, and Conference prestige on your side.

[CLW]

Absolutely man. I'm interested to see how tough it is to get guys to come to Duke when you pretty much only have Academics, Playing Time, and Conference prestige on your side.

Yeah and thats if you consider the ACC's B a selling point.

[morsdraconis]

Yeah and thats if you consider the ACC's B a selling point.

It's better than a D+ from being an Independent.

[CLW]

It's better than a D+ from being an Independent.

That is true. Hopefully, the guys I'm after in the early going will be interested in some of the Mid Major leagues and not other BCS conferences.

FYI - I'm kind of in a holding pattern right now waiting to see if TGT allows the posting of HTML or whether Dynasty Wire becomes a viable alternative. Hopefully, something will work out here in the very near future.