The football rivalry will probably never match the one in basketball, but Saturday's SU-Duke game at the Carrier Dome appears to be somewhat of a grudge match for the visitors. Last season, Syracuse went down to Durham and thumped the Blue Devils, 49-6, and the wound is still fresh.
"They came down here and spanked us pretty badly," said Duke coach David Cutcliffe Monday. "Any football player is embarrassed by poor performance, and they want to respond."
Supplying the opponent with bulletin board material is not the response to which 'Coach Cut' was referring, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Blue Devils' cornerback Leonard Johnson did the honors, issuing this response to a query about his winless team's mentality.
"We can't let this 0-4 start stop our momentum," Johnson said. "I feel like we're going into Syracuse, a good team, but very beatable. We've got seven more games, we've just got to get it cranked up."
No better way to get your opponent cranked up then to label it "very beatable", especially considering the last time you met, that opponent won by seven touchdowns. The Devils sound pretty cranked up themselves, using the 2019 outcome as motivation for this weekend's rematch.
"Last year's game, and the score, was definitely unacceptable," said senior captain Deon Jackson. "Personally, it left a sour taste in my mouth, and I know it left a bad taste in the rest of my teammates' mouths. So, we're extremely motivated, more than ever, to come into this game, and come out with a win."
The Blue Devils have only won once in their last 10 outings, and the average margin of defeat during that span is more than 20 points. Cutcliffe calls last year's blowout loss to the Orange "a real low point for our team".
But, that's not because he has a low opinion of Syracuse, in fact, it's just the opposite. Cutcliffe, who's famously coached both Peyton and Eli Manning, calls Tommy DeVito "an outstanding quarterback", and holds SU's head coach in equally high regard.
"Dino Babers does a great job. He's a great coach," said Cutcliffe. "With their offense, they're going to play fast, they're going to spread the field. A big challenge for us, [but] we're not going to run from the challenge. We're going to run to the challenge."
For his part, Babers is also effusive in his praise of Cutcliffe, despite his team's 0-4 start. After watching the Dukies throw a scare into Virginia Tech before falling short last weekend, Dino sounds like he's hoping this is not the week they finally put it together.
"I really believe Coach Cutcliffe is one of the sharpest guys I've ever met, and I know that he's going to right that ship," said Babers. "That is not the guy you want to be going against when it looks like things are going bad, and he's rallying the troops. They're going to come here ready to go."