Devery Hamilton: Duke is Better Than 1-5 But We Haven't Earned It

Tackle says Blue Devils need to improve on "little things"

Duke heads back to game week work after its bye week.

“Obviously, we don’t want to be 1-5,” said offensive tackle Devery Hamilton. “I think we all know we’re better than a 1-5 team, but we haven’t earned it. (During the bye week), I would say the mood at practice has been high. It’s not like we’re going out there and feel like we’re physically outmatched. We’re just not honing in on little details that we need to do well in order to win. Look at any of our games this year. There are points in the game where we’re leading late into the game. One of the things Coach Cutcliffe always talks about is we have to protect our lead. And to do that, we have to do the little things right.”

The “little things” were the Blue Devils’ priority during the week off.

“What we’re focusing on in the bye week are the little fundamental things we may not have had time in spring ball or summer to really get to, because it was a little bit different this year.”

Duke got its lone win two weeks before the bye, topping Syracuse on the road.

“Getting that win, having that success we did on offense, defense and special teams allows you to play with a little bit more swagger. We need to take that and move to the next week. It doesn’t matter if we win or lose on Saturday, Sunday, it’s a new week, a new focus. I don’t think it was necessarily a turning point for us, but it showed us the result that will come from the hard work we put in.”