Give This Blue Devil His Due

When Thaddeus Lewis arrived at Duke as a freshman quarterback in 2006, he had already given thought to his legacy with the Blue Devils. Lewis wanted to be recognized and remembered as the quarterback that started a new trend at Duke. It is called winning, a novel approach for a football program that last experienced a winning season in 1994.

Lewis hasn't accomplished his goal just yet, but he has certainly helped make Duke football fun again. The Blue Devils won four games in 2008, as many as they had won in the previous four years combined, and won their first Atlantic Coast Conference game since 2004.

Expectations -- another new word associated with Duke football -- are actually being bantered about this off-season. Nearly 5,000 fans ventured to Wallace Wade Stadium and watched the Blue Devils' spring football game last month.

"Students have never been excited about football season approaching, but that has changed and it's pretty exciting," Lewis told FanHouse Thursday. "I wanted to come in here and be a good influence and help turn the program around. Students, fans, people in the community are all excited about football and that motivates you to keep working hard. Everyone is serious about winning."

Duke was certainly serious about winning last year when it hired David Cutcliffe. Cutcliffe, with his impressive SEC pedigree, fielded a vastly more competitive team (4-8) in his first season compared to the 1-23 versions rolled out by Ted Roof the previous two seasons.

Lewis, a three-year starter from Miami, is determined to put an exclamation point on his career that has seen steady improvement through three seasons.

A second-team All-ACC pick in 2008, Lewis enters his senior season ranked first among active players in the conference in passing yards (6,735), first in touchdown passes (47), first in 300-yard passing games (four) and second in total offense (6,609). Additionally, Lewis' interceptions have declined dramatically, dropping from 16 in 2006 to 10 in 2007 to six in 2008.

Lewis credits his improvement to experience, confidence and a connection to the new coaching staff. Cutcliffe, a cagey veteran well respected among his peers, has coached a pair of quarterbacks named Manning (Peyton at Tennessee and Eli at Ole Miss). He was named the SEC Coach of the Year with the Rebels in 2003, punctuated by a SEC West co-championship and a Cotton Bowl win.

Lewis is spending most of his free time this off-season in the video room studying last year's cutups. Lewis also enjoyed a solid spring and wants to carry that momentum into 7-on-7 passing drills and strength and conditioning workouts that have started.

"Instead of forcing the issue, I am making better reads and I know where the football needs to go," Lewis said.

"But there's not an area of my game that I can't improve on. I am still learning the system. As a quarterback you want to make sure everyone is on the same page. There were games last year where we didn't capitalize on all of our opportunities and that could have been the difference in games. Against Virginia, I think we showed we could play with any team in the ACC. We showed a lot of character and a lot of heart, and it's something we can build on for this season."

Duke snapped a 25-game losing streak in ACC play when it erupted for 28 unanswered points in the second half to beat visiting Virginia 31-3 on Sept. 27. The Blue Devils also beat two bowl participants (Vanderbilt and Navy), narrowly lost to Northwestern despite driving inside the Wildcats' 25-yard line on their final two possessions, and dropped four ACC games by 11 points or less.

Despite a healthy dose of optimism, the Blue Devils must replace key departures on offense. Duke lost a trio of three-year starters along the offensive line and talented receiver Eron Riley, a first-team All-ACC selection who was Lewis' favorite target the past three seasons.



The good news is Duke will welcome back senior Re'quan Boyette, the team's leading rusher in 2006 and 2007, from a knee injury that sidelined him last year. Sophomore Jay Hollingsworth, who led the Blue Devils in rushing (399) and added 25 receptions, also returns to give the Blue Devils a nice one-two punch in the backfield that only averaged 106.2 rushing yards per game in 2008.

Despite losing six starters from a defense that limited opponents to 357 yards per game, Duke returns second-leading tackler Vincent Ray and one of the conference's top lineman in Vince Oghobaase. Cutcliffe praised the approach of his players in spring drills.

"The biggest thing we were going into was to take our competitiveness up a notch, learning how to compete, just absolutely, fiercely compete," Cutcliffe said. "And the other thing was to build our depth. I think we have accomplished both of those this spring."

Lewis, who selected the Blue Devils over Pittsburgh, South Florida and TCU out of Miami Hialeah Lakes High School, also feels more comfortable in his leadership role. Polite and soft-spoken, Lewis plans to be more vocal this season -- he calls it "tough love" -- after leading by example the past years.

Lewis, who will graduate in December, can see and feel that the Blue Devils' program is headed in the right direction.

A recent pledge of $10 million by a booster was made to upgrade the practice field and facilities. Duke is also making noise in recruiting. The future of the quarterback position is the redshirt freshman Sean Renfree, the jewel of Cutcliffe's first recruiting class. Eleven players from the 2009 class, highlighted by quarterback Sean Schroeder, are already on campus and enrolled. Cutcliffe recently received a commitment for the Class of 2010 from quarterback Brandon Connette from Corona, Calif.

"The next generation of Duke football players will be able to train and take advantage of the new facilities and that's really great to see that commitment," Lewis said.

Lewis, meanwhile, committed to Duke on National Signing Day in February 2006. He has given the Blue Devils three solid seasons and is pumped to end his career with a bang. The Blue Devils have a great opportunity to start off on a good note with September games against Richmond, Army, Kansas and North Carolina Central. October and November will add the final touches to his legacy.

"I plan to be out on the field [Friday] working and throwing," Lewis said. "We can win."