Duke has kept everyone guessing all year.
The new-look Blue Devils sprinted out to a 3-1 start that turned heads nationwide. Then, they regressed, losing two games that were reminiscent of the Ted Roof era.
With the back-loaded half of the season on the horizon, bowl talk ceased. Campus attention turned to basketball.
And then Saturday's win over Vanderbilt changed everything once again.
Sporting a winning record this late in the season for the first time since 1994-the last time Duke went to a bowl-the Blue Devils are still contenders, something altogether new for every player on the team.
"College football Novembers are really fun," head coach David Cutcliffe said. "You get to decide who the conference champions are or who you may play in a conference championship game. You got the battle going on for the national championship game. You got the battle for echelon of bowl games, you got the battles to get in bowl games.
"I looked at them right now, and I said, 'Welcome to November.'"
Duke has five conference games in November, meaning the importance of the Vanderbilt win cannot be overstated. After a shutout loss and another in which Cutcliffe said he was discouraged to see that some players seemed to quit, no one would have been surprised if Duke failed to put on the brakes against the Commodores. The Blue Devils could have been 3-4, caught in a relentlessly turbulent tailspin.
"When you get beat, there's a couple of responses," Cutcliffe said. "You can hang your head when you lose a game-you can lose your confidence when you lose a game, coach or player. Or you can go rebuild your confidence through hard work."
Of course, by now, the Blue Devils have shown just how hard they worked to rebound. With renewed focus, the win gives Duke a huge boost heading into the final stretch of the season, wideout Eron Riley said.
And even though Cutcliffe's predictions had not fallen short much at all during his first year at the helm, nobody could have imagined the power of his clairvoyance at the beginning of the season.
"I was asked by all of you before the season started, and every time I said the same thing," Cutcliffe said. "This team will be defined in November."
Duke's game Saturday at Wake Forest falls on Nov. 1.
So now what?
Before the year began, most people would have considered a four-win season a remarkable success, especially considering Duke had managed just three combined over the last three campaigns.
Get this, though: The Blue Devils only need to finish 2-3 and they will be bowl-eligible.
Just writing that sentence makes me feel like the bullpen catcher telling his pitcher he's got a perfect game going into the fifth inning.
Under Cutcliffe's tutelage, though, Duke differentiates itself from the pitcher in two ways. One, no player would listen to what I have to say. Two, despite being able to taste something Duke has never even glimpsed before, the team's message has remained sternly disciplined.
"We're in one-game seasons," Cutcliffe said. "We're playing one game at a time. You have to do that.... If we get beyond that, I think we're making a major mistake."
And the players have bought in, too, remaining cool, calm and repetitive.
"You can't look past the task at hand," quarterback Thaddeus Lewis said. "Coach Cut has done a great job of just making sure we focus on one team at a time."
"Our focus is on one-week seasons," Riley said. "We're 0-0 against Wake Forest."
The first game in what at one point appeared to be a gear-grinding second-half stretch. The Demon Deacons have underachieved this year, though, losing three of their last four games. Over the last two seasons, as Wake Forest established itself as one of America's favorite Cinderellas and Duke retained its long-term lease on the ACC cellar, the Blue Devils still played close, losing by a combined six points.
And with November here, Duke could begin to define itself in the way Cutcliffe imagined back in December.
A win this weekend and then another a week later against a 2-6 N.C. State team, and Duke is bowl-...
Oh, wait, I forgot. One game at a time.
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