As students began their final days of sleeping in tents in Krzyzewskiville before Saturday’s contest on the hardwood between Duke and North Carolina, another tent community sprouted up right outside the student entrance of Wallace Wade Stadium.
According to the Cutsboro website, the idea was created by three first-year students, which includes freshman Shaker Samman. Samman said that fellow Cutsboro resident Eric Stach originally thought of the idea and recruited other football fans to populate Cutsboro.
This is not the first mention of a tent city dedicated to Duke football, which won 10 games last season and appeared in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve. In a segment on Blue Devil football that appeared in ESPN’s College Gameday on Dec. 7, 2013, Mike Krzyzewski said he was open to the idea of a tent establishment similar to the one that bears his name.
“I think he should have his own right next to his field just like ours is right here,” he told ESPN.
Stach, Samman and other Cutsboro residents have even created a Twitter account to publicize their venture, which has caught the attention of Cutcliffe and Duke players.
Cutcliffe said that he visited the students prior to the Spring game and even acknowledged it in his press conference after the Spring game, while current and former players took to Twitter, using #Cutsboro to show their support.
While there are no set plans for next year, Samman said that he would like to see students camp out for some of the team's bigger games, such as the Nov. 20 matchup with North Carolina that will be televised nationally on ESPN. For other games they would like to put together exciting events to get people excited about Duke football.
“We know we definitely want to do something,” Samman said. “Unlike Krzyzewskiville where people tent out for seats, everyone can get a seat. This is more like come to a midnight cookout or something like that.”
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