NEW YORK—As part of the build-up to Saturday's New Era Pinstripe Bowl, the Blue Devils and Hoosiers spent part of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the media one last time Duke and Indiana take the field at Yankee Stadium.
Here are some of the notable sound bytes from the pregame media availability:
On the absence of redshirt senior safety Jeremy Cash:
“Cash is a vocal and an exemplary leader, so whenever he makes plays it gives energy throughout the team and whenever he sees us down a little bit he’s going to come in and scream at us and get us up. We’re really going to miss that, but as a team I think that we can rally around each other and eventually get the win”
—Duke linebacker Dwayne Norman
“It’s a little less unique because we’ve played a half without Jeremy, so preparing for Wake Forest Corbin [McCarthy] was the starter all that week….I’m not minimizing it. We’d love to have Jeremy Cash, but I don’t think emotionally it’s been what it could have been. It wasn’t just [as big a] blow because we were preparing otherwise anyway”
—Duke head coach David Cutcliffe
On getting a bowl win:
“I don’t want anybody panicking about bowl games or letting it get into your head. We’ve played very well in the three previous bowl games that we’ve played in [since I've been at Duke]. The thing we’re going to have to do to have an opportunity to win is to play very well again and find a way to win a game in the fourth quarter because that’s generally what it’s going to come down to in bowl season"
—Cutcliffe
“This would be a huge victory for us. Being able to get that for us, the assistant coaches, is really important for our head football coach because what he’s done for this program, it goes unmatched"
—Duke offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery
“A bowl win for us is huge. That can take our program to a whole new level"
—Duke center Matt Skura
On the game potentially turning into a shootout:
“I don’t know if it will be a shootout. I don’t care if it’s 3-0 or 55-54. We’re just looking to do the best we can and compete until the end"
—Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld
“We had a normal three weeks of game planning, and we’re going to try to do what we do. We will try to expose what we can expose and hide our weaknesses"
—Montgomery
“We’re expecting to put up a lot of points every time we walk onto the field. We want to keep our defense off the field and sustain drives and put a lot of good drives together”
—Duke quarterback Thomas Sirk
On being in New York:
“There’s one New York City in this world. There’s one Yankee Stadium. It doesn’t get any better”
—Cutcliffe
“I love the city of New York. It’s fun, it’s lively and there are a lot of moving parts. I think they drive a little crazy for me, but I think overall the city is great"
—Norman
“The city is huge. The buildings are huge, the pizza is huge, everything’s huge here. The food’s really good, really expensive"
—Indiana linebacker Marcus Oliver
On running trick plays:
“No, we’re going to be basic. There’s going to be no trick plays, none of that kind of stuff"
—Montgomery
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