Duke Football’s home opener was a huge success on Saturday evening with pretty much everything going the Blue Devils’ way from winning the game against NCCU in a dominating 55-0 victory to the weather staying clear despite predictions for rain. The game wasn’t the only thing that received high remarks on Saturday, as the Duke coaches, players, and fans all praised the first experience in a new and improved Wallace Wade Stadium over the weekend.
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One of the people who was most excited for the new stadium upgrades at Duke University was head coach David Cutcliffe, who watched the entire renovation take place “brick by brick” from his office and thinks it’s “gorgeous“. Cutcliffe played a major role in helping upgrade the historic stadium, after leading the Blue Devils to consecutive postseason bowl games the last three years and surprising everybody by winning the 2013 ACC Coastal Division title. After the NCCU game, he described coming out onto the new field for the first time saying:
"“As you come out running in the tunnel you almost wanted to stop and look around. I know that sounds crazy and I knew I’d get run over if I stopped dead in my tracks. It was emotional. I loved running across that field…the finest field maybe in all of college football. I was happy for our fans and I’m also just so appreciative of our fans and our university administration and athletics administration.”"
Many Duke players also had great things to say about the improvements to Wallace Wade and how it impacted them as players on the field. The stadium is using a new playing surface using Precision Turf Latitude 36 Bermudagrass, which is used by several NFL teams. The main plus to the new field from the players’ perspective was the closer proximity to fans, which makes a louder stadium and better home field advantage.
Senior wide receiver Max McCaffrey and redshirt senior offensive guard Lucas Patrick both praised the upgrades to Wallace Wade Stadium after the game. McCaffrey said the first game in the renovated stadium was “awesome to be a part of. Just coming from what we had freshman year to this is truly, truly amazing…And all our incredible fans that came out tonight I appreciate it so much, I know we all do.” and Patrick added, “The crowd was amazing…I’m speechless honestly talking about it, just the transformation of everything. It looked top-notch.”
“The finest field maybe in all of college football.” – David Cutcliffe
Blue Devil fans in attendance were also very excited to see the new renovations, which also included changes to the overall fan experience including a new a tailgating event “DevilsGate” for Wade Wackos, or Duke Football’s version of the Cameron Crazies.
Tickets for the game were sold-out despite removing the track around the field to add about 4,000 extra lower level seats. Both teams being located in Durham had something to do with filling every seat, but the anticipation of Duke’s first home game in the renovated Wallace Wade also played a role. Additional upgrades are also still in progress, including adding a new press box, club suite seating, and upgrading the concourses for fan entrances to the stadium with everything expected to be complete by the first home game in 2016.
Duke Football will now hope to bring the same excitement and home field advantage to their next few contests against more difficult opponents. The Blue Devils will host three consecutive games in Wallace Wade against Northwestern, Georgia Tech, and then Boston College.