In 2013 Duke enjoyed their most successful football season in half a century when they appeared on the end of season polls for the first time since 1961.  Can the Blue Devils use last season to build a platform that will see their football program develop into one of the best?

The university,  located in North Carolina,  is a renowned basketball powerhouse with four NCAA National Championships to their name along with a host of final-four appearances.  While more recently football has played second fiddle to hoops,  the 1940’s and 50’s saw the gridiron side regularly rank inside the top-20 on AP polls.

Brining in former Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe six years ago was a huge coup and was the first building block in last year’s highly competitive side,  which was the first ten-win season in the school’s 125-year existence.

The major problem for Duke,  one which may never be possible to overcome,  is the state in which they are situated.  Lots of college football players are loyal to their state,  and if they are not loyal then they are usually very good and are heading to a ‘powerhouse’.

Let me try and put that into some context for you.  Roughly 35% of players that make it to the NFL are from the states of California,  Texas or Florida.  Add to that the states of Georgia,  Ohio and Louisiana and that number goes up to 50%.  That means if Duke are to recruit strongly out of state they are competing with famous programs such as USC,  UCLA,  Texas,  Texas A&M,  Baylor,  Florida,  Florida State,  LSU and Ohio State to name just a few.  And that is before you throw in big footballing colleges such as Alabama,  Auburn,  Oregon,  Wisconsin,  Oklahoma and so on and so on.  Where does that leave Duke?  In the last five recruiting processes the Blue Devils have put pen to paper on two,  yes two,  four-star recruits. 

That is two players from a pool well over 1,250 deep.  Those figures can only highlight the incredible job Cutcliffe and his coaching staff have done.

Sadly,  while Duke are an easy side to root for,  they will more often than not lose out in the numbers game and struggle to put big back-to-back seasons together.  Nevertheless,  retaining Cutcliffe and winning 10 games can only improve their chances of finding the AP top-25 once again.

Follow Richard on Twitter @Richard_Gatenby