Looking ahead to Duke’s Football season.

Adam Gold, the PNC Arena, Hurricanes and the Islanders for the NHL playoffs. Now, I remember this has got to be about three weeks ago, maybe a month ago. Duke head coach Mike Elko was out here winding the siren. I gave you a good grade on the siren. How was it? Yeah, it was it was a great experience. You know, it was a little nerve wracking when you get out there in front of all those people. I'm actually coming back again tonight to try it for playoff hockey. Oh, you're gonna do the siren again?

Yeah, I got it. I got it in between period one and two tonight. Oh my gosh, that's fantastic. Now, did you find it more difficult than you anticipated? You know, I think I think I was able to handle it, but I was a little nervous. I'm not gonna lie, getting up there and right cranking that thing. I'll tell you what, you did a good job.

Dave Doran is very good at it, but he's been around here longer. Let me ask you about last season. What do you think the difference was between the win and the optimism that you brought? I don't know if it caught people by surprise, but I don't think people understood just how good your football team could be. What do you think the difference was?

Because recently they hadn't had a lot of positive experiences, but nine and four says everything. Yeah, no, I think one thing was we had a tremendous character and tremendous culture. And I know people talk about that a lot, but I do think that was a huge part of what we figured out going through the season.

The offseason, which meant we had a group of kids that would do whatever we asked them to do, and that was a great starting point. And then I think we uncovered a quarterback. Riley Leonard proved that he was one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC. I think when the lights were brightest, he certainly shown the brightest and those two ingredients helped us have the year. We did look, but there were two quarterbacks at the very top of the league and Travis and Florida State and Drake made UNC that obviously, I'm not going to say separated themselves, but it seemed like they were going to be one two in the league. But I thought I thought Riley was as good as anybody in the league really based on what he could do both with his arm and his legs. Yeah, no, certainly a dual threat kid and has a lot more athleticism that people want to give him credit for. And you know, he went toe to toe with Drake and what was a phenomenal game in Durham last year and came up just short, you know, it's so obviously a lot of respect for Drake and a lot of respect for the kid down in Florida State. But but certainly we feel like Riley Leonard belongs in that conversation.

Oh, there's there is no doubt about it. And I mean, he should get a lot of preseason accolades. But let me ask you about the rest the other part of your team because it wasn't just Riley Leonard that went nine and four. You were good on both sides of the ball. You had to establish the running game. You made big plays through the passing game.

How do you follow all that up? Tiring as an answer, but I don't think the people at Duke are going to let me get away with that. So, you know, no, we're excited. We got 18 returning starters. I think there's a lot of confidence in our building now about what Duke football is capable of becoming. You know, there's a lot of lot of guys back on both sides of the ball who have played a lot of football and we feel like we're going to have one of our best rosters in a really long time at Duke. You know, that'll obviously be needed because we've got a challenging slate coming at us this fall. But yeah, I think we'll be ready for it. What does the success that you guys had last year, what does that do for your offseason?

Yeah, I think we're trying to live in two different compartments with it to be honest. I think one, you know, there's a lot of enthusiasm around the program right now and we're trying to build on that, you know, in terms of ticket sales and marketing and rallying the fan base and then how that helps you elevate recruiting and all of those things. But I also think internally we're trying to stay very well grounded in who we are and, you know, what we really need to do to establish a consistent winner over the course of time because we certainly didn't just want this to be a one-year thing or a one-in wonder. And so, you know, internally we're just trying to make sure we stay grounded and continue to work and make this program be what we're capable of becoming.

Mike Elko, Duke head football coach is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Look, the league is getting better. The league took a lot of shots though and has taken a lot of shots, not just in basketball. But in football over the past several years.

How do you go about changing that narrative? Yeah, I mean, I think we got to get on big stages and win big games. I think we all have opportunities in the non-conference to go out and play teams from the other Power Five conferences and we've got to find our ways to start winning those games. And I think that's really where it starts and we've got to have a really strong start out of the block so that, you know, the national narrative about what we're doing starts to change. We start to get ourselves into some of those prime time slots later in the year.

Mike Elko, Duke head football coach is joining us here. So when you look at the rivalry with North Carolina, what jumps out to you about it? Yeah, probably just the intensity of it.

Yeah, I think first time playing in it. You know, there's certainly a different atmosphere. There's a different vibe around your team and your school. And, you know, it was a great atmosphere last year. We had a great crowd and, you know, I think for 59 minutes and 47 seconds, we played great football, you know, and then, you know, Drake put a drive together and beat us at the end. But, yeah, I just think there's a lot of intensity in that game.

And second time through, I think we'll be a little bit more prepared for it. Your home field environment. In the past, it had been difficult to get people because there is no local, there's no local fan base per se. How do you get more excitement? Or is that, do you rely on the student body to do that?

Yeah, I think it's a combination. I think one, we've got to, we've got to get the student body more engaged. I think we were able to do that last year.

And I think that hopefully will continue moving forward. I think we've got to do a great job in Durham. I think we're the only team for Durham to come out and root for in the fall. And we've got to continue to build that trust and that relationship with the Durham community at Bolson and get them out to support us. And then, you know, we've got to get people back. We've got to stop using it as an excuse.

I think that we're not a local landscape. You know, there's a lot of teams across the country that fill stadiums that don't have a local fan base and don't have a local alumni base. And so, you know, we've got to do a good job of reinvigorating our fan base around the country and, you know, make falls in Durham something to be part of. And that makes the team, people proud of the team that we put on the field. And I think that all is continuing to grow around the excitement of a 9-4 first year.

What are people going to see when they come out to the Blue-White game coming up on Saturday? Yeah, hopefully they're going to see our product one year better. I think, you know, last year, year one, you know, we had success. But, you know, I still feel like we weren't operating at the level that we were capable of.

I think that's really hard to do in year one. You know, now that you've got your baseline established and everybody's kind of comfortable with the program and the system and how things run, I think now you're putting yourself in the position to elevate everything you do. And so I think they'll see a great product. I think they'll have a great day. It's supposed to be beautiful weather on Saturday. It's the only show in town. And so we'd love for everybody to come out and check out this version of Duke football.