No picnic playing in Blacksburg

DURHAM — Listening to Duke coach David Cutcliffe talk about how hard it is to play at Virginia Tech on Tuesday, you'd think he had a case of both home-crowd and recruiting class envy.

“Obviously, not many people go in there and win, and the reason is two-fold," Cutcliffe said during his regular press conference.

"They have  great support and energy that comes out of that home crowd. Their crowd loves football  and when I’m watching tape I don’t see an empty seat in the house. Period.

"They’re into  every situation and that crowd gives them an advantage. The other side of the coin is that they’re just really good. They’re athletic and fast, they don’t have many weaknesses, they’ve got speed and size in the backfield on offense, a big, beautiful offensive line.

"It’s  the same thing with their defensive front, and they have a great secondary. They are a  very good football team.”