DURHAM, N.C. -- The last time Duke played Tulane in New Orleans (in 1964), the game was postponed for two months due to Hurricane Hilda.
            
The 2015 Blue Devils will open their season against the Green Wave in the Crescent City on Thursday and while there was some concern last week that Hurricane Erika could disrupt the game, that storm veered east and is instead dumping heavy rains on Florida, not Louisiana.
            
The current forecast for Thursday night in New Orleans is hot, humid and partly cloudy – and just a 10 percent chance of scattered showers.
            
That removes one potential worry for Duke coach David Cutcliffe, but there are plenty of concerns remaining as he prepares his team for the first road opener in his tenure in Durham.
            
“It's unusual to open on the road – it doesn't happen that often,” Cutcliffe said Sunday when he met the press. “You've got a lot of freshmen and redshirt freshmen who are traveling for the first time. You don't have a game under your belt. You've got a quarterback who's never started. And he's not the only first-time starter by any means.”
            
So how does Cutcliffe cope with that problem?
            
“You're trying to be as normal in your routine as you can,” he said.
            
That meant changing the days of the week to prepare for the Thursday night game.
            
The team had a heavy practice Friday night – mimicking the Sunday night workout that's normal for a Saturday gameday week. He gave the team Saturday off – the team normally takes Monday off – and scheduled hard workouts for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of a normal week). The team will work lightly Wednesday, then fly to New Orleans that afternoon.
            
Cutcliffe has instituted another change to his normal schedule, working out at night.
            
“We're [normally] a morning practice team,” he said. “We've been trying to flip our biological clock in a short period of time. Trying to get ourselves acclimated to a 9:30 p.m. Eastern kickoff.”
            
The Duke coach also came up with an innovative way to prepare his young players for their first road trip. He took the entire team to Washington, D.C., to watch an exhibition game between the Washington Redskins and the Detroit Lions.
            
It was a chance to see several former Duke players in action, but the hidden purpose of the trip was to give the current Blue Devil players an opportunity to experience life on the road.
            
“That was one of the reasons we wanted to do it,” Cutcliffe said. “We have so many freshmen and redshirt freshmen who are going to be on that trip. College football is different. We don't get an exhibition game. We haven't played a game since the bowl game.
            
“So it's about travel and what you do and how you do it. We gave them an itinerary. They get all that information on their iPad, we don't spoon feed it. They passed that test with flying colors in DC. It was a pretty complex – we even had a pregame meal that Thursday afternoon at the Marriott, prior to the Lions and the Redskins game, even though we weren't the ones playing.
            
“So we just did every aspect of what it is like to take a trip.”
            
Cutcliffe can only hope that everything goes as smoothly this time as it did the first time his young team hit the road.
            
“We believe we're about as ready as we can be,” he said. “I'm sure Tulane feels the same way. This will be an opportunity to find out a lot about our football team.”

Playing for the First Time
The final pregame depth chart, released Sunday, features five first-time starters on offense and four on defense.

On offense, the “rookie” starters will mostly be players who have experience in backup roles – redshirt junior quarterback Thomas Sirk, junior wide receiver Johnell Barnes, redshirt sophomore tackle Gabe Brandner and redshirt junior guard Tanner Stone. In addition, a freshman will start at one of the three wide receiver spots – either redshirt freshman Chris Taylor or true freshman T.J. Rahming.
            
On defense, the newcomers are also experienced players – redshirt junior tackle A.J. Wolf, redshirt senior defensive end Britton Grier, sophomore linebacker Zavier Carmichael and sophomore cornerback Alonzo Saxton II.
            
In addition, two more defensive starters will be starting at a new position, although both have started before. Senior Dwayne Norman will be starting for the first time at linebacker after playing safety his first three years at Duke (with 12 starts to his credit). And redshirt senior Kyler Brown is starting for the first time at defensive end after getting two starts at linebacker in 2012.
            
There are five true freshmen and seven redshirt freshmen on the two-deep.
            
In addition to Rahming, who could start, true freshmen expected to see action include defensive end Marquies Price, defensive tackle Brandon Boyce, cornerback Jeremy McDuffie and linebacker Ben Humphreys.

Returning Kicks
Duke features one of the nation's strongest special teams units, headed by four veterans in placekicker Ross Martin, punter Will Monday, kickoff returner DeVon Edwards and long snapper Thomas Hennessy.
            
But Cutcliffe does have to replace ace punt returner Jamison Crowder. After a heated preseason competition, junior Ryan Smith has emerged as the first option there.
            
“We've had an intense battle,” the Duke coach said. “Ryan has done a great job with his decisions, catching it. He's explosive – his short-space quickness is special. Punt returning is different from kickoff returning. That ball's up there and you have to be focused on catching it with a lot of footsteps around you. Then to get started on a punt return, generally you have to make one or two miss in your face.”
            
Smith, who had a 45-yard punt return against Kansas last season, has earned the first chance to replace Crowder at that position. But Cutcliffe said that several others might get a shot.
            
“Max McCaffrey has done a good job,” he said. “T.J. Rahming has done a good job. Johnell Barnes has done a good job. All of those guys may get their shots, but right now you make the decision on who has had the best camp and that's Ryan.”
            
Road Success
Although this is the first road trip for many freshmen and redshirt freshmen, the great majority of the players who will see action Thursday night are road veterans.
            
And they've known success on the road – winning nine of 10 road games over the last two seasons, including such significant road victories as at Virginia, Virginia Tech and North Carolina in 2013 and at Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh in 2014. In fact, Duke has a better road record in those two seasons (9-1) than at home (10-4).
            
So what makes Duke such a good road team?
            
“We love roads games,” senior wide receiver Max McCaffrey said. “We like to quiet stadiums.”
            
Senior offensive guard Lucas Patrick said the key to road success is the team's approach.
            
“When you've been somewhere you've never been, you really have to rely on what you know,” he said. “We do a good job of sticking to the process and paying attention to what we do best.”
            
Bringing the Heat
Duke was not a bad pass rush team last season, collecting 30 sacks in 13 games – which ranked right in the middle of the ACC standings.
            
But many of those sacks came on blitzes – safety Jeremy Cash led the team with 5.5 sacks; safety Devon Edwards added 4.5 sacks and safety (now linebacker) Dwayne Norman had three.
            
The returning defensive linemen combined managed just 2.5 sacks-- 1.5 by tackle Carlos Wray and 1.0 from end Kyler Brown.
            
That's got to change this season, according to senior end Britton Grier.
            
“We worked a lot this summer and during fall camp on our four-man pass rush,” Grier said. “We've tried to revamp that and put a lot of emphasis on that. I think we'll be a lot better at it.”
            
Grier might be a first-time starter at end, but he's seen a lot of action in his first three seasons at Duke. The Charlotte native was a special teams stalwart as a true freshman in 2011. He played extensively as a sophomore – both on special teams and as a reserve linebacker. He redshirted in 2013 and made the transition to defensive end. He played 245 snaps as a redshirt junior last season.
            
He's never had a sack, but he was credited with a QB hurry last season. That's almost as good as a sack, he explained, pointing out that a hurried QB is prone to make a bad throw – which can lead to an interception.
            
Grier is currently listed at 250 pounds. Duke's defensive front is a tad smaller than the average ACC defensive line – unless 300-pound redshirt freshmen Quaven Ferguson or Edgar Cerenord is on the field.
            
Grier insisted that the size of the line is not a problem.
            
“I don't think we look at size,” he said. “Some things we lose with size, we pick up with strength and speed. We're just ready for any challenge that comes to us.”

The Receiving Corps
Coach Cutcliffe has voiced his concern on several occasions with the consistency of his receiving corps.
            
The unit has been largely rebuilt this season after losing Jamison Crowder and Issac Blakeney to graduation. Those two wideouts combined for 132 catches, more than 1,600 receiving yards and 13 touchdown catches.
            
Max McCaffrey, the only returning starter at the position, has been an exception to Cutcliffe's inconsistency complaints.
            
“Max McCaffrey has been what I hoped he would be,” Cutcliffe said.
            
McCaffrey, the son of former NFL wide receiver Ed McCaffrey (and the grandson of former 100-meter world record holder and Duke football starter Dave Sime), caught 37 passes for 385 yards and three touchdowns last season. He has had 65 catches for 698 yards and seven touchdowns in his first three seasons.
            
McCaffrey defended the younger receivers.
            
“We have some incredible playmakers,” he said. “They're young and maybe have had one or two off days. They just have to understand, that could be one or two ballgames.”
            
Barnes, who saw considerable action last season (23 catches for 237 yards, one touchdown), is a wide receiver with exciting potential. So is freshman T.J. Rahming.
            
Cutcliffe suggested that there is a reason that Rahming inherited Crowder's No. 3 jersey number.
            
“Our last practice Friday night was, I thought, his best practice,” the Duke coach said. “Attacking the football in the passing game … his short-space quickness is a lot like the guy who wore the same number before. He's learning quickly.”