The Duke gameday atmosphere is still a work in progress. For one thing, there wasn’t a massive parade of cars coming into town like you see in Charlottesville. There have also been more impressive tailgating displays at Virginia lacrosse games than before the Duke-Virginia football game. Students must have either been studying or just not cared to show up to the game; there were more students at the end of the Virginia-USC game than in the stands Saturday. Even the marching band was lackluster, with seemingly fewer musicians than marching bands at a lot of high schools.
The Duke football team, however, has improved by leaps and bounds in 2008, and one man can be thanked for that.
When David Cutcliffe was hired by Duke to take over the football program, people thought Cutcliffe was committing coaching suicide. He was a very successful head coach at Ole Miss, and his firing was seen as a boneheaded move by the Rebel administration. After initially taking the Notre Dame assistant head coaching and quarterbacks job, he had to resign and take a year off from coaching because of health problems. Cutcliffe then went to Tennessee as the offensive coordinator and resurrected the Volunteers’ offense. With all this experience, he could have waited and picked a higher-profile job. Instead, Cutcliffe accepted the Duke head coaching job. Every Blue Devil fan should send him a thank-you card, because it’s become obvious that Duke football is now a serious program. The team’s success started at the top with a coach who stressed discipline and the ability to finish games.
“Coach said ‘Don’t just give [finishing games] lip service,’” Duke junior quarterback Thaddeus Lewis said. “We’re not just going to talk about it, we’re going to be about it. Everything we do, even in practice, we have to finish. If we don’t finish, then practice is over. That’s instilled in us during the week and it’s been instilled in us during the offseason.”
Obviously Duke did not give Virginia lip service Saturday. The Blue Devils did not let up at all during the game, and that’s a testament to Cutcliffe and his coaching. Cutcliffe played football at Alabama under legendary football coach Bear Bryant, and it is clear that Cutcliffe learned a thing or two about coaching and discipline from The Bear.
“When we say finish through a line, we mean finish through a line,” Cutcliffe said. “When we say put your hand behind the line, it’s put your hand behind the line ... It’s a matter of a mindset, and that’s why it doesn’t leave those kids’ minds. It will not.”
Nothing personifies this more than after Duke senior cornerback Jabari Marshall showboated while returning an interception 42 yards for a touchdown and drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Many coaches would just tell said player to calm down and let him return to the game. Not Cutcliffe.
“I told him you’re not playing the rest of the game,” Cutcliffe said. “These things don’t happen and then it’s just OK.”
That statement serves as another sign that Duke now has discipline and accountability within the football program. Out on the field, while Virginia was obviously sloppy, Duke looked sharper and more athletic.
Upon arrival at Duke “I saw the fattest, softest football team I’d ever seen in my life,” Cutcliffe said. After stopping a workout “I hollered at the staff and — this is a true story — I said ‘The goose has laid the golden egg at our feet! If we just get into shape we’re going to win four or five games around here!’”
Duke could realistically get to four, five, maybe even six wins this season. Even if the Blue Devils didn’t win another game this season it would be deemed a success, but Cutcliffe isn’t just going to sit there and enjoy beating Virginia.
“The great thing from this victory is that we will learn so much from it,” Cutcliffe said. “It’s early in the season. We made a lot of mistakes that real good football teams shouldn’t make.”
Mistakes? In a 31-3 beatdown? Trust me when I say that the above statement will be taken seriously. You can be sure that Cutcliffe will make his players learn from the mistakes in this game. Georgia Tech is next for the Blue Devils, and the Yellow Jackets can no longer consider that game an easy victory.
That’s an amazing thing to consider, and Duke has Cutcliffe to thank for that.
Read More
Virginia annihilated 41-14 in a must-win contest versus North Carolina
By Peter Kriebel | 11 hours agoJust about everything that could have gone wrong for Virginia football went wrong.
No. 24 women’s soccer not to be denied in late win over Clemson
By Sam Chun | 15 hours agoThe Cavaliers topped Clemson 1-0 in front of a packed out Klöckner Stadium.
Men’s soccer, totally discombobulated, capitulates early to No. 5 Pittsburgh
By Michael Liebermann | 17 hours agoPittsburgh set a program record for the quickest cluster of three goals.
