Posts Tagged ‘david cutcliffe’

The ACC announced Tuesday it had awarded Duke's David Cutcliffe as the ACC Coach of the Year. Was there really other choice? Cutcliffe won the award going away, receiving 25 votes. Clemson's Dabo Swinney came in second with seven. Jimbo Fisher received five votes, Larry Fedora and Al Golden got four and the recently dismissed Tom O'Brien was the recipient of one vote.

“This honor is both humbling and rewarding because of the quality of the coaches in our conference,” Cutcliffe said in a prepared statement.

Cutcliffe led the Blue Devils to a 6-6 season, helping the Duke reach a bowl game for the first time since its current students were in diapers. Included among Duke's six wins were a 33-30 triumph over North Carolina, the Blue Devils' first win over its instate rival since 2003. Cutcliffe also kept his team in the race for the ACC championship into late November.

Cutcliffe is known for his work with quarterbacks (do Peyton and Eli Manning ring a bell?) and his work with Sean Renfree was evident, helping the senior rank among the ACC's top passers by connecting on 260-of-392 passes (66.3 percent) for 2,755 yards with 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions. 

David Cutcliffe recently signed an extension to keep him at Duke through 2019. More time at Duke means that Cutcliffe and his staff will be able to build on the progress that they made through the early part of 2012 (and their 6-2 start), before dropping their last four games in a row.

Cutcliffe and his staff have started an impressive turnaround by creating an environment of accountability within the program. Now in his fifth season with the Blue Devils, the coaching staff seems to have successfully created a mindset where they expect to win each week. That's quite the accomplishment for a program that has won 6 or more games just five times since 1980.

“It’s gotta’ be important to you. That’s the accountability we have to each other – how important is it to win,” Cutcliffe told Examiner.com. "No offense, but you didn’t come to Duke just to get a quality degree. You’re here because you’re expected to win.”

While Cutcliffe is proud of earning their way to a bowl, and the progress that they've made since he first arrived on campus, the last thing that he wants his guys feeling is a sense of complacency.

“If you comfort the afflicted, then you afflict the comfortable. We don’t need to be very comfortable, that’s just a fact...that’s where we are.”

The key to getting win number 7 for Cut and his guys will be finding a way to make unfamiliar territory seem familiar, and maintaining their focus through a long bowl prep period, as this will be the first bowl game for the Blue Devils since 1994.

“We’re right there. It’s like being at the top of a wall and you’ve got both hands on and your fingers got a firm grip on it - but if you don’t have anything really left in you - you’re not going to climb over it.” Cutcliffe explained.

Duke announced last months a $3.25 billion campaign for improvements across the university, with $250 million earmarked for athletic facility improvements. On Wednesday, head coach David Cutcliffe detailed to the Raleigh Sports Club what the improvements will entail for Wallace Wade Stadium. 

“We’ll do what Stanford did, and as soon as we finish the last ball game (in 2013), construction will start,” Cutcliffe told the Raleigh-Durham News & Observer. “It will require a day and night operation to get it up and running.”

In the off-season between the 2013-14 seasons, Duke will remove the track surrounding the field, lower the playing surface and update the stadium's facade to match the rest of campus. 

Originally opened in 1929, Duke Stadium was renamed in honor of College Football Hall of Fame coach Wallace Wade in 1968. Originally opened with a 35,000-seat capacity, the stadium grew to 44,000 in 1942 but has been downsized twice since, most recently to 33,941 in 1982. 

When David Cutcliffe left the Duke campus after interviewing for the head coaching job back in 2008, he had a pretty good feeling that he was going to get the job.

He even called his wife to let her know he was going to take the job, and his wife reminded him that they had not even offered him the job yet. But Cut knew an offer was coming.

While he was on campus visiting with administration, and touring the facilities, he strayed a little from the itinerary and requested to meet with Mike Krzyzewski, because as he recalls, “Why am I not going to come here and talk to the most successful coach in the country?”

Good point.

“We talked about Duke and how you win at Duke, how he went about his business when he first came. It was very interesting to me.” Cutcliffe explained in the News Observer.

Now, five years after that initial conversation, Cutcliffe has got Duke bowl eligible for the first time since 1994. The Blue Devils are currently sitting at 6-2 (3-1 in conference play), with games against Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Miami left on their schedule. 

Just a reminder, when you're on campus interviewing for a coaching job, don't be afraid to sit down with someone who has been successful at that place before, or is currently experiencing success. It's a great way to gain some valuable insight.

It's hard to believe we're sitting at the halfway point of the 2012 college football season. We could have sworn Labor Day was just a week or two ago. Regardless, 50 percent of the season is already in the books. Here's what we found noteworthy from Week 7 of the college football slate.

1. Move over Ohio, is New Hampshire the new Cradle of Coaches? Probably not, but this stat (courtesy of Bruce Feldman) is astounding: Coaches from the state of New Hampshire, Chip Kelly and Dan Mullen, currently sit at 12-0 so far this season. Not bad for a state with zero FBS programs and just one FBS signee in 2012. 

2. Speaking of the Buckeye State, Ohio stands as the top state in college football right now. Urban Meyer is 7-0 and ranked No. 7 in the AP poll in his first season at Ohio State. Butch Jones is 5-0 and ranked No. 21 at Cincinnati. Frank Solich has Ohio at 7-0 and No. 25 in the AP. In fact, the MAC East standings read Ohio, Kent State (5-1, 3-0), Bowling Green (4-3, 2-1) and Miami of Ohio (3-4, 2-1) while Toledo also sits atop the MAC West at 6-1 and 4-0 in the league. Ohio's seven FBS teams are a combined 38-14. Oh yeah, and Mount Union is also 5-0 and has allowed only seven points all season. 

3. Arkansas seems to have put the wheels back on the wagon. One week after handling Auburn 24-7, the Razorbacks again looked like the top 10 team many expected to see in a 49-7 dismantling of Kentucky. No coach in the country could use a two-game winning streak more than the embattled John L. Smith. Yes, the wins came against teams that are a combined 0-8 in the SEC. But when you are 1-4, a two-game winning streak is a two-game winning streak.

4. Duke missed its first chance at bowl eligibility. David Cutcliffe's team jumped out in front of Virginia Tech 20-0 only to see the Hokies reel off the game's final 41 points. Duke's next three opponents (North Carolina, Clemson and Florida State) are a combined 16-4 until a date with 2-4 Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Nov. 17.

#Duke's David Cutcliffe reiterates Tuesday statement that #Hokies' Frank Beamer is the top coach in the country

— Laura Keeley (@laurakeeley) October 10, 2012

5. Congrats to James Franklin and Vanderbilt for finally cracking the code to Florida's fourth quarter defense. After not allowing a point in any fourth quarter this season, Vanderbilt managed to register 10 points in the final frame on Saturday night. It wasn't enough to pull the upset as Will Muschamp's team improved to 6-0 with a 31-17 win. After being outscored 72-22 in fourth quarters last season, the Gators hold a 54-10 fourth quarter edge this season. Florida also claims come-from-behind wins over Texas A&M, Tennessee, LSU and Vanderbilt. Conditioning was clearly an emphasis of Muschamp in the off-season, and strength coach Jeff Dillman has definitely succeeded in transforming his team.

6. We're glad to see that Jerry Kill plans to coach again this Saturday. Kill suffered a seizure in his private locker room less than an hour after Minnesota's 21-13 loss to Northwestern on Saturday. Coach Kill was released from a Minneapolis hospital on Sunday morning.

7. Wisconsin has returned to form after a shaky start to the season. New offensive coordinator Matt Canada and interim offensive line coach Bart Miller have found their footing, and the Badgers' offense is back to its old ways. In a 38-14 win over Purdue, the Wisconsin offense rushed 57 times for 467 yards and four touchdowns. Starting tailback Montee Ball contributed 247 yards and three touchdowns on 29 rushes. After rushing for just 3.3 yards per carry over their first five games, Wisconsin is churning out 7.1 yards per attempt over its last two games. The Badgers are 5-2 and 2-1 in the Big Ten, a full two wins ahead of the pack of bowl-eligible teams in the Leaders Division.

8. Oregon will face an interesting challenge at Arizona State on Thursday night. In his first season in Tempe, Todd Graham has the Sun Devils sitting at 5-1 and ranked No. 24 in the Coaches Poll. Paul Randolph's defense is far and away the best unit in the Pac-12 on paper. Arizona State leads the league in total defense by nearly 60 yards per game over second place USC. The Sun Devils is giving up just 3.92 yards per play, nearly a full yard better than the rest of the conference. Randolph's unit also leads the conference in pass efficiency defense (4.86 yards per attempt), and its 3.23 yards per carry allowed is over a full yard better than Oregon's Pac-12 opposition to date. And then there's this: the last time Oregon traveled to the Grand Canyon State on a Thursday night was in 2007 when the No. 2 ranked Ducks lost to Arizona, 34-24. Chip Kelly and co. will hope history doesn't repeat itself this week. Scott and Zach from our staff will be at this game. More on this to come later in the week.

9. Notre Dame trailed for the first time this season on Saturday. The Fighting Irish actually trailed for a full quarter against Stanford after falling behind 10-3 at halftime; they didn't tie the game until a 24-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter. Brian Kelly's team trailed again 13-10 before scoring the game's final 10 points in a 20-13 overtime win. Bob Diaco's defense still has not (officially) surrendered an offensive touchdown in four full games. 

10. Midweek action begins this week in college football. Starting with Louisiana - Lafayette at North Texas tomorrow night, we will have Tuesday or Wednesday night football all but one week through Thanksgiving.