Thank You – Thoughts On Duke Football

Thank You

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Chris Bond @ACCMidnightink –

Thank you, Coach David Cutcliffe.

In 2008, you walked into a program that save for one predecessor, had taken up residence in the ACC cellar for forty years. Since 1965 there was a grand total of four winning seasons and one conference title, under your predecessor and former SEC rival Steve Spurrier. 

You had coached in the SEC as a mentor to Peyton and Eli Manning. There was the opportunity to operate in the best facilities college football had to offer. You took an ACC bottom feeder position with a locker room that didn’t even have air conditioning. Whether it was for the challenge or the opportunity to make something with your complete ownership. What matters is you have forever changed Duke football in ways none of your predecessors including Spurrier never did.

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You’ve raised the floor of a program that languished in the shadow of its basketball counterpart. While Coach K racked up ACC and national titles, the football program suffered. That included back to back winless season in which only four of those losses were by less than one score. You also had a winless season in in 1996. This was as far down in the Power 5 one could reach. At best, you were seen as someone who liked a challenge, at worst a madman to sign up for the impossible. 

Your tenure has proven both. You may or may not be mad but you have certainly achieved what was deemed as one writer put it, “like climbing Mount Everest in your underwear.”

Thank You

Since you arrived in 2008 you provided a truth of concept. In your first season the team was 4-8. Certainly nothing to brag about in other places but your immediate predecessor Ted Roof needed four seasons to win six games. Donations started coming in. Facilities were modernized including the first thing you insisted on, air conditioning for the locker room. It’s hard to recruit when you can’t even breathe in your locker room. Your next season you got to 5-7. While your next two seasons you were 3-9 each you were working with a patient lot, 3 wins was still a lot for the Blue Devil crowd. 

Money continued to come in. Conference revenues helped upgrade a weight room and training facility that had not seen upgrades since the Kennedy administration. Then, your magic really started happening in 2013.

Duke’s 2013 season was a break-out year, as the Blue Devils have continued to cross off many of their infamous losing streaks, Duke achieved its first win over a ranked team since 1994 with a 13–10 victory over No. 14 Virginia Tech. That win over Virginia Tech was also Duke’s first road win over a ranked team since 1971. The Blue Devils achieved their first winning season since 1994 with a 38–20 home victory over in-state rival NC State. Duke even appeared in the AP Poll for the first time since 1994, listed at No. 25 with a record of 8–2. With a 27–25 win over North Carolina on November 30, 2013, Duke locked up their first 10-win season in school history, the Coastal Division title, and a spot in the 2013 ACC Championship. Duke’s newly minted football fans couldn’t say, thank you enough.

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That matchup against Florida State, during which time Duke was ranked No. 20 may have resulted in a loss to the Seminoles, the eventual national champions but it garnered respect for your efforts. You received the Walter Camp Coach of the Year award in 2013.

In 2014 you went 8-5. Even more importantly a 100 million dollar project to upgrade Wallace Stadium had begun. This is your real legacy coach. You have raised the standard and facilities alike and are leaving behind a culture of expectation and continuing possibilities. You brought Duke football back on the map. You’ve done your good work, brought hope where there was none before. 

So, before you hang up your whistle, close your playbook, give your last players the same valuable lessons you preached to all the others that came before them, take one last long look back at the house you’ve built. You did this. And we say, thank you. Your humble nature won’t allow you to give credit to yourself but we will. The next boss of Duke football has big shoes to fill, but will be walking on a much higher floor than the one you found. By raising the floor of your program you’ve made the conference better too.

Thank You