Tag Archives: Coach Cutcliffe

Duke Football

Tough defense drops Vanderbilt 10 – 7

[private]Chris Rwabukamba intercepted a Mackenzie Adams pass at the one yard line with 46 seconds left in the game to thwart a Vanderbilt comeback attempt and preserve a 10 - 7 Duke victory. With the road victory, the Blue Devils improve to 4 - 3 on the year and end a six game losing streak against the Commodores. For Coach David Cutcliffe, it is his first road victory since taking over the helm at Duke.

Duke was unable to capitalize on Vanderbilt mistakes throughout the game. Michael Tauiliili intercepted Adams on Vanderbilt's third play from scrimmage but Duke fumbled the snap on a field goal attempt and came away with zero points. Just before halftime, Duke blocked a Vanderbilt punt and took possession on the Commodores 13 yard line. A fumbled snap and penalty on the offense were followed by a missed 43 field goal attempt. In the third quarter, Vanderbilt fumbled a punt resulting in Duke starting off from the Vanderbilt 15 yard line. Duke failed to move the ball as Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis was sacked but this time Nick Maggio converted the field goal and Duke expanded their lead to 10 - 0.

Duke's defense shutdown Vanderbilt's offense for most of the game with the Commodores only points coming on a 79 yard pass from Adams to wide receiver Sean Walker. For the game, Duke held Vanderbilt to 291 total yards and held the Commodores to 81 rushing yards. Duke was able to consistently pressure Quarterback Adams sacking him four times to compliment the two interceptions.

On offense, Duke achieved success with the short pass play. Thaddeus Lewis was 21 - 36 for 222 yards and a touchdown. Four Blue Devils caught multiple passes: Eron Riley caught nine passes for 83 yards, Johnny Williams caught four for 39 yards, Tony Jackson caught three for 74 yards and a touchdown, and Donovan Varner caught two for 12 yards. Duke struggled to run the ball and was held to 28 yards on the ground. Thaddeus Lewis was sacked five times for 37 yards with the yards being counted against the running game.

This was a big win for the Duke football team. With five games remaining the Blue Devils need at least two more wins and possibly three wins in order to secure a bid to a post season bowl game. If Duke is going to win those two or three more games this season, they must continue to improve week-to-week. The red zone offense is one area where Duke struggled today and Coach Cutcliffe will certainly address that issue in practice this week.

Next up for the Blue Devils is a trip to Winston-Salem to face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (4-3). Duke has not won a conference game on the road since beating North Carolina 30 -22 on November 22, 2003. Duke has already broken a couple of streaks this season and they will be looking to end the road conference game losing streak against Wake Forest next Saturday.[/private]

Duke Football

Cutcliffe’s weekly teleconference

[private]Opening statement -

I apologize for being a little late, but recruiting comes first and we've been recruiting.  It's amazing to look at the tape and see how many good things we did but we are not pleased with the plays made against us.  There were some good lessons learned, but give Miami the credit.  We had some opportunities in the game, but we didn't step up at critical times and the game got away from us.

On his feelings after the Miami game-

I'm still angry.  I just told out team that I just did not sense any energy in our team.  I watched the tape and we played hard, but we did not have the energy or the look in your eye that we were going to win the game in the fourth quarter when we were down 11.  That's unacceptable.  There's a difference in playing hard and competing to win and I didn't think we competing to win.

On Vanderbilt -

I've seen Vanderbilt on TV, but very little of them on tape thus far.  We will do a little work against Vanderbilt this evening.  I know a little bit about their team playing them the last two years.  I know the staff ... they're an exceptional football team and they do a tremendous job and it will challenge us to go over there and stay in the game.

More on Miami and his displeasure -

I just think you've got the believe you can win and I don't think we thought we could win.  You can only accomplish what you think you can accomplish.  You have to fight through the adversity.  My confidence has wavered at times in my career, but you earn it back.  I just sensed we were not going to win.  I sensed it and you could have gone in and turned the light off.  I looked around, the stadium was empty with fifteen minutes to go.  It's a situation we have to break.  I believed we could, that was until I walked around looked and it was not just guys playing in the game.  All of our back up guys ... there was no hunger in their eyes, no attack in their eyes.  I saw the hunger in earlier games, but you've got to do it when it's hard.  I know that Rome wasn't built in a day, I'm not mad at them but you have to earn it.  None of these guys - what I thought about last night was that I didn't have any of these guys that have done it before.  They haven't done it, they haven't lived it.

On the 77 yard punt with a 5 yard penalty which switched field position -

That was a howitzer.  I don't think anyone could have caught that ball.  I've never seen one get caught in the wind like that one did.  It flipped the field position on us.  We then had a bad series, which is easy to do when you get backed up deep in your territory.

More on Miami and their freshman quarterback -

They were bigger than us and faster than us.  You can't back off of them and just let them make the plays.  They just made the plays.  Every time the QB ran he made the play.  I was surprised he ran the ball as well as he did.  Once he got out of the pocket guys didn't know whether to leave go to the ball or stay on their man.

Riley struggled on Saturday.  How do you as a coach get other kids to step up and make plays?

Well, you just keep going at it and practiced.  Again, I hate to keep using that word, but they have to "earn" their confidence level and then they have to learn our (staffs) confidence.  Eron is not going to drop balls like that all the time - he hadn't been doing so in practice.  You are going to ride your horses pretty good ... I had actually talked to our seniors about them making big plays until our young guys can get into that mode.  We haven't had a chance to talk (since Miami game) on both sides of the ball on how we are going to have to make some big plays.

On the rushing attack having more success and game calls -

Well, I've told y'all on many occasions that we were going to work on that in the off week and challenge our kids.  It's still a work in progress.  At the end you could see how explosive their athletes were.  I let the time run off the clock late in the first half was to consider keeping the ball.  I know we needed the points with a field goal, but we thought about trying to run the ball off the clock.  Had we gone for it and been successful, we would have gone in up 14-7, 17-7 or 21-7.  I really wanted that clock to run down, but they just ripped down the field in less than two minutes to score.  (making it 17-14 at the half)

Alright folks, thank you very much and I apologize for being late, but obviously, we've got a lot of recruiting to do.[/private]

Duke Football

Cutcliffe talks of the upcoming Miami game

[private]Duke Coach David Cutcliffe spoke to the media during his weekly teleconference Sunday evening.  The Blue Devil Nation was on hand to bring you his thoughts on the upcoming game with Miami.

Opening statement -

Coming off an open date I'm still not sure what our health is going to be like just yet.  It's unfortunate with just five games to this point.  Our first business is Miami and the second is getting our guys ready to play seven games in a row.  Miami is playing a lot of young and very talented players.  IMO, they are the most athletic team we'll see.  It's a huge challenge for us.  It seems like forever since we played and we are looking forward to the ballgame.

On the Miami defense holding Central Florida to 4 yards rushing and 74 total yards -

I have looked at that game and all the others.  It's not a fluke - they're that good.  They play a lot of people, they are extremely good up front, the linebackers and the secondary.  They actually took Central Florida and made their offense look inept. 

On practices in the off week -

Our practices have been good.  We're coming off a bitter defeat.  Our attitude has been good.  We're hungry and we had some enthusiasm and got better.  Again, we have some people that were out.  I won't get into the specifics of that until Thursday and we will then evaluate where we are with our team.  We wanted to see why we weren't a very productive offense.  We made some tweaks in the running game.  Of course, I'm not sure if anybody can run the ball against Miami. I think we are better than we are.  We practiced running the football and becoming more physical.  I think you have to be a physical football team at this stage in the game and we worked hard at that.  We had a lot of live work which is high risk for us with no more depth than we've got, but we hopefully got better.

On Duke playing three consecutive games on ESPNU -

I think it's been good for us.  There has been a lot of people talking about Duke Football.  We have brought attention to game day.  I've had a number of letters and e-mails from people around the country who are seeing Duke Football for the first time - lot of comments from Coaches around the country have been saying we saw you do this and we saw you do that.  So, it's been good for our program.

On the support for Duke Football -

I think people will be here.  I think there will be a good crowd here and I think there are a lot of people excited about football here at Duke again.  We will have a good football program.

A little bit and that's one thing I'm conscious of.  I will have a light workout on Monday and on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we'll get into game speed.  We should be ready, rested and focused coming off the off week.[/private]

Duke Football

Coach Cucliffe Sunday Media Teleconference

[private]Opening statement -

Execution lacked greatly on offense after a decent start.  We just were not able to execute.  It's something I haven't seen in practice this week, so it concerns me.  Something is not correlating and we have to address it quickly.  Defensively we played really well early.  They took the ball down the field some early, but they are going to do that until you get use to the option.   I wish we could get more aggressive offensively and find that flow again.  We'll go to work on it during the open date and try to heal some people.  We have some bumps and bruises, but nobody is out other than Boyette and Lind on the injury chart.

On getting back to execution -

I'm not pleased with any aspect of the crispness of the execution of play.  It wasn't the scheme, it's not what we are choosing, it's just missing here and there.  All it takes is a person missing a block or a throw, not running a route.  It hasn't shown up in practice.  I have to make sure that we are not leaving it on the practice.  So we will start from the ground up and go into every detail with what is happening.  We will do a great evaluation of our players as well as techniques.

Could the loss be a lapse in the teams psych  or getting back to old habits -

It's hard to measure or evaluate whether a team is going back to a frame of mind or a negative reaction to when it gets hard.  The only thing I have ever been able to measure well was the performance in practice and the attitudes there.  Football is a funny thing!  Virginia turned around and beat Maryland 31-0.  Florida State and Miami scored a lot of points.  Both have tremendous defenses and they play a 41-39 game and nobody could have predicted the results of those two games. 

Do you have an answer or tried and true method to rectify some of the mistakes on offense -

If we can just run the ball a little better we can run play action and pass and get the ball down field, but we have been absolutely anemic running the football.  We can go back to our inside drill and you can always just turn the heat up a little bit.  We will do some of that, but can't do tons of it because we can't afford to beat up our team.  We don't have a lot of numbers available so it's kind of an old catch 22.  We're going to find a way to get people running the ball better.

The players reactions since being back -

They'll regroup.  They will be motivated and ready to go back to practice.  I don't think they're frustrated at all.  We just got whipped.  If you go into the arena enough times it happens.  I don't know if I remember one quite as bas as that one, but it does happen.  You use it as a way to challenge yourself.  I hope the team is looking forward to that challenge.  I think they are.

On the off week -

We worked today lifting and running to get through some of the soreness and to get the taste out of your mouth.  They will have tomorrow off and focus on academics.  We will practice Tuesday through Thursday.  I'm going to give them Friday through Sunday off.  I want us to get away from it a bit.  We'll come back Tuesday and have a great deal of work on game week.

On the team so far this year -

I think we've done some really good things.  They have been excited about playing.  Since I have been with them their work habits have improved 200%.  Our freshman and redshirt freshman know other way than how we work and that will grow.  I have seen great progress in so many areas, but we have got so anemic offensively of late you might not see it.  It goes back to eleven people and how they execute.  It's not that difficult to win if you make the play.  We haven't mastered that yet as a team.  That's one of the biggest jobs you have in football is getting a team to perform.

On what he had hoped would be better -

Running the football which is obvious to everybody.  I would like to have been further along there.  Our passing game is good at times, but certainly Saturday wasn't.  If you had asked me if we would be where we are today in January, I would have had a hard time believing we could be 3-2 at this juncture.   It's a credit to how hard they worked.

Has the running game been good in practice -

It's hard to do mid season.  We are running against the scout teams and those kids aren't Georgia Tech's Michael Johnson.  It's hard to simulate that.  People have been driving their blocks, moving their feet - that's been good.  I've got to watch and look at everything.  We are at a point where I have to assess if we are leaving it on the practice field because we are so intense in our practices.  We'll get it and we've got a week to figure it out.  So, it hasn't shown up broken until we were in a ball game.  It's got to be fixed and get fixed quick.  We will not make decisions by indecision.  We will make decisions in order to get better quickly.  We'll crank this thing up and go try to make it work.  I do like the challenge when people say, you are not going to get it done.  I'm a big believer in practicing hard, fast and with precision.  I'm a driver.  Now we have to look at if they can handle that.  That's where I am a little bit right now.[/private]

Duke Football

Georgia Tech preview

[private]Duke heads to Atlanta this weekend for the first road game of the Coach Cutcliffe era. The 3-1 Blue Devils will face a solid 3-1 Georgia Tech team. The Yellow Jackets are coming off a bye week after defeating Mississippi State 38-7 on September 20th. Georgia Tech's 306.8 yards per game on the ground leads the ACC. Coach Paul Johnson is considered the best coach around for the triple option spread offense. Duke's defense must contain the Georgia Tech ground attack for the Blue Devils to have a chance to win.

Coach Paul Johnson has announced that freshman Jaybo Shaw will be the Yellow Jacket's starting Quarterback against Duke due to regular starter Josh Nesbitt being sidelined with a hamstring injury. Nesbitt was injured in the game against Mississippi State resulting in Shaw playing the majority of the game. In this article, from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Johnson states, "If Josh can come back now, he'll be in a reserve [role], and Jaybo will be starting."

In this Durham Herald Sun article, Coach Cutcliffe states, "This is certainly the best team we've played, far and away. We've got to play great in all areas - and I mean great - to have a chance to stay on the field." Duke previously defeated Navy so they are experienced defending the triple option offense. Linebackers Michael Tauiliili and Vincent Rey are currently ranked first and second respectively in the ACC for tackles. They will need to have strong games against the Yellow Jackets.

This News & Observer article addresses the particular concern of Georgia Tech's big play potential. The Yellow Jackets have had 27 plays go for more than 20 yards with nine producing touchdowns. The Yellow Jackets also go for it on fourth down more often than most teams.

On offense, Duke is fueled by Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis and his favorite receiver Eron Riley. Lewis is second in the ACC with 218.5 passing yards per game. He has thrown seven touchdown passes with six of them going to Eron Riley. Lewis likes to spread the ball around and freshman Johnny Williams has 18 receptions on the season; sophomores Austin Kelly and Sheldon Bell have 10 each. Duke's offensive line must provide protection so Lewis has time to pass the ball. Georgia Tech is second in the ACC with 11 sacks.

Duke must establish their running game for a couple of big reasons.  First, forcing Gerogia Tech to respect the run will prevent the Yellow Jacket defense from going after Thad Lewis with a big pass rush every play.  Second, Duke needs to maintain possession of the ball in order to keep their defense fresh and able to deal with Georgia Tech's high powered running game.  Freshman Jay Hollingsworth came on strong in the Virginia game rushing for 59 yards on 15 carries.  A similar effort against the Yellow Jackets will be needed in order for the Duke offense to achieve success.

This game will turn on the normal events: controlling the line of scrimmage, turnovers, and big plays. If Duke can survive the first quarter without getting knocked out, the Blue Devils have a chance to still be in the game at the start of the fourth quarter. And if the game is still undecided at the start of the fourth quarter, anything can happen. Duke must start fast, especially on defense, take care of the ball on offense, and create more big plays than they give up to win.[/private]

Duke Football

2009 Verbal Lex Butler talks rehab and Duke Football

[private]Duke recruit Lex Butler suffered a season ending injury before he played in a single game.   The two way star is the brother of Duke freshman Lee Butler and is rated a three star prospect.

"I went to take off on a play and then I pushed off and it popped.  I just felt like something hit me in the heel."  Those are the dreaded words that doctors hear when you have ruptured your Achilles tendon.

"I just sat there for a second because I didn't know what was going on.  I tried to get up and shake it off a little bit and it was like a tingling feeling.  I tried to walk and I couldn't and then I tried to work on what I could wiggling my toes.  My trainer did the calf muscle test and I didn't have any contraction and they knew something was wrong."

Trust me when I say I can relate to young Lex for this author is nine months past the same devastating injury and I am finally getting back to normal.  I know how this injury affected me mentally, so I certainly feel for Butler, who was expected to be the star for Westside HS in Anderson, South Carolina this season.

Young Lex was a bit smarter than me and immediately had surgery.  I encouraged the future Blue Devil to keep his head up for if a middle age guy could bounce back, he certainly would.  I shared tips like putting a chair in the shower and wrapping the cast with a trash bag.  This is just one of the many adjustments one has to make.

Butler is already back to working his upper body with the assistance of his high school trainer and strength coaches.  He is also keeping his sense of humor quipping, "Heck, I thought somebody threw a bowling ball and hit me,"

Lex seemed to appreciate talking to somebody who had the same injury and I told him the magic words, "Don't rush it."  I have heard those words from former Duke Basketball player Roshown McLeod and many others and this injury is a race but one has to look at it as a marathon and not a sprint.

There is no doubt that Butler will be back.  His youth is a benefit in the recovery process for he just turned 17 a week after he went down.  "My doctor says I should be 100% in nine months, so that will be around June," said Butler.

"My Daddy told me like it was, that I wouldn't play high school football this season and that he recommended surgery right away.  I was tough because the whole time I was thinking six to eight weeks."

Butler was worried that Duke might yank his scholarship.  "I knew I had to call Duke and let them know, but my Daddy was kind of shaky about it.  I was telling my Mom if things don't work out I have got plan B and that made her worry a little bit.  She called them for me and told me to call Coach Jones.  I called him and he was like don't worry about it that things happen and just to get healed up."

The young man was even more relieved when Coach Cutcliffe got on the phone.  "He said don't worry about it and that they would take care of me.  He said when I got up there he would make sure I got the right rehab.  I felt a lot better after that and it gave me something to look forward to."

One has to like how Coach Cutcliffe stayed faithful and how the staff let him know that he is a part of the Duke family and that they take care of their own.

"Lee told me he loves it up there.  He said he had put on weight and was up to 180 and I just said, yeah right to him.  He said they were taking care of him feeding him steak and everything."

The two brothers stay in touch and Lee gives his younger brother some tips on what to expect.  "He says practices are real tough."  He was able to go to the home opener against James Madison.  "When I went into the locker room I saw how big the defensive playbook was for one game and Lee said it's all business when you get here."

I'm sure the entire Blue Devil Nation joins me in wishing Lex a speedy recovery and we look forward to one day seeing him competing for a spot in the defensive backfield.[/private]