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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 2, 2016

David Cutcliffe

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, first, I'm extremely impressed with Virginia Tech. I had seen them earlier in the it year on tape and I've seen them on television and certainly studying this week. Tremendous job of coaching by Coach Fuente and the entire staff. Very difficult team to defend offensively, and we all know how difficult it is to move the football against a Bud Foster, very talented-coached defense.

I'm pleased that our team has gone -- we've had some difficult losses and some tough things to deal with, but I'm very pleased our team has gone back to work hard, and we'll go compete and see what happens from there.

I'll take questions.

Q. I know that you guys have had to deal with injuries for the last several years to some of your key players, but probably it's been a few years since you've had to deal with the adversity of not winning as much as you had hoped. Is there anything different that you have to do with the players to prepare them for games every week in terms of a mindset?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: You know, we've got young people that don't know anything at Duke but winning, most of our team, because we've won so much, so it's different, no question. But I talked with them about it a little bit this morning post-practice, and we're so close, but that doesn't matter. There's a reason you're close and you're not winning.

There's injuries, there's a lot of things that we've dealt with. We've got more depth than we've had. We've got some good quality people out there playing. It's my job to get us over that hump, and that hump doesn't come easy. There are edges everywhere in this business that you have to have, how you take care of yourselves, how you study tape, how the chemistry of our team works together, all of it. There's nothing wrong here, but it's got to be better to finish games in the fourth quarter, so you just keep trying to push, which I am blown away how willing this team is to work.

It also has gotten better every week. We're playing good football teams, and when you do that, if you don't play your best, sometimes you're going to be on the short end of it.

We're not going to back off the fight. You know that, and now it's just a matter of finding that magic to get past that fourth quarter and win games when it counts.

Q. I was looking at the ACC stats this morning, and I see something very odd to me. You guys have the least amount of kickoff touchbacks in the league. You've only kicked it in the end zone four times, and yet you have the best net average position in the league. Are those two things related? Are you doing that on purpose, not kicking it in the end zone?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Not necessarily, no. We always hunt hang time, and we love to cover kickoffs for a lot of reasons. We try to celebrate that. Number one, when you're doing it, you're either starting a half or you scored, so those are great things. I'm very impressed with our guys. They're committed to it. We cover it well.

But we just haven't got -- haven't had the last few years that monster leg. We're looking every week at people -- we love to return kickoffs for the opposite reasons. We think it's a huge play in the game.

What's kind of frustrating is not getting any opportunities. I'd like to have the ability to do both, but right now we don't, so we're hunting hang time and great coverage just because that's who we are.

Q. And can you talk about your return game with obviously losing one of the great kick returners in modern times? How has it been, do you think, since DeVon's injury?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, we haven't had as many opportunities, and we all know that Shaun Wilson is extremely talented, as well, but I think there's an edge to the unit when you know DeVon Edwards is back there. DeVon is as good as there ever has played the game in my opinion at returning kickoffs. Again, taking nothing away from Shaun, there's just a little edge that has to exist to be great in that world.

We worked at it hard today, although I don't know if we'll get any chances against Virginia Tech, because they are incredible in the touchback percentage, as good as I've ever seen.

Q. Yeah, they lead the ACC in touchbacks?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Yeah, and they usually kick it out of the end zone. We won't have to bother catching it, believe me.

Q. Can you talk about what DeVon Edwards has meant to your program and his overall abilities, his ability both on the field and in the classroom?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I would love to. He's a great young man, a great leader, an incredible student. He's a graduate student here at Duke, with almost a 4.0. He was a 4.0 young man coming out of high school, and on just a quick note, here's a guy in high school who was so popular because he's such a great youngster, but he is so conscientious, he would keep a stopwatch, so when the bell would ring to end one class in high school, because he knew he'd get stopped in the haul, he would start his stopwatch, because he thought it disrespected a teacher if he wasn't in his seat already when the bell rang for the next class. And that's DeVon Edwards' career here.

He's a great defensive player. He is a great kick returner. He's one of two players in the history of the NCAA to have back-to-back plays for pick sixes. That's not an accident. He's also right now still one of our greatest leaders.

Our Sunday meeting after a difficult loss, DeVon Edwards was the star, and he just brings everything he's got to being a college football player, so he has -- his leadership, his play, and his example, how he lives his life has been huge for Duke football.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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