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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 26, 2017

David Cutcliffe

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: As Mike mentioned, we had an early spring, as we always do. Lot of reasons for doing that, but I was really pleased, particularly with one of the things we go early for is to keep it simple. To think about players, not plays. Obviously, we have a lot of improvement to make coming off a 4-8 season.

So we focused on getting our squad better at every position. We have some talent. We have some people that can run. We have a quarterback returning. Concerns, kicking game, which wasn't as good as it has been around here a year ago. Trying to make sure that both our offensive and defensive line take it up another level. So that's going to be our continued focus as we move into the 2017 season. So I'll take your questions.

Q. To speak on your returning quarterback Daniel Jones, just what you can say about him coming through the spring, and what he's been able to do. Just kind of his leadership moving forward with this offense going into the 2017 season?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I just had a conversation with him this morning brief. Just a conversation about continuing to assert himself. He is a humble, smart young man. He's got incredible tools. I thought his spring was great, not good. We've got to build on that.

All of the things that you want a guy to do, he can do. He's elusive. He can beat you with his feet. He's got a really, really good arm, and his accuracy is really special. So anxious to see in year two just what level he can reach.

Q. When you look at the weapons that he has offensively, just what you can say about what's at his disposal so to speak in coming out of the spring?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think this is overall the best receiving corps. We'll see if Jameis and Crowder are pretty special, and some others we've had. But without question, it's deeper. Our tight ends are weapons. I believe he's going to be surrounded by some high-level backs. We feel like that's probably one of the greater strengths of our team is our skill people on offense. And as I members of the juried, we've got to make sure that our offensive line responds and gives us the opportunity to use those people. We're excited about the depth and the quality of our skill people on offense.

Q. I think the vote on this new recruiting motto is today, and you talked about it some in February on signing day. What are some of your current concerns and thoughts on this new legislation?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think, and I don't have enough time on this conference call to give you all of my comments on early visits. I know what they're saying, they're saying that's what the student-athletes currently in college fed to them that they wanted. The law of unintended consequences is going to be brutal.

I think it's irresponsible, to be honest with you. We've got to respect springtime in high schools, whether it's spring sports, spring football, coaches, teachers in high school. We've got a situation where if you go April, May, June with official visits, right now, we don't have contacts with juniors and January or December of their junior year. It's going to force more that you're going to have to just walk away. How does that young man really decide?

It's going to take people, not just your players and your coaches but an official visit requires a lot of people. That's faculty, your staff, equipment room, weight room, trainers, academic support. I don't think anybody really understands the day-to-day operation. There are parts of this that may be good. There are parts of it that may be true. But it's just a little irresponsible. I would call it reckless to move forward.

There was nobody at the AFCA, and I think we got a little misrepresented there. There was nobody in favor of this in the assistant coaches ranks. Maybe one school talked a little bit about it, but not really in favor. I just don't think it's going to help us in any form or fashion. Also, unofficial visits have been around a long time. And what that does is make young people decide where they're really interested.

You open this up, where you're flying parents and young people in, it's going to be hard to tell where, if they take five trips, where are they really interested? So I don't have enough time. I don't want to dominate my time, because I have some limited time right now. I've got some other things I've got to do, but, yeah, I don't like it a bit, to be honest with you.

Q. Coach, you have one of the larger and more talented red shirt groups. Can you tell us about guys you saw in spring, Birmingham, Britt ton Brown, the offensive linemen?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Yeah, I was really pleased with our young people. Those skill guys on offense are going to have an impact. We have offensive linemen that are competing to play or start that are red shirt freshmen, which is awesome. We have some people on defense that are going to impact things. Some of them red-shirt freshmen. But some of them true sophomores that maybe didn't play as much as we would have liked, but they grew up in spring practice.

It's going to impact this team. I think we have some true freshmen coming in here that can impact this particular 2017 team. So I hope it's a team that blends as well as I think it can, and the biggest thing is I've got to do my job better than I did a year ago. And if I do my job well, this team will blend well. It's never easy, but we'll have a lot of reasons to win if I do my job well.

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