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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 6, 2017

David Cutcliffe

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think the best thing coming out of our first game was that we came out relatively injury-free. It's the first test we've had to work a game week, and we're playing an outstanding Northwestern team. A team that we're familiar with with a lot of the same players that we've had to deal with, really, over the last two years. So an outstanding team. We'll have to be up for a big challenge. With that, I'll take your questions.

Q. What challenges does Jackson as a rusher pose for your run defense this week?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, he's been a 1,000-yard rusher every year for a reason. He's got great vision, strength, short space quickness and speed. He's what you want in a running back, a fierce competitor. When he has the ball, I think one of the things I've watched him obviously throughout his career. But one of the things you see is that he competes with the ball under his arm like you just don't see it very often. So he has been a nemesis to us and to a lot of other people. So we're going to have to tackle really well to have a shot at slowing him down.

Q. How curious are you still to learn about your team now that you go from North Carolina Central to take on Northwestern?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I think as I said, it's not only an elevation of playing now an FBS team and a really good one, Big Ten team. But it's also having to prepare yourself in one week as opposed to throughout camp trying to get yourself ready.

So across the board, we'll learn more about our team in the second game than we did in the first game to be honest with you.

Q. What is the evaluation like when you look at the tape knowing that the opponent wasn't quite at the same level as Northwestern will be this weekend in terms of the takeaways that you get from the performance?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think as you look at that and you have a game where you're clearly physically better, you have to look at alignment, assignment, how many unforced errors were committed by your team that are going to show up when you play a stronger opponent. We did that very well. That was probably the thing that most pleased me was that we did not look like a first game.

We didn't have errors from the kicking game from an assignment standpoint. We didn't have it defensively and we didn't have it offensively. I hope that's a trend for 2017. That wasn't the case with us early last year.

Q. Were you expecting a clean game based on the way you guys had practiced and prepared?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I really did. I thought our two scrimmages, and we put a lot of pressure on our team, which rightfully so we needed to. But I thought our two scrimmages were probably the cleanest we've had in that regard since we've been here. We challenged ourselves as coaches and our players challenged each other, and that's how Duke has to play to win, and hopefully that becomes a trend for us.

Q. If I could ask a follow-up to that. Coaches talk all the time about wanting to play a clean game and keeping the penalties and turnovers down. But how do you drill that in practice to make sure it translates to a game. How do you get it to a point where it is clean in practice? Some years it is, and some years it isn't.
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Absolutely. That's a lot of answers to that question. But the simple one is your habits on the practice field, don't practice a mistake. As a coach, don't coach something that has continued to be a mistake. So, it's not always -- it's about what kind of teacher you are. It's not always screaming and hollering. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about when you hit the practice field, you're focused, your attention to detail is real, not just lip service. Then you have to be a mature person to do that.

I thought I did a poor job of that a year ago. I take all of that on myself. I mean that, I'm not being honorable. And we've worked hard at correcting; that. So hopefully it does pay off. Habits are going to show up in our lives. Well they certainly will as a football team. If you're making mistakes at practice, those same things are going to show up come game day.

Q. I know sometimes you get to your competition, the level of performance on the line of scrimmage is among the harder things to evaluate. But when you look at how your defensive line has progressed throughout the off-season and what you saw from them in game one, what do you like out of that group and how do you think that that will translate against a better level of competition here at Northwestern?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: We're better. We're more explosive, and I know that from practice. So I didn't have to just look at the first game. There is no doubt in my mind we'll be better and we can continue. We have some youth that's going to grow. Mike Ramsey's our leader, but we have a lot of youth mixed in there. So the thing we have to do is how do we handle the adversity that the Northwestern line, particularly the center and two guards are physical, athletic and experienced. They're going to present adversity.

That is one of the things that people, as you move up the ladder in competition, it's not always the best athlete that wins. It's the one that can compete at the highest level. So that's what we don't know just yet.

While our young people continue to compete, when you're getting whipped three or four plays in a row, that doesn't mean the day's over. So I'm anxious to see how we handle that.

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