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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 20, 2017

David Cutcliffe

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: It's so unusual to be playing this game early. I think it's going to add a little life to it, to be honest with you. Both teams are somewhat fresh, but focused. The big part of our season is out in front of us, but doesn't make this game any less important to both sides.

It's a great rivalry. I have great respect for Coach Fedora, his staff, the job they do in all three phases. They make you play a complete game to be able to compete with them.

With that said, I'll take questions.

Q. Obviously a big storyline is the fact that UNC's QB committed to Duke, then decommitted, committed to UNC. What do you remember about that episode?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: It's like recruiting is this day and time. There are so many early commitments. He had made a decision. Scottie Montgomery was recruiting him for us. He's a great young man. Sometimes you can just tell it doesn't sit completely well with young people. That's going to happen from time to time.

Wasn't all that surprising. Certainly I think trying to get it right is a part of it. In football, we all know more and more it's gotten earlier and earlier, so you're going to see that from time to time. He obviously made a decision that he's very happy with, ended up where he wanted to be.

Q. It's hard to nitpick a 3-0 start. Through your coaching eyes, do you see some things you'd like to get cleaned up after the first three games?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Absolutely. Our consistency offensively hasn't been exactly what we want it to be. Thought the first game was a unique game and a different game. But we haven't been as consistent as you would like to be.

We've done some things well. Not overly criticizing. We've competed at a high level. If you're going to win football games, there's so much of that that has to be corrected, whether it's a dropped pass or a missed read, blocking not as crisp as it needs to be.

Defensively we gave up some huge, explosives in our pass game to Baylor. We're playing a team that can execute explosive plays about as well as anybody in the country year in, year out. We got to address that.

Then our kicking game still is not where we want it to be in every phase, every aspect of it. It's been really good at times, and at times we haven't been near what we expect as far as our level of play.

It's good to win and learn. You better learn when you lose, but it's been important that we won't keep winning if we don't learn quickly.

Q. There was a lot of pre-season talk about Carolina, the number of players they lost on offense, particularly in their receiving corps. So far this season, in games they lost, they put up 65 points, then 53 last week. What are you seeing from them offensively? They don't appear to have missed many beats.
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, there's a couple of things. I've known Coach Fedora a long time. I don't know that anybody does it better offensively. Systematically they're as good in scheme and execution as you can get. Your front has a whole lot to do with a lot of it. They're very gifted there, experienced in the right places. It's a good program. They're going to recruit speed. They're going to recruit talent.

Prowell is obviously the veteran of the receiving corps. They have skill, talent, speed, always going to have big tight ends. Good players. In all honesty, they have really good football players. They have a good system.

Q. What have you been most satisfied with with your defense at this point in the season?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I just think they're competing every down. They've really done a good job of trying to make it hard for an offense to be successful. I think the best defenses I've ever coached against as an assistant coach were ones that it felt like they were making it hard every snap. So we are competing together. They're playing well together.

As I mentioned a minute ago, we've given up some explosive plays, but not because we're not competing at a high level. We know we're going to be playing better and better teams, so we'll be tested. I love that edge. We're faster than we've been and we're more physical than we've been up front.

Q. This week the ACC is partnering with the College Football Playoff Foundation in its Extra Yard for Teachers Week Initiative. Could you talk about the impact possibly a teacher had on you or on your education and the importance of education.
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Absolutely. Well, the first teacher that had a great influence on me and still does is my wife. I married a first-grade teacher. Our whole family, I've got a son that's a math teacher/coach, I have a daughter that's a first grade teacher. I remember all of my teachers very well through school.

We all are parts of institutions. The first two that we are is family, and the next one is our school institution, whatever it may be. It's the most critical part of growth outside the home. So we need to do everything in our power to support teachers and everything in our power to grow great teachers.

I'm an education major myself. So I do feel very strongly about it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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