	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 11, 2017

David Cutcliffe

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think most people realize that Florida State is an outstanding football team, outstanding program regardless of record. We've got enough issues, we haven't played as well as we would like to play, and so it's a huge challenge and one that we have got to continue to prepare for all week long. With that, I'll take your questions.

Q. As you kind of look at your offense over the last couple weeks, what improvement are you looking to get from that unit this week?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, obviously almost everything we're doing, but certainly I would start with the passing game, which would include accuracy, catching the ball, pass protection. Sometimes it looks like just a quarterback is not throwing it as well as he has been. It's more than that. You know, it's a combination of every position on our offense, and when it's out of sync, you've got to change your approach, and we've done that this week, and hopefully we get results.

Q. Change your approach in what sense?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: How we practice, focus on what we're doing at practice. Everybody has practice schedules that you go through, this is kind of what you do on Tuesday, this is what we do on Wednesday. Every now and then you need to shake it up a little bit, and obviously we've hit that point. Taking a few different things, basically a different approach to how we go about things, and I've done it in the past, and when we've done that in the past, we've gotten results from it. That's what our expectations are.

Q. A little bit of off topic, but Kurt Roper, obviously you go way back with him, he's the offensive coordinator now here at South Carolina; what things stuck out to you about him in those early days when he was a GA at Tennessee, and then how do those traits carry on and how have you seen his career blossom to where it is now?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, Kurt is extremely intelligent, and it starts there. He had an incredible work ethic. He did get my attention as a young graduate assistant. I knew he was the kind of guy with attention to detail and the energy to be what I wanted as a quarterback coach when I took the job at Ole Miss, and we were able to work together the first three years or so there where he was able to -- a lot of it sitting in with me and working with me, and then from there, he just is -- he's got a natural ability to take charge, and he's a guy that you can trust as a coordinator that's going to -- he knows how to get an offense ready, and that's not just a quarterback. It's more than that. It's getting your offensive front ready and it's organization, and Kurt is an outstanding person that goes with it but just an outstanding football man.

Q. Obviously his track record with quarterbacks speaks for itself in terms of development, and obviously you oversaw some of those during your time with him. What does he do with quarterbacks, particularly young guys? South Carolina has got I think an 18 year old sophomore starting for them right now. What kind of things stick out about how he develops that position?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I think you have to -- his approach, and it's the way you go about it, is teach understanding. It's not memorization. It's every aspect of it. You train a quarterback from the neck up and the neck down. The neck down is just as important; that's the mechanics. That's the default mechanism, if you will, when you're just playing the game. You've got to work hard to train feet and to train throwing motion and all, and then the mind is working at all times. Kurt does a great job with those guys in both areas, so you've got to be a great drill coach, but you also have to be a teacher, a mentor in the classroom, carry that out to the field and be a multitasker, which he does a great job of. It's just a -- I don't think he ever passes up a chance to teach, and young people are going to get better in a hurry that way.

I believe he's got a good one, and it's not going to be overnight; no success is. But he certainly has gotten a lot out of that youngster.

Q. David, this is a non-divisional game; you don't see Florida State that often. I don't know if there's anybody on your roster, maybe a redshirt or two, who's ever played them before, but Duke has never beaten Florida State. I wonder if that kind of thing factors into the way you go about this game at all.
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, we've played them twice since we've been here and obviously didn't beat them either time. Didn't play exceptionally well. I think when you're playing a program like Florida State and teams -- there's a lot of people probably in the same boat that Duke is in that haven't beaten them. That's just a fact. Or even fortunate to beat them once or twice. It's a great football traditional program. So that factors in. So it's a good way to measure yourself and test yourself and challenge yourself.

Our players are very aware of who we're playing and the quality of that program. That part of it certainly factors in. You know that this is a test that you're going to go and you're going to have to play well and compete at the highest level to have an opportunity.

Q. What do you see on film from this Florida State team? It's odd to see them with a 1-3 record, but what are the kinds of things that concern you?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, they're still dominant on defense. You know, I think a year ago they had a lot of injuries there, but they returned a lot of people. They play an awful lot of people, and they just consume the field, front, linebacker, secondary, outstanding. Take those same athletes, so in kick coverage, in the kicking game, those kind of athletes come into play. Offensively I think early they were shocked, like anybody would, when you have a starting quarterback that played as a freshman and played really well and he goes through spring and he goes through camp, and then boom, first game, you lose him in a dramatic fashion. You play a true freshman, and you're just getting your feet on the ground. Well, they got them on the ground you could tell versus Miami. It's a different offensive football team. They're playing better up front, and they have the same kinds of weapons they've always had, backs, tight ends, receivers, and this young quarterback is a good player. He's getting better each week as you might imagine, so it's -- specialists are outstanding, punt, kickoff, place kicking. You know, you don't see many teams -- there's not that -- there's only a handful when you turn on the tape, I've been doing this a long time, that looks like they look, that kind of covers all the bases, and then on top of that, Jimbo Fisher and his staff do an outstanding job.

Q. I know we talked on Sunday about Daniel Jones and all that stuff, but just talk about Blackman; what do you see of his development?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, what he's doing, and you can see it, and Randy Sanders, who I'm very close to is their quarterback coach, and then Jimbo Fisher is an outstanding quarterback coach, he's doing better. He's a young guy. He's got great height. He's got great accuracy, getting rid on the ball on time better. He's making better decisions. He's keeping his eyes downfield. When you first start playing in college, the speed of the rush, it's all different. You know, and he played in a good area in Florida in high school, but it's still going to be significantly different, particularly when you're thrown in an Alabama game or those types of games early. NC State is exceptional on defense, wake is outstanding, Miami is outstanding. That's all he's seen. So he's coming along very quickly and he's making a few plays now and he escapes from the pocket. You just see a lot of natural progress occurring with a very talented young man.

Q. The Florida State backs, you have Akers, who's a freshman, and Patrick, who's a senior, so they're getting the running game established that they didn't have in the beginning. What do you have to do to contain that running game?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, we'd better tackle well, and you've got to defeat some blocks. I think both those backs are terrific. Akers looks to be a very, very special freshman, maybe the best freshman I've seen. You know, they're a handful, as I just said.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297