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DUKE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 15, 2018

David Cutcliffe

Waco, Texas

Duke - 40, Baylor - 27

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: It actually feels good to sit down. I'm so tired that my watch ran out of battery.

How about that? Lot of heros out there on that field, a lot of them. I don't think I've ever been involved with a game where every position, each and every position had to have someone step up. Based upon either from something last week or based upon something particularly that happened today, it's got to start with Quentin Harris who played a complete game, took care of the ball, made big plays. What an incredible job he's done at preparing himself. Zac Roper has done a great job with him.

But everywhere. You go to the defensive secondary, and oh, my gosh, I'm counting out there how many second or third teamers we had out there, and they're playing their hearts out, and fought, and scratched and clawed. We played everybody we brought up front on defense.

You know, when you saw the efforts of Chris Rumph, and he's not in the forefront of everyone's mind, we lost players throughout the game that made someone step up, I don't think it can get lost. Probably the most important lesson for us as a program is what we've done in recruiting.

I haven't even talked with the staff about this yet, but our recruiting efforts are different. We've got a good football team because of that. We certainly think we have a great program. We coach well. Our people are dedicated to what we're doing. We're in the 11th year of this program, that we have recruited very well. That's why you see players that are capable, physically capable of stepping up and playing at a high level when asked to do so.

I think, to be honest with you, I know I don't need to get off on a tangent, I think we're going to be better moving forward than we are right now. Not only this team, but, you know, you had to get better today with that many people. But I'm talking about next year and the year after.

We've got a bunch of good people in this organization. Wasn't perfect. You know, you get a punt block. Operation was really bad, 2.9. That will get a punt block. Other than that, we really did some great things in the kicking game.

Offensively, we ran the ball a lot better than they ran the ball. Their best running play was a quarterback scramble. We ran the football with authority. We made big plays.

We had a tough time with that heat, pressuring the quarterback maybe as much as we would like, and I thought Matt Guerrieri did an incredible job of blending the coverages. Leonard Johnson, we play a lot of man-to-man, but Leonard Johnson's pick six came off his own call that he made, and it was executed perfectly by our entire defense. Leonard stepped in front.

I told somebody after three steps, that's a touchdown. He is a terrific athlete. I mean, a terrific athlete. So that's only going to be hopefully a beginning for him.

So with that, I'll answer any questions that you have.

Q. Coach, I'm assuming you're out of your routine with everything going on back home. What's it say about your guys that they were able to put that aside and jump out, especially the way they did in the first half?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I told them at the hotel that I had admiration for them. I told them last night. I told them today that it's been incredibly smooth. Their focus, their commitment to handle whatever. Hey, we tell them to we're leaving at 7 o'clock in the morning, at the last second, not a single person -- we loaded up the bus at 5:45 and went to the airport, not a single person late. What's that tell you about this team?

I do admire these young men that are stressed college students, like everybody that's at Duke, yet they have found a way to be committed to each other as teammates and committed to this program. So this is something that we have a chance to build off of.

Q. How is Michael Carter after going down in the first quarter?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think we've got a sprain that he will come back from. Hopefully pretty quickly. That's the initial word I got. The initial word I got is that we don't have a torn ligament. But you're always cautious. More than likely we'll have an MRI and we'll know for sure at that point.

But, you know, when that happened, there was a lot of head shaking, and it's going to be natural. But our team just never changed. No matter what was thrown at them, they went out with a positive approach. Next-man-up. It was -- I don't think in my coaching career as an assistant or a head coach I've ever seen a team do what that was done today.

Now we'll put it away. We're not going to celebrate it beyond a plane ride. I told them I'd call the airport and tell Delta to crank the plane up and have the air conditioning working really good. That will be the biggest celebration we want to have.

But outside of that, we have to go to work on a cross town -- not cross town, a neighbor arrival in North Carolina Central, and we have to focus on being a better football team.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the origin of the next-man-up? Was there anyone in particular in the locker room who brought this up? Was it a coach?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: No, I mean, it's just how we are. It's what we talk about all the time. It's how we practice. We do it at practice all the time. You know, when nobody predicted Aaron Young on a Tuesday would be out for two weeks. I don't know that anybody has noticed.

Here's a guy that's on the verge, I think, got a chance of becoming a great player. So whatever is asked of him, how about Scott Bracey's catch? You know, I think what it does is that our coaches do a great job of keeping them fueled.

We are unlike a lot of people. We rep everybody. There is a pro mentality to rep your ones and then the twos get it through osmosis. I haven't seen osmosis work very well with human beings, so we rep our twos and threes a lot.

Q. Your offense came out in the second half three straight three-and-outs. They get the block for a touchdown. A little bit of a momentum swing. Then you go 75 yards for a touchdown. How important was that drive for you guys?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Huge. That's the whole point of what we're talking about. What is your intention when you go on that field? Are you thinking failure or are you thinking success? And our coaches have to generate that thought process to some degree. But we -- I think we do a great job of believing we're getting ready to be successful and do whatever it takes.

Zac Roper called a great game. He gave Quentin plenty of opportunities to use his abilities well. That's a big part of coaching. It's not just the same series of plays called, it's trying to utilize the best abilities that players have, put them in those situations. Zac did a great job.

Our offensive staff conversations, we're going back and forth, I go back and forth between the offense and defense. But there are so many great conversations, I wish you could publish them almost how hard people are working on those head sets, and how many adjustments are being made.

Everybody thinks you go in at halftime and make adjustments. We make more during the game than we do at halftime.

Q. No turnovers, no penalties. I think that's -- no penalties, that's kind of a rarity?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: It is, and when you do that, you have a really strong chance of winning. We believe in four things, turnovers, sacks, explosives, and penalties. If you win those four battles, you've got a real shot at winning a football game.

So how do you do that? You practice that way. We're totally committed to practicing that way every day.

Q. After Baylor scored that touchdown in the beginning of the second half, that was the first points you've let up in almost 90 minutes. What's that say about your defense against two potent offenses?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I had a lot of concern going into the game about Baylor's ability to make explosive plays. Their size and speed at receiver is special. Two quarterbacks that are accurate, can throw the ball down the field. So to take it that long, I mean, to play another half without giving up a point, particularly with injuries and things, I thought there was a lot of fierceness on the field.

It starts with Joe and Ben. They're contagious, then players like Trevon McSwain in the second half. You talk about slowing momentum. We have great kickoff coverage, and then he gets a sack, and we get a stop backed up, and it flips field position. So that's how a team can win.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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