	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

September 19, 2018

David Cutcliffe

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: We continue to kind of nurse a lot of injured. That's been part of the scene -- our team has played well in three games, but we've been different every week, and we'll be different again this week. I think the biggest focus is that it has given us a chance to get better in a lot of areas and build more depth in a lot of areas. Ultimately, it ends up good for your program in the long run.

With that said, we're playing a rival game, the Durham Bull City Classic, and it is, and two schools about six miles apart. North Carolina Central has had a championship program for a while now in the MEAC, and it's no different this year. A lot of weapons on offense. Really a lot of weapons. The quarterback has played really well. He impressed me a year ago, and defensively they're very systematic. They know exactly what they're doing, how to do it. Coach Eastman has done a great job as an interim head coach, and he's also done a great job there as a defensive coordinator. So we are working hard to be our best, and again, we are different every week, but our best.

I'll take your questions.

Q. I know you guys have an emotional trip last night into Cleveland to be with Coach Guerrieri and his family and his dad's funeral. Can you tell us how that went, and is he back with you or is he still dealing with that loss?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I was just -- I almost abuse the word "amazed" last night, not totally unexpected at the number of people and energy that was in that room. Jim Guerrieri lived a great life. For those of you that don't know that are listening, our defensive coordinator Matt Guerrieri's dad passed away Saturday morning before our game when we were in Texas. He had been ill. Matt had spent some time at home last week, but what an incredible family. Matt will be back tonight. He plans on coaching through the rest of the week. But what an incredible family and a great tribute to a great man who was an OB/GYN that brought 7,000 babies into this world. I don't know if you can do better work than that. So that's kind of where we are, but he'll be back tonight and be coaching.

Q. This week the ACC and the CFP are celebrating Extra Yard For Teachers. I wonder if you could tell us what role teachers had in your life or what impact they had in your life.
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I consider myself one, first of all, and I married one, so that's pretty impactful in my life in itself. But I don't think there's any question all of us growing up remember favorite teachers, teachers that had impacts, whether it be elementary school, middle school, high school. Our greatest resource in this country is and always has been our youth. And other than the family, no one plays a bigger role, so God bless teachers, and we're very thankful for them.

Q. For a young man making his first college start, how would you assess how Clinton did down at Baylor?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I thought he played really well. He played clean. He was effective, throwing the ball accurately. He was effective with explosive plays. He ran the ball well when we asked him to run the ball, which didn't surprise me. But he managed the game. We didn't turn the ball over. We didn't have penalties. And that's what the No. 1 job of being a quarterback is is to make sure all 10 players around him are in position to do their job, and he did that really well. He'll grow from this. I think he can get a little bit better quickly in pre-snap reads and running the tempo of the game from that perspective, and I'm excited for him as he goes into game No. 2 as a starter. I think we'll see a better product this week.

Q. And then ten or so days after the fact, do you have any better sense for when Daniel might be able to return?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Daniel is actually getting some good practice time right now. He's a tough young man, so he has actually put on pads and gone through practice. He's no-contact, obviously, but he's gaining his confidence back. He's moving well. He's running well. So it's hard to say. We're still indefinite, but our medical people are absolutely amazed at what he's doing. But as always, his safety will be first and foremost in whatever decision we make.

Q. Two Power Five road wins is obviously the good news, and then the bad news is the injuries that seem to kind of grow every week. Do you find yourself feeling a little bittersweet in practice and everything like that just knowing that in some ways it's been a great start and in other ways it's been unfortunate?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Yeah, it's definitely been unfortunate. I don't think there's -- I think those victories are -- they kind of stand alone, regardless of what happens as far as the injuries and the circumstance. And as I said, I think our team has done a tremendous job of putting adversity behind them, managing it. Our coaches have done a great job recruiting. I don't think people realized the depth we had. We've got some good football players, and we're going to put good players on that field.

I am ready for that to slow down. We're plugging people in in the kicking game. We literally were plugging people that hadn't played in certain places in the game. So I'd like to see it slow down, but I am very proud of our coaches and very proud of our players for responding as well as they have.

Q. I know this is a rivalry week, as you said, but to be on the road for two games against good teams and then Virginia Tech coming up, is it any sort of relief to be home and to get into a normal schedule and to not have a Power Five team rolling in here?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I mean, North Carolina Central is a team we're familiar with. They're familiar with us. That's a stand-alone game. We are very glad to be home. It's difficult, and the difficult circumstances having to leave early. But the people out there at the hotel -- we actually stayed in Temple, Texas -- were incredible. They made it easier than what it could have been.

But you really got a half a week here last week is all, and then we finished our week in Texas. This feels great. We were talking about that yesterday as a staff, what it's going to be like to have a normal Thursday, a normal Friday in preparation and get yourself ready.

I think our team will do better just sleeping in their own beds and getting back to some form of normalcy, as well. Hopefully it has a great effect on us this Saturday.

Q. I hope you and your family are safe from the hurricane that came through.
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I appreciate that. Here in the Triangle we are in good shape but we're continuing to pray for people out on the coast in eastern Carolina that they can get through this quickly.

Q. Talk about the game with North Carolina Central, talk about what it means for the city of Durham to have two teams like Duke and North Carolina Central playing against each other this weekend.
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: It's going to be great. It's going to be a sellout. There will be a huge crowd. There will be a lot of energy in the stadium. Our players, many of them know each other, so there's intensity that's created right there. Two great institutions that are six miles apart in this great city. I'm just praying for good weather. They're talking about a little bit of rain potential. Hopefully, we get the kind of weather we'd like and we have a chance to have a classic football game because that's what it should be.

Q. Talk about playing down at Baylor. Did that whole week bring your team together with all the stuff going on? Do you see they're more together and more in tune with everything?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think adversity can do that if you're the right kind of person and your mind is in the right place. We've had some loss of family amongst our staff. We've had players that were injured, one of them, of course, Mark Gilbert lost for the season, and I've been impressed, our players, it's not worrying about whether we're going to play well. They're there to support Mark. When Mark is in the planning room, they surround him, and that's good to see young people that care about each other, and I do think this team does that one thing pretty well. They do care about each other.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297