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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 29, 2010

David Cutcliffe

THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Coach David Cutcliffe from Duke. We'll start with an opening statement and then begin with questions.
COACH CUTCLIFFE: We're excited to be back in ACC play, our second ACC game, second one on the road. We have a big challenge. First thing I would say is my hat's off to Ralph Friedgen and his staff. Certainly have done a great job to this point and getting back on track.
They're a good football team. They have all the elements that it takes. They have weapons on offense and are using them well. Big, physical people and weapons on defense. And certainly weapons in the kicking game and their return game and otherwise.
So lots of big play potential in dealing with their offense. So very difficult matchup in our regard.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Did you expect this to be such a difficult year at this point? Did you figure you would be taking a step backwards, I guess? Are you surprised at the struggles this year?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: I'm an optimist. And always believing that we can, and we certainly are not out of anything at this point. But I knew this was a transition year. Looking at it two years ago, I knew we would go through this somewhat of a transition, kind of turning our team over completely as far as numbers into a youthful team.
We had 99 guys in August working on our squad. Counting all our walk-ons and everything. And 51 of the 99 were redshirt or true freshmen. So it gives you an idea of the youth. I still think this team -- well I don't think it. I know this team has more talent than we've had. We've just got to get it all pointed in the right direction, and we're working every day to do that.

Q. Ralph Friedgen was saying that if he recalls Danny O'Brien's recruitment came down to Maryland and you. I wonder what you recall about that and what your impressions of O'Brien were when you were recruiting him and what they are now?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: We really liked Danny. I was around Danny a lot, thought he was a high character young man. Really good athlete. Big, good athlete, with a tremendous arm. And certainly he was a youngster at North Carolina that we wanted very badly.
And they won the recruiting battle. And a year ago, when we played Maryland, I asked Ralph then how Danny was doing. I was just interested. And he told me then that he was doing well, which I felt like he would.
And certainly, with his display in the ball game Saturday against a good Florida international team, by the way, he played extremely well.

Q. What's the most important thing you guys want to accomplish defensively in practice this week?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, we have to limit the big play. It's killed us. We've played good five to six snaps and then we give up a monster. And Maryland specializes in the monster. So really difficult matchup. So certainly we have done that. And in any game we go into, week after week after week, particularly against the fine backs that Maryland has, you've got to stop the run with them. They get to go both ways on land and through the air, they're very difficult to defend.

Q. You guys have a few big plays of your own. Do you anticipate that sort of thing could -- does it almost become, I don't know if the word is "contagious", but as happened in your Wake Forest game, one team goes for 60 yards and the other follows suit. Is that a pattern you've noticed over time, or is that just a strange occurrence confined to that game?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, that game was the strangest one I've ever been in, particularly the second quarter. But I do think that happens at times. I don't know if "contagious" is the word, but momentum swings in funny ways. And it just starts happening.
And in our case, obviously the last couple of weeks we've had a couple of big plays. But we've continued to give up more and more on the other end. And so our focus right now, certainly offensively, is we love big plays, but it's about execution. We just want to execute on that end. Defensively, it's very critical that we stop giving up home runs. We've given up way too many explosives, even in the Elon game. Even though it's become a real point of emphasis, we still haven't accomplished what we need to accomplish in that regard.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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