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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 3, 2010

David Cutcliffe

THE MODERATOR: We now welcome Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe. We'll bring on coach, ask for a brief opening statement, then go to questions.
Coach.
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, we know we're playing a very hot Virginia team. They've played extremely well really all year long. They've played well, but they're certainly on a roll. Two big victories in a row. They played extremely well in Miami. Wouldn't have mattered who was playing quarterback, they were the most physical team on the field both sides of the ball.
They certainly have balance on offense. Their running game is very dangerous. Doing a tremendous job I think with their personnel in the passing game and using their weapons and people well, doing what their quarterback does best. Very big, physical defense again. They defend the pass about as well as anyone you'll see.
So a big challenge for us to try to ourselves put some kind of back-to-back wins together this year. Big challenge. Looking forward to a big ACC game Saturday.

Q. Coach, I'm doing a story on how important depth is once you get to this point in the season particularly. Could you speak to your situation. I saw you ahead 24-0 at halftime against a Navy team that just runs and runs the ball, were kind of barely able to hold on. Can you talk about your situation with depth as it pertains to where you are right now.
COACH CUTCLIFFE: I think depth probably enters in for us more with losing players to injury at this stage more than in a particular ballgame as far as running out of gas. We didn't really run out of gas. Gave up some plays. I probably went too conservative.
Let me tell you what I think.
What happens, this is a stretch where your open dates a lot of times are behind you. Teams practice each week. Particularly in our case, we have to practice really physical, really hard to try to keep gaining ground on people and where we started. So it takes its toll not only in ball games, the physical parts of practice takes its toll. This is when we get a little thin in both lines of scrimmage.
Certainly I'd love to get to a point where we're playing more people, practicing a little bit more balanced with more people. We only have about 90 guys out there at practice. A lot of blows. I think that's where depth takes its toll more than kind of what you're referring to with ballgames getting tired in the third or fourth quarter. I just think your team gets worn down in November a little bit.

Q. You had some pretty strong feelings about Tyrod Taylor a couple weeks ago. I was hoping you could review what you think has him playing so well and how well his skills fit their system at Tech.
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Obviously he is a great athlete. That gets referred to often. He's got tremendous speed, cutting ability. He's got great feet.
What I like about Tyrod Taylor, and the reason I said what I said about him, I've watched him as a drop-back quarterback. Cut the tape up and study their offense, I'm looking at different parts of their offense. His drop-back passing now, he's become a very efficient drop-back pass quarterback.
He reads the field well. He uses all areas of the field. His eyes stay downfield. He's very much like Thaddeus Lewis was for us in that regard. He's not a real tall guy, but he sees the field and he has great ability to keep his vision in the right places and great timing throwing the football.
What he's done to become a great player, in my opinion, is his accuracy level has increased, goodness, two, threefold from what it was when he was a young player. He is really throwing the ball accurately.
Obviously, as these kids stay in great off-season programs, they get stronger and quicker. So he's actually even more of a threat running than he's ever been. So I think he's a tremendous player, one of the better quarterbacks in the country.

Q. Was there anything you did differently last week to increase the team's confidence after the Virginia Tech game?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, no, nothing in particular. We've been pretty amazing during the entire six-game losing streak. These guys never got down. Our coaches didn't get down. It was a tribute to a lot of character and a lot of good people. The Virginia Tech game was very difficult to take during, and certainly Sunday when you get up. As bad as we played or similar to how we played against Alabama, which we kind of melted, which we hadn't done here before.
They are resilient. They're pretty tough kids. We gathered back pretty quickly. We practiced well Sunday night. Just kind of keep believing. But nothing particular.

Q. Coach, Chase Minnifield, one of the top interceptors in the league. When you play a guy like that, do you game plan to avoid him or attack him?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: I don't know that you ever would attack that guy. You can't altogether avoid anybody. They'll move him around. I expect to see him maybe matching up. He'll play both sides as a corner and he'll also play on your slot as a nickel back.
He's all over the place. I think you do remain aware of him. He has techniques and style and different things he uses. We've studied him. We do individual scouting reports on those guys. You try to understand what he likes, what he tries to do in coverage. You don't avoid him; you avoid making a mistake if you can with him because he's going to catch it if it's errantly thrown. He's got great ball skills. He's really a fine athlete.

Q. As resilient as your team has been through psychologically, how much of a stress release was it to hang on and win a game?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: It was huge. I'm telling you, the fourth quarter with a 31-7 lead, there was a ton of stress during that game. All of us, everybody down there, player, coaches, Oh, my God, this isn't going to happen. That didn't help matters because you really have to fight your negative thinking at that point in time.
But it's been good. It was a lifting thing Sunday to be at work, the kids in here getting what they do, getting their treatment. Then we had practice Sunday night. It was spirited.
The thing that obviously we all know is it wasn't a celebration. We don't have anything to celebrate. But it was a little easier to be more spirited about going back to work Tuesday morning as far as real physical practice. They did that and they did it well.
Doesn't guarantee you you're going to play great. We know that because that hadn't been a guarantee all year. It certainly felt better all the way around, player and coaches.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Good luck this weekend and we'll talk to you next Wednesday.
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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