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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 18, 2013David CutcliffeCOACH CUTCLIFFE: This is obviously a huge game for us, being that it's the second Coastal Division game for us in a row, and losing the first one puts you in a circumstance where this is an incredibly big game for us. Pitt is a team that is made up a lot like Pittsburgh games; they're big and physical in both lines. They've got skill on offense that really concerns you, tough‑match ups, a quarterback that's got a tremendous arm and is extremely accurate. And defensively really physical front and give you some serious problems inside. They're coming off playing extremely well last week. They're a well‑coached team. They play the kicking game extremely hard, play everything hard actually, and will be a big challenge for us. Q. With the news of Todd Helton regarding this week, kind of talk about how challenging was it when you coached him in that quarterback race to name a quarterback because he was a pretty good quarterback but he was surrounded by some other ones. How challenging was that to name a quarterback out of that bunch? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, that's what you call good fortune, surrounding yourself with great people. Certainly it was challenging, and you had people that all had different strengths. They certainly all were talented, but they're all different people and great leaders and fierce competitors. It's always a good problem when you are surrounded by Hall‑of‑Famers, and that's basically what we had. I'll say this about Todd and his football career, and you might would guess this: Todd has incredible vision downfield, and I really think he's one of those guys that sees things in slow motion, certainly as a young man, and I think that's one of the reasons he could hit the baseball like he could. I just think his vision was incredible, and he would say if this guy is this and this guy is that and this guy is eight yards deep, and you look at the tape and it's exactly what he described in practice. A lot of fun coaching people like that. Q. With ESPN's SEC story coming out about the Manning family, obviously you saw it firsthand having coached Peyton as an assistant and then coaching Eli, how was Archie during those times? Obviously he was around for both of them going through college. What was he like just as a person, as a parent going through the process? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, he would be what you would describe as the perfect parent for a coach. Archie taught his sons‑‑ I wouldn't use the term coach. He was a mentor and father and not anything really regarding football. It was about life and about all the right decisions to make. There was never a meddling. It couldn't have been any better. I am pretty familiar with the documentary film, whatever. I haven't seen it all in its entirety yet, but happy that it seems to me that they've caught who Archie is, and that was the purpose in it. He would be what I would call being a very supportive father, and it would be a good lesson for a lot of fathers that struggle not trying to get too involved with their sons in the technical parts of what they do. Q. I wanted to ask you about Garett Patterson and his ability to overcome growing up in a foreign country to be a starter for you guys. Just curious what your thoughts are, how he's reacting to that situation and becoming a real contributor? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, Garett is just a great person, great young man, one of the more positive people. He smiles easy, and I was anxious to see if the pressures of being a starter, and he's going to be tested certainly each week, was last week, which will start getting to him a little bit, and he certainly hits the practice field with the kind of energy and enthusiasm you hope all your players do. I particularly noticed that this week after a loss. He was one of our real leaders of the senior group we have of hitting the field with a little bounce and challenging himself to get better. He's one of those guys you like so much that you just pray that it continues to go well for him. Q. What was your evaluation of the way Brandon played? COACH CUTCLIFFE: You know, he played okay. He struggled a little in 3rd downs, but it wasn't really all him by any means. You know, that was one of the more disappointing things that we didn't execute around him like we're capable of. But Brandon, he's such a competitor, he's such a warrior, and he never hung his head. When the dust settled and you grade him, he didn't grade all that poorly at all. We've just got to play better, all of us. My job is to get the people around him to execute, and I think he'll be fine in that regard. The big thing I do know he's going to be fine in, he is a fierce competitor, great leader, and a guy that you'd go to battle with any time. He hasn't wavered in that regard. He is very spirited, and he really had a great practice today, I thought. I thought he had one of his better days on our practice field since he's been here, and that's what I would expect from him. So I'm anxious to see how he responds to his second start as a quarterback at Duke. Q. In the most recent U.S. News and World Report, Duke has moved up to No.7 in the national university rankings. How difficult is it to recruit to a place with such high academic and admissions standards? COACH CUTCLIFFE: You know, I would kind of flip the question to how exciting is it to recruit to an institution with those types of standards. I think that's what you have to do. You don't go in looking at this as a hindrance. There are plenty of people that are great athletes. You just look around the country, that have incredible qualities in other areas and desires in other areas to excel, including academically. So the only difficulty that's involved in that are two things: One, to identify those folks early enough, which we work hard at finding and getting started, and because we are so highly ranked academically and certainly basketball has made people aware of us, that Duke has great name recognition so we can recruit anywhere in the country. And then the second thing is, though, our job is to provide a football opportunity, a football program that's good enough for any great player, whether it would be named a Manning that we've been involved with at other institutions, wouldn't matter, and we're doing both well right now. I think it's one of the more exciting times for me in my career as to what the potential is here to bring in great football players that also happen to be extremely quality, motivated students. Q. One of the things we always say is that winning is the most important thing in recruiting, and now that you guys have gotten to a bowl game and there's some more excitement, do you feel that to be true, that there's people more interested and willing to talk about Duke football? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Absolutely. Everybody loves a winner, there's no question. But also the fun part of it is it's fun to take that challenge to get it there, and this generation thinks the tradition is a four‑ or five‑year span. We need four or five bowl games in a row, and all of a sudden we're traditionally a winner. That's how fast you can move if you are dynamic in your approach as to what you're doing as a staff. Q. I just wanted to ask you, what have you seen on film from Tyler Boyd through two games, and is it tough to scout a kid who only really has two games of tape for you to look at? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, we've got more on him than we've had any of our previous opponents, just about. We didn't have any tape to look at. He's a really good football player. He's long, he's explosive, he's aggressive at the point of catching the football. One of the things that ultimately separates a guy and what kind of player he's going to be as a receiver is can he catch the ball away from his body, can he catch it out front. He's going to catch balls in traffic. I could go on. He's already proven that in two games. And then he's dangerous with the football once he catches it. With he and Street, that's as good a combination maybe as there is in the country. They're going to prove to be very difficult for not only us but for a lot of people on Pittsburgh's schedule. Q. I wanted to ask you about what you were talking about earlier, getting that four‑ or five‑year sort of tradition, like you said. What's the toughest part of turning that one year of success into two, three, four years of success? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, it's never easy anywhere. That's a misnomer. People think it's easy to win anywhere. I've been at a lot of programs‑‑ well, not a lot, I haven't been that many places, but I've been involved with places that are traditional winners, and you'd better work your rear end off. You're not going to just stay there to continue to get better. There's not much different in that regard. We've got to stay hungry, keep getting better, keep getting better. The thing here is that it was really buried, other than a couple of blips on the radar screen, we were buried for 50 years, so every aspect of running a great football program, you can't always control every part of it as a coach. The things you can control you've got to do great, and we're consistently doing that. And if we just keep doing those things and believe in those things, then that's how you put three, four, five, 10 years together. I've been a part of a program and a staff where we won over 100 games in 10 years. There's nothing easy about that, but you've just got to keep growing and stay hungry, and I think that's probably difficult for a lot of people. But we've got a staff that doesn't think that way. I believe we have a squad that we're growing to think that way. That's kind of the formula we use. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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