|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 9, 2013David CutcliffeCOACH CUTCLIFFE: We've had a good open date, which we needed to heal. We also needed it for some work obviously against Navy's option offense and just to give yourself some help after five games, a lot of things to work on. But very pleased with practice the last couple of days. I think they're spirited and ready to go play.  But a huge challenge to play a Navy team that continues year after year to impress. They've been a bowl team nine of the last ten years. And Coach Niumatalolo and his staff do a great job on both sides of the ball. So with that, I'll take your questions. Q. I just wanted to ask you the running game. Obviously a lot of attention on Navy because they run the ball a lot and put up big numbers. You guys are averaging more than 190 yards a game on the ground. It's the best for Duke since 1977, if you keep up this pace. Can you keep it up and how important is it to continue to be successful on the ground? COACH CUTCLIFFE: I think we have to keep it up to be successful to kind of blend all of what you're asking together. I think we can run the football. We felt like we have a very good offensive line that's performing at a good level. We've got quality backs that we feel very good about. And I think we have quarterbacks that help us run the football. Not only the fact that those guys can run themselves, but they also manage our offense with their effort. I think it's critical that we continue, and we're certainly going to try to grow that. That was the best chance for us to be as good as we possibly can be. It's going to get tougher every week. It's difficult to run the ball against really good people. This, by the way, is I think the best Navy defense that we've seen, and we've seen a lot from Navy since we've been here. They've got a good defensive football team. Q. Navy likes to control tempo with their running game. Sometimes you guys like to run really fast and step up and put pressure on defenses. Is this a game where you want to think more about controlling the ball than keeping Navy off the field? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Good question. I want to control the ball and certainly keep their offense off the field. That is one of the fastest or best ways to try to win a ballgame against an option offense. We're going to be ourselves. Our kids are of the speed that they love to practice at and play at, so we're going to try to be ourselves. We've just got to improve our execution and stay on the field whatever that may be, and certainly score point when's we get in the red zone. Q. What are some of the similarities of the offensive blocking schemes of Navy and Georgia Tech? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, they're both triple option teams and they both break the formation a lot. They're double slots, so they are going to run their schemes both run arc option schemes, speed option, traps, trap options, sweeps, all of the basic plays where. Where it runs into differences is that Navy, with the quarterback they have right now, they will really give you a lot of different looks. A little bit more gun than what Paul Johnson's done. They drove the football extremely well, very effective when they want to go that route. So it's still summer, so our guys have played against this type thing. Of course, we have a lot of players that played in the game the last time we played Navy. So I think that's critically important for us as well. Q. What is your message to the defense this week with the Navy running game? COACH CUTCLIFFE: What's hard to mimic is the quality which they run it. We've let our scout teams cut us and attack us, and we've had some live work trying to simulate it. We haven't played in a week, so I wanted to get a little bit of live work as well that it's just very interesting to try to simulate it. Our show team has done a great job, but it's never going to look just like Navy's. The challenge is to get out there, get your feet wet, and try to get a rhythm of the tempo as quickly as you can before you get too much damage done. But I feel good about what our show team has done this week compared to what we've done in the past. I'm pleased with that. Q. How worried are you about your defense in general this season? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, we've played well at times. I think everybody worries about their defense this day in time for the most part because we're all susceptible to all these high‑powered offenses and it's difficult for a lot of people. When I see teams like Southern Cal and their ability level give up 62 points and Texas give up almost 600 yards rushing, if you're not worried about your defense and you're a head football coach, you're going to be soon in most cases, except for a few very gifted teams. Q. How difficult is it to stop the option of Navy, and Army, and everybody that likes to run the option like Georgia Tech? How do you guys get prepared for that game? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, all defense is assignment football, but it's a little different. It allows it to hit so fast with the fullback, it allows the offensive line to come off and cut and slice a little bit more than what you see in other offenses. So I think the difficulty is just mimicking the speed of the game that you get from these option teams. Then they do a good job. The ball is inside, and you have gifted running quarterbacks and they can get that ball outside on the perimeter in a hurry. Another part of it is very difficult to defend really good, hard, run action passes where it looks just like the run. The next thing you know they're pulled out and throwing the ball over your head. So that is probably the biggest challenges involved. Q. Talk about your defense against this option. COACH CUTCLIFFE: I don't know exactly what you mean. You play the same defenses you play. You just have to have people in the right spots and hope you play well up front and stay on your feet. That's kind of the secret. You've got to avoid getting cut. You've got to avoid being taken off your feet. It's hard tackling anybody when you're on the ground. Q. How is it like playing against these military academies like Army and Navy? This game like last week, we had no idea if this game was going to be played at all because of the situation that's going on in D.C. So what's it like playing against these military academies? COACH CUTCLIFFE: We had good indication from Navy. They were great and communicated to us that we felt like the game was going to go ahead. So they're great people, as you might imagine. They did a great job of communicating with us. So we really never felt the game was in any kind of jeopardy. Q. Coach, can you give us an update on Anthony Boone and where he is in his recovery? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Yeah, Anthony is able to practice right now. As I said yesterday, we're really day‑to‑day with him, evaluating each day after he gets a little more work, how sore he is, and what he feels like the next morning. The clinical exams from the medical people, they're actually testing his strength levels and getting indicators there that he's getting better. Then you get the examination from X‑rays, et cetera, so he's making progress. Right now I thought he had a pretty solid day to day. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow, and that's kind of where we're going is just day‑to‑day right now. But he's certainly on a faster track than I thought he would be. Anthony's a really hard‑working guy. He's really put a lot into this and our medical staff as well. So very pleased with what he's getting done. Q. You've gotten good play out of Brandon Connette. But when Anthony is ready, will he go back to being the starter? COACH CUTCLIFFE: Yeah, he was our starter for a reason. When he gets back where he's playing better than Brandon, then he's the guy. But the beauty of it is we've always played quarterback situation with Brandon Connette really getting better, which pushes the envelope for Anthony, and then also puts us in position to use Brandon Connette in various ways as we move forward with the rest of the season. Hopefully we get Anthony back up to that level. But again it's just kind of day‑to‑day, and Kurt Roper and I are talking about it and looking at it and getting information from the medical people as well. We really don't know when all that is going to happen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|