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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 6, 2013David CutcliffeDAVID CUTCLIFFE: I'm very proud of Perry Simmons, so I'll start with that. Happy for his mom and dad, and he is the epitome of student athlete; four‑year starter, has never missed a game, has never missed a practice, and to my knowledge has never missed a class. And if he has, he didn't need to go; I can promise you. He is an engineering student that is an outstanding student. Happy for him. Our team has handled our open date, I believe, well. We had good work last week. We've had some good practices this week. I was very pleased with our practice today. But at this point we just have to play well, and that's the focus, one week at a time. North Carolina State has got a lot of playmakers, and they've had a very difficult schedule, and they play people well that are not good but great, and that shows you the talent level. They're well‑coached, well‑motivated, and we have our hands full, and I think, again, the focus goes back to us focusing on Duke playing as well as we possibly can. Q. Given what happened to you guys after you became bowl eligible last year, what's been the message to the team about this topic this year? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, they've kind of talked amongst themselves to be honest with you. Most all these guys they're playing were there last year playing, so they're well aware that we didn't win. The misnomer is that we didn't play well. We played really well at times in November, we just didn't get it done and didn't win. And the thing we have to do is to continue to work hard, play well, and find ways to win. That's different every week, but for us it means you can't turn the ball over. You've got to be disciplined in the world of penalties. We can't give up big plays on defense, and we're going to have to make timely plays on offense. That's been our formula to win, and then play great in the kicking game. Hopefully we can do that, and if we do that we have a chance to be successful. Q. What did you most like about your performance against Virginia Tech that you want to recapture this week? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, it was players making plays at critical times. The critical plays in the game mostly fell our way, and that's why we were able to hang on and win a close ballgame. We wouldn't be good enough otherwise. We had key offensive plays that we didn't play great offensively at all, but we had key plays where guys made plays, gave us a chance to win. Defensively it kept happening over and over again on 3rd down and 4th down, an interception in the end zone, just numerous plays that were made at critical times in the game, and that's something we haven't been great at doing since we've been here. We've played a lot of good football, but we need more of that. We need guys to step up and make those critical plays that win games. Q. Just wondering if you have any idea whether you'll have Ross back this week. DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, he's practiced the last couple of days, but we're still evaluating effectiveness at this time. He's a veteran player. He gets better every day, and he'll know. But we're not going to know for sure probably until we get to game day to what level we can get him to. But we'll release tomorrow whatever circumstance we think it lies in. But I'm hoping by game day we get a positive result. Q. I know you've had a couple of freshmen and red‑shirt freshmen step up in the secondary. What do you think has been the biggest key to them being able to come in there and make some plays for you guys? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, they're really good players, first. I mean, really good players. They're good prospects. But also it goes to our coaches and the preparation and the planning, and this goes all the way back to last spring, and adjusting some things we were doing defensively. We knew we were going to have to play some young people in the secondary, so Coach Knowles and Coach Jones have worked very hard in that regard, and then Ross Cockrell. I'll tell you, this summer, he knew it and he prepared those young guys, he took on a coaching role unlike any player I've ever seen in my career, and Ross is just a brilliant young man, and he knows all five positions in the secondary. I mean, he talked like a coach all summer long, and it certainly has paid dividends for us. Q. I wanted to ask you about Anthony Boone's accuracy. He's been a very accurate guy all year, right at 70 percent completions, until the Virginia Tech game when he was extremely inaccurate. I know some of that was their defense, but it just seemed from watching that he missed some open guys, too. Can you address that? Are you confident that he'll regain the sharpness that he had before that game? DAVID CUTCLIFFE: You know, it's obviously the question all of us were asking. We had great protection against Virginia Tech, so they played man‑to‑man a lot, but it shouldn't affect his accuracy, and something did. You know, coming off an injury like he had, it's almost to the point of unbelievable that he got back as quickly as he did. He worked very hard at throwing and he was uncomfortable some, and I think each week it's changed a little bit for him. The open date came at a good time. He's healthier than he's been. He's been more consistent, and I've really been pleased with his response to being challenged. I think any quarterback, that's hurtful to have a day like that. But you're going to have them. And Kurt Roper has done an incredible job with him and challenging him and encouraging him. But I think he's more back to himself. He's the healthiest he's been by far since the injury, and I think that's helped him get more consistent with his throwing over the last two weeks in practice. He was excellent for the most part today, I mean excellent. So hopefully that's what we get on Saturday. Q. It's kind of interesting, Brandon Connette is in the top 20 nationally in passing efficiency, which we've always thought of him as a runner. You obviously have options there. DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Absolutely, and Brandon remains an option, and we'll always see how that goes, and he's going to be in our plans down the stretch. We had to get him a little more well. He had a significant ankle, and this open date has been good for him. So he's had really two good weeks of practice and particularly a good day the last two days. I think we may be the only program in the country that's had all three of our top quarterbacks be on the injured list at one point during this eight‑game season so far, which is bizarre. But hopefully luck has changed in that regard, and we won't have to deal with that again, keep them both healthy and hopefully get our man Thomas Sirk back. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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