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NEW ERA PINSTRIPE BOWL: INDIANA VS DUKE

December 26, 2015

David Cutcliffe

New York, New York

Duke-44, Indiana-41, Overtime.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you for being here. Would you start off with some opening comments.

COACH CUTCLIFFE: I'll just start by congratulating Indiana. What an incredible season. The last three years we've been on the other side of the ledger of close bowl games. We had lost in the fourth quarter three years in a row. Overtime is a whole new level.

Very proud of the display that both teams put on. A lot of people played hard and competed at a high level.

Next thing is to thank Randy Levine and the Steinbrenner family and the New York Yankees, Mark Holtzman and the folks with the Pinstripe Bowl, Emily. Incredible.

I've been very fortunate in my career to be a part of a lot of bowl games. I would use the word 'impeccable' as far as the week went. I see now that the New York Yankees don't make mistakes and we appreciate that in a big way.

Our team had a lot of heart. Our team had a lot of good leadership. Not necessarily I'm talking about tonight, but in the preparation and the focus. We had 23 seniors that were very committed to this process. It wasn't all perfect tonight, but there was a will, a strong will, to prepare, a strong will to continue competing even when we fell behind in the fourth quarter. I think it was critical that we believed we could come out and pull this game out. If not the fourth quarter, then overtime.

Congratulations to Shaun Wilson on the display he put on out there tonight. Pretty special. Thomas Sirk, pretty special.

We hadn't won a bowl game since 1961. So just understand that. For the first time in the history of Duke football, we've had three straight years of eight or more wins. That's incredible from that regard.

For the second time in school history, we had three 100-yard rushers. We ran the football and ran the football very effectively. The kicking game, that's our fourth kickoff return for a touchdown this season. That takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of players committed to an area we call special teams for a reason.

All of those combinations allowed us to have an opportunity to win the game, and we were fortunate that we did make a field goal. Unfortunately they've got a great kicker, and it happens. No matter what the circumstances are, when your defense forces a stop, forces a field goal, that can happen. Huge stop by our defense. Very opportunistic football tonight.

You probably don't have any questions now that I've talked that long, but I had a lot to say (laughter).

THE MODERATOR: Questions for coach.

Q. Coach, it was a tough night for Thomas much of the night. You need to have a drive to make a tie at the end and he makes all the plays. Was there a moment during the game when you considered getting away from him?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: No. Obviously when you're not completing passes, missing opportunities, you have a guy the quality of Parker, that's going to roll through your mind. You're asking Thomas, Do you feel okay? He's had a lot of injuries, a lot of things he's had to go through. But not 'losing confidence in him' change. You know, sometimes change can just be a positive.

A lot of little things in the game. Seems like everything that I tried to do special didn't work. We kind of overcame me. I decided to go for that fourth down down there because I didn't really think at that point a field goal would win the game. That's why I went for it on fourth down.

I called that quarterback sneak. The field had gotten wet. His feet just kind of slipped. It really wasn't a good call. I told our coaches that after the fact. We had a chance on the fake punt, chance on the on-side kick, but just wasn't one of those nights that all of that worked.

But very proud of Thomas continuing to focus and continuing to compete at a high level. Was it perfect? No. He knows that. But, you know, when you do it when you have to do it, that's pretty impressive.

Q. David, this game win was important to you and the seniors. They've been through a lot of personal tragedy in their time at Duke. With all that as a backdrop, tell us what that locker room was like.
COACH CUTCLIFFE: There's tears. There were tears on the field. We just about broke the platform down. I don't know if y'all stayed out there during the trophy presentation. Just so many players wanting to be up around there. It's just emotional.

I'm okay now. I wasn't when I walked into that locker room to have to say good-bye to so many of those young people that you love. Then it dawned on me, they know they're home at our facility. I told them that. They're not really going away.

Right as we were arriving here on the bus I got a great text from Laken Tomlinson. That helped me because I realized they're never gone. That's one of the big beauties of our program.

Q. Obviously Thomas took that shot there on second down. If the game would have continued, was he done or was he able to come back in?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: I think he was done at that point. We'll evaluate it. I doesn't look horrific. I even hesitate to say that until we get a little better look.

Our guys are so good at initial evaluation that I don't think he could have continued to compete in that game.

Q. Given the way the Miami game went and the losing streak that followed, does it say something about the character of your team that you were able to beat Wake Forest, come out here and win a bowl game?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Yeah, particularly the way we won the bowl game. At any point there, a team could have become dejected. I never saw any of that, not just our players, but from our staff. I'm going back and forth on the phones between the offensive and defensive staffs. We had a lot of great conversation about how we were going to win the game. Not hoping, I'm talking about how, exactly what we were going to do, what we were going to run, what approach we would take defensively, overtime, et cetera, red zone reminders, which is what overtime ball is.

I was really proud that our staff just continued to coach, believing we were going to win the game. That's a critical thing. And the players were all in the entire time.

Q. In terms of the game, the high-scoring game, how fortunate are you to be standing there on the platform hoisting the trophy, the kicks aside?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, that kind of game is what you're seeing more and more in college football. You look at both of our schedules, you look at college football across the board, and sometimes I look at the game and I wonder what in the world you do to play defense. What do you tell a DB to compete and not get an interference call. What do you tell a linebacker when they got the ball in a mesh, suddenly they're pulling it out and throwing it behind him. It's very difficult.

I think college football has changed abruptly in that regard over the last three to four years. Is it the right trend? I don't know. But it's certainly a trend.

Q. Pretty much a perfect day on special teams.
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Zac Roper, our special teams coordinator, is the best there is in the business. He is so meticulous in preparation. That passion for it, that intensity, is something that's contagious to our players. We work hard in that area. But you ought to come to a special teams meeting at Duke if you want to have some fun. There's nothing passive about it. Our guys are coaching, they're into it, energized. It's noisy most of the time. I love that because it's theirs. They take ownership in that. Zac has done a great job in that regard.

I think if Deav could have stopped himself, gone ahead and tucked it, that was going to happen. Their kid made a good play in the end. But I'm anxious to see that one on tape. We really did feel like we could hit that one somewhere in there. Will threw a good ball. That's another part of it.

Q. Coach, you mentioned 1961. How much did that weigh on your guys? They've only been here four years. How much did you talk about that with the guys?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, we've talked about it a lot. Because of the four-year streak of playing in bowl games, why wouldn't you mention it? I like goals. But I like milestones better than I do goals. Milestones come along during the season for different reasons and different circumstances.

First time ever eight or more wins. First time since 1961. That's a milestone. There's so many things happening in Duke football right now that that's kind of how we approach it.

We've had back-to-back consensus All-Americans two years in a row. I don't know if that's ever happened. There's so many positives about our players. They've done this. Don't mistake any part of it. These are all milestones that the players have accomplished on the field. That's beautiful. They've also done it off the field.

The first thing I did in that locker room was sincerely, and I don't want to get emotional again, thank our seniors for all they've meant to all of us, their contributions. I thanked them most for raising the bar. The expectations of Duke football continue to grow. That's a big deal.

Q. Coach, in the past we heard you say the next step was to have that team hoist a trophy at the end of the year. Now that it's happened...
COACH CUTCLIFFE: ...make it a habit.

Q. What does it mean to this program going forward?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Personally it was so much fun to just sit back and watch our players. I was doing an interview with ABC. I couldn't really hardly talk for wanting to watch our players. That's joy. There was so much joy in my heart, I almost just forgot where I was. I almost forgot there was going to be a trophy presentation, et cetera.

My next step, I want to be better at the trophy presentation than I was tonight. I want to grow in that regard.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you and congratulations again.

COACH CUTCLIFFE: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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