ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

July 21, 2021

David Cutcliffe

Duke Blue Devils

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Cutcliffe.

Q. Ended the season at Notre Dame, held them to no first downs in the first quarter. Until they had a fake punt that worked, you were dominating the game. From that promising start, what were some of the factors that happened to cause Duke's season to get away from you?

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: That's the first time I've been asked that question. We asked ourselves that quite a bit as reviewed during the season.

I thought we played well. We were healthier than we had been. We had an unusual off-season where 140 days our team was not together, couldn't come to campus. I think there were so many different factors.

But in the end, as I viewed it, I learned a lot of lessons for a 45th year of coaching just how important my job as a head coach is of putting everybody in the best position they can be.

There are no excuses. You go play to win, and regardless of what your team looks like. I think I learned the culture, the chemistry of a team is built from January. I've had an old saying, there's an old farmer's saying that you plant well in the spring or beg well come fall. I think I realized more and more how critically important planting from January all the way through the summer is to be able to sustain a season.

I'm very proud of those young people. Their commitment to each other was impressive. I wished I would have put them in a better position to be successful. But I think that all that we went through will be a part of who we are the rest of our lives.

So I'm not going to blow that season off as a loss. I think we learned a great deal.

Q. You led the nation in turnovers last year. How do you emphasize and discipline and get that message to your team about ball security?

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: That is not the first time I've heard that question (smiling). Rightfully so.

Obviously, we have studied that. I've never had an issue with that in my career until the last two years. Again, that goes back to habits. It goes back to a head coach. You select the people on the staff, the players, everybody involved. You create a practice schedule that creates good habits, if you're doing a good job.

But then most importantly you evaluate it. I've gone back and looked at practice tape, just random Tuesday and Wednesday practices. If you're not doing everything you should do, every drill matters when it comes to ball security. It matters that your team, and I believe these young men believe me, they have to do a better job of giving them ownership.

If you rant and rave about ball security, it's like being in a slump or when I couldn't hit free throws, whatever. The more you hear negative, maybe the tougher it gets to get out of that slump.

I'm asking our squad to own their habits. I'm asking our staff collectively to own that habit. But my job, it still falls on David Cutcliffe to ensure as a head football coach this is all happening right.

So I take full responsibility. And if you don't take care of the football, you're not going to win. That's been the biggest issue we have faced on the scoreboard. The only statistic that really matters is points per game. I don't know of anything that affects it more than turning the ball over because every one of those you're not scoring.

Q. Name, image and likeness is something that is obviously surrounding all of collegiate athletics right now. Being a coach as you have for so many years, what can you say about what you know of it and what you think of it as we step forward?

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I've been fortunate to serve on different NCAA committees, including the Football Oversight Committee. Had a lot of previous conversations. I think it's a great thing that a player has the opportunity to own and build their image.

I told our players name, image and likeness, we used to call it reputation. Let's not forget that as you build this.

The intention is for a player to be able to build an image and benefit from it. There's a lot of ways you can do it, through even social media. You don't need representation. You can give private lessons at an appropriate time.

What you can't do with name, image and likeness is get so carried away with it that you erode your image. It can be a dangerous thing.

It also should not be a part of the recruiting climate. I winched when I saw a quote from a state legislator, We have to get this law passed, this is hurting us in recruiting. That's not the intent of this. The intent, again, is ownership that's earned. That's a fair assessment of life.

I think my job as a coach is to really try to help parents and players understand, not only once they're in your program but in the recruiting process, that this is not a good selection of a school based on if that's what you're looking for. That's never been the premium value of college football.

It's been my whole life college football. So I embrace the opportunity. I think it's great. But I think a lot of people are going to have to learn how to manage it, not just players, families, coaches, media. There's a lot of responsibility to our great game to make sure that we're very good to our players with this in an appropriate manner.

Q. Can you walk us through the recruitment of Gunnar Holmberg and his progress to this point.

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, Gunnar started recruiting me (laughter). No, I'm just kidding, Gunnar.

Gunnar game into quarterback camp and was just so impressive as an athlete, as an enthusiastic young quarterback. Right off of bat, I don't remember if you remember this, Gunnar, but your 40 was 4.5. It popped my eyes wide open. His character.

Then as we recruited Gunnar, the story surrounding Gunnar ended up in our area, getting to know his mom, what a great mom she had been after Gunnar's father had lost his life, just how close the three -- his sister, his mom, and he -- were throughout all of this.

Watching him develop not only as a player but as a person has been extremely important for me. To see his mother celebrate his success. He's a graduate student. Can you believe that? I never got to be a graduate student. My grades got in the way. I'd have been a Rhodes scholar if it hadn't been for my grades, Gunnar.

But he's a graduate student. Just really proud of him.

Q. There's a lot of turnover on the roster this year. You are bringing just under half your starters. What positional group are you looking forward to most see progress this season?

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: It depends upon how you look at our team as far as the number of starters returning.

I think the biggest challenge that we would face is the loss in the defensive line. But we got a lot of young talent. We've got more depth than we've had at that position. Competition always strengthens a team.

So DeWayne and I have talked a lot about that recently. He obviously is a very experienced player. But I'm excited about what they're going to do. I'm excited about every position we have.

Really, I think this team, since we've been at Duke, and this is going into year 14, has the most balance and competition at every position. That is always in my past made a football team better.

Q. Last year the ACC went with no divisional play. This year you're back to divisions. Having experienced both now, which do you prefer? Does it even really matter?

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I personally like -- I've been part of division play in the Southeastern Conference. I think it creates more excitement for the player to have the opportunity to win a division championship so you get into November where college football gets really serious, where champions are determined. You're going to end up having five or six teams in the hunt for an opportunity to be an ACC champion with division play. I think it's the better way to go.

It's no different than you'd see in professional sports. You're trying to win your division. So I think it's much more player-friendly than the other way.

Q. You're opening with two Friday games on the schedule. When you talk about forming habits, routine, what does that mean for your preparation? Do you think it's an advantage for you to start off with the Friday games whereas other teams have those later in the season?

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: We've got two Fridays and a Thursday. They present challenges. If we're going to play on Fridays, and we are in college football, then I do like Friday-Friday rather than a Saturday and then a Friday, et cetera. The short weeks are what gets hard.

I don't think there's any advantage to any of it. I do think early in the season if I'm going to do it I'd rather do it there because we do have a little time as a staff on Saturday to really evaluate the game, catch up, then you got a Sunday following that.

But I've gone into a lot of detail with our practice schedules already. It requires a lot of overtime work in the summer. So it is always going to be a challenge to play on a non-traditional day.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.