This summer, David Cutcliffe did his best impression of a door-to-door salesman, yapping away at potential recruits-fans, not players.
The first-year head coach crisscrossed the Southeast on the inaugural Duke Athletics Tour, visiting nine cities from Atlanta and Knoxville, Tenn. to more local venues in Raleigh and Durham. At each stop, Cutcliffe held a pep rally of sorts to promote his new team.
"Obviously, just ramping up what we are doing for football was the main reason for [the tour]," said Bart Smith, director of athletic promotions.
The idea was spearheaded by Mark Carter, the director of the newly created Gridiron Society, an offshoot of the Iron Dukes. He had previously run an athletic promotions tour when he was at Tennessee with Cutcliffe, the former Volunteer offensive coordinator.
Cutcliffe himself had a central role in the planning stages-he had experience doing similar events with his previous coaching jobs at Ole Miss and in Knoxville.
In retrospect, everyone involved was pleased with the community response, and, as expected, the Raleigh and Durham stops attracted the biggest crowds.
"The turnout was great," Smith said. "The lowest turnout was probably about 150 people and then upwards to about 300-350 people."
In addition to raising excitement and awareness, the tour also had financial motivations. Duke Athletics officials sold season ticket packages, hoping to capitalize on Blue Devil fans' newfound hopes and excitements. The mere announcement of the new regime coming to town sparked modest season ticket sales in the tour's various locations, but the real windfall came after Cutcliffe spoke.
On the early leg of the tour, Duke sold 52 season tickets in Charlotte, N.C., 50 in Atlanta, 44 in Greensboro, N.C., 32 in Wilson, N.C., 65 in Wilmington, N.C. and 22 in Knoxville.
Smith said the tour will be back next year, and plans are in the works for additional sports to come along.
"We will probably stick closely with the Southeast, with the focus being people that we want to buy season tickets and can come to games," Smith said. "We do want to look at adding some additional places, but we do want to stick in the surrounding states."
If Cutcliffe and the rest of the athletic department can convince 22 people to make the five-hour drive from Knoxville and 50 to make the seven-hour drive from Atlanta, logic says that the local fans will, in fact, come out to support Duke Football if it really has that new-and-improved look everyone is hoping for.
Cutcliffe certainly expects it will.
"It's the dawn of a new day," he said to a radio station in Knoxville. "By gosh, we're going to win some football games. You wait and see."
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