It was a funny way for David Cutcliffe—the brains behind Duke’s football program—to begin preseason media day Aug. 11.
“Do you guys know that 70 years ago today, the Wizard of Oz was released?” Cutcliffe asked with a wide grin. “And I’m still looking for a brain, a heart and some courage.”
Cutcliffe said his favorite character was the Scarecrow, but on Duke’s campus, he might be the Tin Man. For though Cutcliffe’s work is on the gridiron and not the Yellow Brick Road, his attempt to turn around Duke Football—if successful—would prove that he, like the movie’s metallic protagonist, has had brains all along.
You could call Year One with Cutcliffe at the helm the “Anything-But-Roof Era.” It was about having a new face atop the program, winning multiple games for the first time since 2004. It was about not wanting to be the laughingstock of the NCAA or an opponent’s dream matchup. The Blue Devils won four games and seemed to at least compete in almost every game. Cutcliffe is confident he has the personnel to take another step forward this season. He looks at Year Two as an opportunity to build upon last year’s small successes. And yet, no one on the outside seems to believe his unit has the stuff of a winning team.
Vegas Insider has set the over/under for Duke wins at 3.5 for a team that returns a three-year starter at quarterback in Thaddeus Lewis and returns 13 of its offensive and defensive starters. In late July, the ACC’s media outlets predicted that the Blue Devils would finish last in the ACC Costal Division. Duke received the least votes of any team in the conference from the media.
And for students, if we are being perfectly honest, the football game has never been Saturday’s main event. At most schools, tailgates are a warm-up, a pregame. At Duke, “Tailgate” is the event, the reason to wake up at 9 a.m. on the weekend, the justification for carefully chosen, clashing clothes and ridiculous costumes. Football is seemingly the optional after-party. Will that change?
If Cutcliffe is painting his masterpiece, few have the foresight to watch the strokes take form.
Despite it all, Cutcliffe keeps his cool and never wavers in his sincere enthusiasm despite the doubts of his program’s disbelievers. In front of an entire room of reporters—the most vocal of his detractors—Cutcliffe keeps it light, sprinkling in jokes and metaphors as he maneuvers through questions. When he says that his favorite four-letter words are “hard work,” it seems like he really means it. I believe him, and I don’t think I’m being naïve.
I believe him because of the way he has stood his ground in the past. After his only losing season at Ole Miss in 2004, Athletics Director Pete Boone asked Cutcliffe to provide a detailed plan to improve the team. The Rebels had gone 4-7 and lost a number of close games—four games lost by a total of 19 points.
Then again, Cutcliffe had lost his All-American quarterback from the previous year’s team that went 10-3 in Eli Manning. The shoes were difficult to fill, and Cutcliffe struggled to immediately find an apt replacement on the roster.
Cutcliffe was asked to fire his assistant coaches and refused. What some people called maintaining the status quo, Cutcliffe saw it as confidence in and loyalty to his staff. He was soon fired despite going 44-29 in six seasons.
Maybe Cutcliffe’s Rebels didn’t need a complete reinvention. Maybe they just needed—to use Cutcliffe’s favorite words—some hard work. And maybe Cutcliffe, had he not been fired, would have done better than the 3-8, 4-8 and 3-9 records the Rebels put together over the following three seasons.
Fortunately for Cutcliffe, winning four games at Duke is an achievement. If the coach’s team matches that total for the second consecutive year, it will have actually exceeded expectations.
If Duke somehow pulls off a berth to a bowl game, Cutcliffe will look like a genius, and everyone might see that the Tin Man had a brain all along.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.