Mental edge is Duke’s best shot

At Tuesday’s weekly press conference, head coach David Cutcliffe fielded a pointed, but fair, question about getting ready for the Miami Hurricanes. “How do you get [the players] over Georgia Tech and over the injury situation against a team where you’d already be giving away athleticism even if you were healthy,” the reporter asked, “and sell them on a belief that they can go down [to Miami] and keep the stated goal of a bowl game alive?” Without hesitation, Cutcliffe told the throng of reporters to get the man a crown since he had asked the best question of the day. While the crowd got a good chuckle out of it, there’s no ignoring just how significant the question is. The simple reality is that at nearly every position—except quarterback, where the two teams are probably equal—the Hurricanes have a distinct talent and athletic advantage. Georgia Tech had tremendous athletes, but Miami has even better ones (which showed in the teams’ early-season matchup, when the Yellow Jackets suffered their only loss, 33-17). And as seen on the deep passes Georgia Tech completed Saturday, Duke’s athletic disadvantage is pretty glaring. Last year, the Hurricanes were an average team with good talent that struggled with consistency. The Blue Devils fell badly to that team on Homecoming weekend, 49-31, in a game Cutcliffe felt his team quit on before the fourth quarter. And as stated before, Miami is infinitely better this year (though not necessarily more consistent, which is one thing Duke has an advantage in). So, Cutcliffe, how are you going to talk to your team? “I can give you 5,000 reasons why we won’t win,” Cutcliffe said. “But if I give you 5,000 reasons why we won’t win, I’ve got to give you 5,000 things we’re going to do about it.” Cutcliffe then explained that the one thing Duke has going for it in this contest is its brainpower and cunning. He used an analogy that brought images of gladiator battles to the forefront. “Human beings wouldn’t rule the earth if we didn’t have our minds,” Cutcliffe said. “If you put all of us out there on a field and have an equal number of lions and tigers, the only damn chance we’ve got is to use our minds!” The power of Cutcliffe’s mind has definitely shown in games that Duke had no business being competitive in. Consider, for example, last year’s contest against Virginia Tech. The Blue Devils took on the eventual Orange Bowl champions at Lane Stadium, in freezing, snowy conditions and without starting quarterback Thaddeus Lewis. Then-quarterback Zack Asack couldn’t throw, and Duke’s running backs could never find any openings. Yet somehow, thanks to a suffocating defense and opportunistic scrambles by Asack, the Blue Devils only trailed 7-3 with just over two minutes remaining in the game. Duke eventually lost that contest 14-3, but the fact that the Blue Devils even had a chance to win in the fourth speaks volumes about Cutcliffe’s coaching and motivational abilities. But in this upcoming contest, it’s not him who will motivate the team, but the players themselves, he said. “When I get on that plane, I want to believe we’re going to play not with hopes of winning but knowing we’re going to win—and it’s exactly what my conversation with them was Sunday night,” Cutcliffe said. “I can’t answer [how to get that mindset] for them, nor do that for them.” Instead, the players will need to use their minds and figure out their how to win their own individual battles. How does Vincent Rey effectively keep track of running backs Graig Cooper and Damien Berry? How does Lewis manage to keep track of the Hurricanes’ linebackers? How will the offensive line plan for their counterparts tendencies on pass rushes? To do that, they will need a work ethic that Cutcliffe summed up in four words: total, focused, sincere and intense. If any single one is missing, the thought going onto the plane is not, “we will win,” but “we could win.” And against a team that has such a physical advantage, a mental edge is probably Duke’s only shot at keeping its slimming bowl dreams alive.