More than a week before the start of the 2010 season, Duke had already sold out its season ticket allotment. These increased sales were a major sign of how much the Duke football program has changed in the two-plus years since head coach David Cutcliffe took the helm back on December 15, 2007. Along with the volume of ticket sales, something else has changed within Wallace Wade: expectations.
Cutcliffe arrived in Durham to a tremendous amount of fanfare for a school with a long and storied tradition as a basketball program, but nothing more than a neglected football program that had become the laughingstock of the entirety of Division I-A. Ted Roof had given Blue Devil supporters very little to buzz about by posting a 6-45 record in his four-plus years at the school. Even the most ardent supporters of Duke athletics had stopped showing up to see Duke get squashed week after week. And Duke students went to Tailgate and then stumbled back to their dorm rooms to watch the ABC telecast of that particular weekend’s national showdown.
However, almost immediately after arriving on campus, Cutcliffe was making his presence felt in a variety of ways and letting the Blue Devil faithful know that times were changing.
He began by immediately proclaiming to anyone that would listen that he was on a mission to warp Duke into perennial ACC contention. Whether it was speaking to boosters to encourage donations, to students to encourage attendance or to the media to proclaim his plan, it was clear that Cutcliffe was confident in his vision for the program.
And the results begin to speak for themselves quickly. At one of his first meetings with his players, the new coach demanded that they lose a collective 1,000 pounds to improve late-game performance, and the team responded to the challenge. In the season opener his first year against James Madison, a crowd of 32,571 showed up in the rain to watch the new look Blue Devils dominate in a 31-7 win.
After opening up the ACC slate with a 31-3 blowout of Virginia and moving to 3-1 overall, there was speculation that Duke might be bowl-bound in Cutcliffe’s inaugural season. However, after several subsequent tough defeats and road woes down the stretch, the team finished at 4-8. This was still a smashing success relative to the one combined win in the two previous seasons.
Many people were beginning to take notice. Highly touted recruits that before wouldn’t have considered the Blue Devils were on campus for visits, and 4-star local running back Desmond Scott picked Duke over a collection of other offers. Duke alums Steve Brooks and Bob Pascal were impressed by the immediate progress and opened up their wallets to the tune of $10 million to upgrade facilities.
Year two, though, didn’t begin as quite the smashing success. The Blue Devils faltered in their season opener to Division 1-AA Richmond and had an early season blowout loss at Kansas, a top 25 opponent.
There were plenty of highlights, many of which came from signal caller Thaddeus Lewis, who became just the second ACC quarterback in history to throw for 10,000 yards in a career. But Duke finished with four straight losses, and Cutcliffe was unable to turn a 5-3 midseason mark into a bowl berth.
Now we enter year three, and Cutcliffe is back after spurning an offseason courtship from Tennessee. He now faces the burden of lofty expectations, a new phenomenon in Durham since his arrival. With three years worth of players he recruited on the roster and talented quarterback Sean Renfree taking over, for many it is bowl game or bust this year.
While bust would not mean Cutcliffe’s job—there is almost certainly no one who would be a stronger candidate—he will learn what so many other leaders in society know. If you provide people with progress and better-than-anticipated performance, humans’ natural greedy inclinations will lead to them wanting and expecting more.
In the past, Duke football was nothing more than a losing boxscore to check in the paper on Sunday morning. Now people are filling Wallace Wade Stadium, in sellout numbers, no less, expecting victories. Hopefully, Cutcliffe will be able to reward this increased interest.
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