It’ll be months before Duke takes the field for a game at Wallace Wade Stadium, but head coach David Cutcliffe said that Wednesday may have been the most important day of the college football year.
The Blue Devils added 20 new players to their program on National Signing Day, as high school players across the country faxed their official letters of intent to the college programs where they’ll suit up next season.
Cutcliffe praised his recruiting class for its achievements on and off the field.
“Their grade-point averages, their commitment to their communities and their schools are unlike anything as a group that I’ve seen,” he said, “And their performance on the field is phenomenal.”
The recruiting class isn’t studded with stars according to the major recruiting services. Scout.com didn’t rank any of Duke’s recruits higher than three stars, and ESPN gave just one four-star grade to a Duke signee. Still, Cutcliffe is confident in the players he’s locked up.
“I truly don’t pay a lot of attention to [the star rankings],” he said. “There are great football players that never have a star by their names. It’s just too enormous—the country’s too big for anybody to be that accurate.”
The coaching staff is also pleased with the geographic breakdown of both their new class and existing program. They are making significant inroads with local talent, as they add five more players from North Carolina to a team that already has 23 local products, up from just eight when Cutcliffe took over the program. As for the 15 recruits from outside of North Carolina, Cutcliffe was happy to say that they come from 10 different states, calling this a testament to broadened recruiting efforts and the nationwide appeal of Duke.
Cutcliffe was also proud that 19 of his 20 signees have been verbally committed to Duke since the summer.
“They’ve been pulled and tugged at over and over again by many schools,” he said. “Yet 19 of the 20 made only one official visit, and that was to Duke. That’s being committed.”
That 20th recruit was something of a signing-day surprise for the Blue Devils: 6-foot-5, 246-pound tight end David Reeves waited until the deadline to choose Duke over offers from strong programs like Georgia Tech and Mississippi State and whispers of interest from Auburn.
The 20-man class has talent on both sides of the ball, but according to many experts, the headliner of the class will appear on special teams.
Will Monday, a 6-foot-4 placekicker and punter, was ranked as the No. 1 punter in his class by Scout.com. He was the MVP of his Georgia high school team his senior year before being named to the under-19 U.S. national team.
Duke didn’t sign a quarterback or a running back this year, which is unusual, but Cutcliffe said the Blue Devils didn’t intend to add players at either of those positions.
“The theme on offense really was up front,” he said. “We knew we needed to have a tremendous year with the offensive front. We feel much better about where we’re headed in that regard.”
Five offensive linemen committed to the Blue Devils, and four of them ranked in the top 100 nationally at their positions according to Scout.
The other major need according to Cutcliffe was on defense, where Duke was aggressive at all positions, bringing in three defensive linemen, four linebackers and three defensive backs. The defensive class is highlighted by 6-foot-7, 250-pound defensive lineman Sam Marshall, speedy defensive backs Jared Boyd and Tim Burton and linebacker Kyler Brown, the younger—but bigger—brother of current Duke linebacker Kelby Brown.
“This is when you start surging and hopefully building this [program],” Cutcliffe said. “You’re trying to look at this and not let anything be an accident.”
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