Coach Cut, we have you to thank

In his inaugural address many years ago, Duke’s president, William Preston Few, opined that the University “must not be content to ride upon whatever may happen to be the popular wave,” but “must resist fads and bad tendencies, as well as encourage and direct right tendencies.” One of these right tendencies, Few believed, was the development of a campus culture in which athletics were complementary to academics. He wasn’t the only one who believed this, however, for former President Terry Sanford once remarked that Duke has “endeavored to remain true to [its] academic purposes and to place athletics in the role of wholesome adjunct to university life.” Today, Duke athletics are inseparable from the distinct culture that defines our University. It all started in the early 1930s, when Few appointed William Wannamaker as the chair of Athletic Council committee. At that time, no one foresaw an athletic department that would partially define Duke for decades to come.

It was the ethos of what Sanford once referred to as “outrageous ambition” that drove Wannamaker to reach out to Wallace Wade, then a stellar football coach at the University of Alabama. Having served as head football coach at Alabama for eight seasons—the last of which saw the Crimson Tide attain yet another Rose Bowl victory and national championship, Wade was unreservedly considered one of the nation’s best coaches. Accordingly, it surprised many when he decided to leave Alabama to become the athletic director and head football coach of a school that had never before been recognized for distinction in football or any other sport at the time. Nonetheless, Wade’s success at Alabama translated well to the University’s developing program. In the 16 years that Wade served as coach, the football team won seven Southern Conference Championships, attended two Rose Bowls and ranked as high as second and third in the AP Poll. For his achievements, Wade was eventually inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame and became the namesake of the University’s football stadium.

Though initially hesitant to describe why he left Alabama for Duke, Wade eventually disclosed his answer to a sports historian later in his life. As William King, the former university archivist indicated, his reason “was not the challenge of reviving another dormant football program, nor was it for the money.” Rather, Wade’s “philosophy regarding athletics and academics fit perfectly with that of the Duke administration.”

Wade’s legacy drove Duke’s football team, then under the program’s next coach, Bill Murray, to win six of the first 10 ACC football championships between 1953 and 1962. Murray would retire as the last football coach to leave the Blue Devils with a winning record until 1987, when Steve Spurrier, current head football coach at the University of South Carolina, accepted a coaching position with the University. In between, the University’s football program became stagnant, with various coaches, including Tom Harp, Mike McGee, Shirley Wilson and Steve Sloan, attempting rather fruitlessly to resume the successes of Wade and Murray. It wasn’t until Spurrier arrived, however, that the “cellar-dweller of the ACC” claimed its first conference title and first bowl appearance since Murray served as head coach two decades earlier. Unfortunately, Spurrier would eventually leave Duke to accept a head coaching position at the University of Florida. Rice University’s football coach, Fred Goldsmith, would eventually succeed him, leading the team to attain an 8-1 record and brief national ranking before succumbing to a losing record two years later. Carl Franks, a former assistant coach under Spurrier, was hired in replacement of Goldsmith, but likewise failed to deliver the team out of its rapid decline. Franks, like Goldsmith, was eventually fired and replaced by his defensive coordinator, Ted Roof. Roof, however, similarly struggled as the head football coach and, after attaining a dismal 6-45 record, succumbed to a fate similar to that of his two predecessors.

From the retirement of Wallace Wade until a few years ago, Duke’s football program had meandered along an undefined and confusing course. Resultantly, the Board of Trustees approved the Department of Athletics’ plan, “Unrivaled Ambition,” which called for an increased investment in Duke football and other sports. The plan indicated that “the immediate task facing the new coaching staff is to change the entire culture of the program.” For decades, the football program had strived, sometimes successfully and other times unsuccessfully, to find another coach who exemplified the commitment, perseverance and passion that defined Wallace Wade. It was certainly no coincidence that the program had discovered these qualities in a coach whose alma matter hosted Wade for many years. They had found a man who—similar to Wade—was passionate about the mission of the University and its balance between academics and athletics, perseverant in his task to restore the football program despite all difficulties and committed neither to salary nor prestige, but to the prospect of finally charting a course and defining a legacy. They had found David Cutcliffe.

Known for having turned around Tennessee’s program and coaching Peyton and Eli Manning, Cutcliffe was considered to be very persistent. Additionally, his refusal to fire his assistant coaches at the request of University of Mississippi athletic director Pete Boon, which resulted in his own subsequent firing, demonstrated an unmatched commitment. It was Cutcliffe’s passion for balancing athletics and academics, however, that guaranteed he would be, as former athletics director Joe Alleva once said, “the right man to lead our football program to the excellence that is synonymous with Duke.” In an interview with The Chronicle four years ago, Cutcliffe admitted, “I've got a Duke education in my suitcase. I know we're not going to attract every kid,” he continued, “but if an education is not important to a kid, then that kid's not important to me.”

Cutcliffe revived Duke’s program with success only similar to that of Wade himself. In his first season, he led Duke to its first ACC victory since 2004. Five years later, and the team would muster up five wins and seven losses, the closest the school had come to bowl eligibility since a decade earlier. Duke football was slowly, yet effectively, gaining ground. Nonetheless, the football world was shocked to learn, in 2010, that Cutcliffe would refuse a head coaching position at Tennessee—the school he had dreamt of coaching at since he was an assistant there in the 1980s—following Lane Kiffin’s sudden departure. “We’re a group,” Cutcliffe said when asked about his decision. “We’ve invested a lot in each other’s lives, so wherever we go, we go together.”

Last year, after a close win against North Carolina, Duke became bowl eligible for the first time since 1994, and Cutcliffe was named ACC Coach of the Year. Soon thereafter, Cutcliffe agreed to a contract extension through June 2019, claiming that, “We've accomplished some of the goals we laid out five years ago, but are nowhere close to where we want to be.” Indeed, not until recently had Duke seen a coach as committed to the program as Wallace Wade. This year, Duke football has achieved its first win over a ranked team as well as its first winning season in over a decade. After its sixth straight win this past weekend, Duke appeared in the AP Poll for the first time since Goldsmith served as head coach of the program years ago.