When Jake Bentley announced he would be leaving USC, there was some speculation he might end up in Durham. Unfortunately, Utah was the front runner and is where Bentley ended up. While Luca Diamont and Gunnar Holmberg look promising, they lack the experience that Bentley has. The Blue Devils’ quarterbacks will be lacking in that area next season.
While Duke struck out on Bentley, they also missed out on bringing back Matt Luke. As you probably remember, Luke was on Coach Cutcliffe’s first Duke staff in 2008. He coached the offensive line and served as the co-offensive coordinator. Luke stayed at Duke until the end of the 2011 season when he returned to Ole Miss. Towards the end of his time in Durham, Duke’s OL included Matt Skura, Cody Robinson, Lucas Patrick, Dave Harding, Takoby Cofield and Laken Tomlinson. Three of those guys made it to the NFL and Cofield played in the CFL. Not bad.
Luke took over as the head coach at Ole Miss in 2017. While he didn’t win a lot of games, he recruited well and Ole Miss’ young team lost a lot of close games this season. It seemed like he was building something special. It would have been nice to get him back in Durham to see if he could improve the OL.
As with Bentley, that isn’t going to happen. Luke took a job at Georgia as the assistant head coach/OL coach. He’ll stay in the SEC and our offense will continue to struggle.
What does all of this mean for next season? It means Duke will have an inexperienced quarterback. It also means that Cutcliffe will likely not make a staff overhaul. While there may not have been a real shot at getting Matt Luke to come back to Durham, it is a little concerning to see a good OL coach with ties to Cutcliffe not come back to the program. Perhaps Cutcliffe is looking to bring in someone else, but I doubt it. I just don’t see Cutcliffe making significant changes.
Anyone disagree? Anyone think that Cutcliffe is planning something big in regard to the staff? Let us know.
Bull City Coordinators - A Duke Football and Roman History Blog 
Totally agree with you and it’s discouraging that Cut won’t do what’s best for the program.
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Was hoping Duke could get an experienced QB for at least one year out of the transfer portal . Our defense better really be good to keep us in games . Just hope our inexperienced QBs over achieve this year . Hope it don’t hurt ticket sales .
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I would have loved it had Duke gotten Bentley so that Holmberg and Diamont could develop for a year. That said, I think those guys can play. As long as the defense tackles and doesn’t try to strip the ball all the time, Duke should be OK. Maybe 5-6 wins. Not great, but a transition year.
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