February 2020 – Bull City Coordinators

Mark Gilbert Back?

If any of you guys follow our Twitter account (which you should, duh), you’ve noticed that Mark Gilbert has been tweeting some pretty awesome pictures lately. What are these pictures of? Him suited up to play some football.

Gilbert, a shutdown, game-changing corner who lived on the eponymous Gilbert Island, hasn’t been on the field since 2018 when he suffered a possibly career ending hip dislocation against Northwestern. That was the same game Daniel Jones broke his collar bone and what looked like a promising season turned into one plagued by injuries. While Duke finished with 8 wins, that season is forever a “What if?” season that included the Blue Devils leading eventual national champ Clemson 6-0 after the first quarter. It turned into a loss, but it makes you think. Oh well.

When Gilbert went down, I thought he may never play again. The images had a Bo Jackson feel to them. While going through the recovery process, Gilbert required a second surgery last year. We all hoped he would come back, but many of us had to wonder. And, fortunately, it looks like any of us who did have been proven wrong.

We could spend a lot of time posting about how Gilbert playing would make a tremendous impact on the secondary, the defense and the team as a whole. We could talk about what to expect from him after not playing for so long. We’re not, though.

Instead, we’re going to say how amazing it is that Gilbert may suit up and play this season. Not every player could come back from this terrible of an injury, two hip surgeries and the recovery process. It isn’t easy to come back from what Gibert went through and we here couldn’t be happier to see him making what appears to be a full recovery. Gilbert playing would be great – but him being healthy and happy is more important.

Congrats, Mark! Your perseverance is an inspiration to all of us.

Cutcliffe To Take Over Play Calling

Following a big weekend filled with additions for the Blue Devils, Duke announced that head coach David Cutcliffe would be taking over the play-calling duties.

Offensive coordinator Zac Roper, who was much maligned after a less than stellar performance from the Blue Devils offense in his tenure, will remain on staff and coach the quarterbacks, but the responsibilities for directing the offense falls squarely on Cutcliffe’s shoulders.

New Quarterback inspired moved?

Over the weekend Duke landed highly sought after transfer quarterback Chase Brice who left National runner up Clemson and has served as Trevor Lawrence’s back up.

The prevailing thought is that Cutcliffe’s history as a quarterback guru helped steer Brice to Durham and perhaps this fact was the inspiration for Cutcliffe to dust off the coordinator hat and take over an offense which took several steps back this past season.

If you buy a new car chances are you don’t want your teenage kid behind the wheel.

And while a lot of the blame for the offense’s short comings fell on Roper, Cutcliffe, ever the loyalist to his staff, kept him on staff but is taking the keys to the car.

A Familiar Role

Cutcliffe led the offense at Tennessee where he famously coached Peyton Manning and helped the Volunteers win a National Title in 1998 with quarterback Tee Martin.

He then took the head coaching job at Ole Miss coaching Eli Manning and, after being fired for failing to bend to the wills of the boosters, accepted the offensive coordinator job at Notre Dame.

Cutcliffe was unable to coach the Irish following a health scare and after time away to recover returned to Tennessee as offensive coordinator before taking the job at Duke.

Weapons to Choose From

Cutcliffe, who said in a conference call that he has been missing and wanting to get back into the game management of the offense, has plenty of weapons.

The offensive line picked up some additions in the off season and return a lot of experienced players. The running back stable featuring Mataeo Durrant and Deon Jackson could be electric if healthy and the receiving corps has a lot of young talent who should give Brice a lot of reliable targets.

Time will tell whether Cutcliffe’s move to primary offensive play caller will pay dividends for the Blue Devils but it may be the change to maximize what is suddenly turning into an intriguing football season ahead for perhaps a run at the ACC Coastal title.

2020 Outlook – Two Big Additions

It was one heck of a 72 hours for the Blue Devils. Clemson backup QB Chase Brice and Stanford OT Devery Hamilton visited on Saturday. Then on Sunday, word broke that Brice was coming to Duke. On Monday, Hamilton made the same announcement. What does this mean for the program? The only way to describe it is that these commitments are a big freaking deal.

Hamilton is 6-7 / 300 and from Maryland. He chose Duke over Pittsburgh and Indiana – no small accomplishment for the Blue Devils coaching staff. Hamilton came out of high school as a 4-star recruit which is out of step with the 3-star recruits Duke customarily lands. Hamilton also started at Stanford until the injury bug hit him.

As for Brice, he has two years of eligibility left. He comes to Durham after backing up some pretty good Clemson QBs. I’ve seen different things about Brice coming out of high school. Some list him as a pro-style QB, some say dual-threat. That said, most agree he was a 3-star recruit who isn’t the best runner, but is a smart player. The buzz is overwhelmingly positive. Word is Dabo Swinney really talked him up while he was transferring and the Clemson players love him. Around 30 schools were after Brice including Miami, Maryland and Purdue. He chose Duke.

Let that sink in. He chose Duke.

To ask my earlier question again, what does this mean for Duke? It means there is a talent upgrade and more weapons for Greg Frey, the new OL coach, to work with. It also means there will be a veteran QB to compete with Duke’s young guys, Holmberg and Diamont. This adds a level of excitement to the off-season that hasn’t been present for a while.

But more important, it signals a big change at Duke. These moves to me say that Cutcliffe & Co. are upset with last season’s 5-7 record and are willing to make big changes to prevent that from happening again. Cutcliffe doesn’t want to get caught with a QB who can’t make plays or run the offense consistently. The coaches aren’t okay with more of the same and are willing to take risks to do better. Fortune, as they say, favors the bold.

And with these big changes comes some big responsibility. My very scientific gut tells me that these moves put a lot of pressure on OC Zac Roper. He has a good group of WRs, a well-respected OL coach, some good RBs and three talented QBs (plus Katrenick who I think is better than we realize). While the QBs don’t have a lot of playing experience, I don’t see a lot of excuses for this team. If the offense continues to struggle, Roper is going to have to answer for that.

Duke made investments this off-season. If the results aren’t positive, the program will require more changes. If I’m Roper, I understand this and spend a lot of time upgrading the offense. He needs to review his own performance, figure out what worked and figure out what didn’t. The offense will need to be changed to better fit the talent.

While these 72 hours were a great start, it’s time for Duke to start capitalizing on them.