Category: State of the Program

This is the final(ish) part of our four(ish) part series on the David Cutcliffe era of Duke football. You can find part one here, part two here and part three here.

As I mentioned in the interview with Dave Brown, it has taken me some time to get to this because, well, there are multiple reasons. The first is that I’ve already covered this era extensively on the site. The aftermath of the Jump Pass is why I started this blog (which has now turned into a podcast). I also did a lengthy post last season about why I thought it was time to move on from Cutcliffe and much of what I would say about the end of his time in Durham would be a regurgitation of that. So, with that in mind, I’ll try to brief and hit all the key points.

There are four reasons that I think things ended the way they did. I’ll address each of them in turn. You’ll notice how they all tie into one another. It’s sort of like a circle of sadness.

Reason number 1 – Not changing the offensive or defensive schemes.

I can’t tell you how many people with intimate knowledge of the program told me that the Blue Devil playbook never changed during Cutcliffe’s tenure. And if you compile enough film, and give the opposing coordinators enough time, they will figure out how to defeat the scheme. When that happens, you lose games. A lot of them. Given that Cutcliffe was in Durham for 14 seasons, the way things ended can’t be a surprise. You can’t refuse to adapt for 14 years and continue to win. It just isn’t possible.

Reason number 2 – Not hiring the right staff and no accountability.

As one former player noted, the offense started to fall apart around the time Kurt Roper left for Florida. Now, in fairness, Scottie Montgomery wasn’t a huge step down such that the offense crumbled. But Cutcliffe’s decisions to promote from within ultimately came back to bite him. Zac Roper and Jeff Faris just didn’t cut it as offensive coordinators. But those guys, of course, remained on staff in various roles despite their inability to get the job done.

The same was true on the defensive side of the ball. You can’t replace a guy like Jim Knowles with Matt Guerrieri. No knock on Coach G, but his defense lost games the same way every week. And, despite that, he kept his job. Even worse, a coach as good as Ben Albert when it comes to producing defensive linemen was made co-coordinator and taken away from solely focusing on the defensive line. That was a mistake that proved disastrous in 2021 when the entire defense bottomed out.

But perhaps the greatest staffing failure occurred on the offensive line. Coach Latina was a unique coach. Many former players have gushed about how great he was. After he retired, the offensive line got to a point where it couldn’t protect a generational talent in Daniel Jones. This didn’t occur immediately, but it certainly happened once Jim Bridge took over. Cutcliffe mishandled the situation by bringing Bridge in while Marcus Johnson was on staff. I can’t prove it, but that had to be a big reason why Johnson left and went to Mississippi State. And Bridge’s time as an offensive line coach didn’t end well. Let’s just leave it at that. Coach Frey came in way too late.

The result of Cutcliffe’s staffing mismanagement was a stale offense and a predictable defense. And losses. Lots of losses.

I also think that it hurt recruiting. As the staff developed during Coach Cutcliffe’s time, there were fewer people who had NFL experience. There were also fewer people with experience outside of coaching at Duke. A lot of folks have told me that NFL experience helps, especially when it comes to recruiting. And if you can’t recruit, you can’t win.

Reason number 3 – Quarterback mismanagement.

I am not criticizing any Blue Devil quarterback in this segment. What I am saying is that Coach Cutcliffe, the famed quarterback guru, completely mismanaged the depth chart at one of the most important positions during the end times. The most obvious example of this is Chase Brice. He just wasn’t a good fit for Cutcliffe’s system. The disaster that was the 2020 season wasn’t all his fault as the pandemic restrictions had more than a lot to do with his struggles. But Cutcliffe made matters worse when he refused to bench Brice despite the interceptions and the turnovers. That wasn’t fair to the team and it sure as heck wasn’t fair to Brice. To keep rolling him out there week after week despite the fact that he clearly wasn’t comfortable and needed a break was beyond egregious; it was inexcusable.

What made the 2020 quarterback situation worse was the fact that the same thing happened the season before. In 2019, Quentin Harris had a stretch where he just didn’t look right. In fairness to Q, that was probably the result of the defense knowing the plays before the snap, but it was hard to figure out why Cutcliffe didn’t pull Q aside, let him take a series or two to get his head right and then send him back out.

And it isn’t like Cutcliffe didn’t have options. He’s the quarterback whisperer, right? We saw how Gunnar Holmberg came in and played great through the first four games of the season. Why not give him a shot in 2020 when Chase was struggling? Gunnar had been at the school since 2018 and you would have to presume he knew the offense. If you give Gunnar some time in 2020 to get his sea legs under him, we probably don’t have the offense experiencing settling in moments against Charlotte or the offense’s slow start against A&T. (And, if we avoid those, maybe we don’t lose the Charlotte game the way we did. Which takes us back to the hiring the wrong staff issue.)

Years of bad decisions reached a collective peak in 2021. After Gunnar’s breakout game against Kansas, the playbook folded in on itself. The quarterback run part of the RPO offense disappeared. Like I said, bad coaching hires. Predictable offense. Refusal to change. Which, of course, takes us to the ultimate reason Cutcliffe’s era ended …

Reason number 4 – Blowout losses in conference.

This issue has been thoroughly, thoroughly covered here. Given the amount of time I’ve devoted to this, I don’t see a need to re-plow that ground again. It is important, however, to mention, briefly, just how bad it got. And, as I’ve done previously, we’ll define “blowout” as a loss of at least 20 points. Now that we’ve properly defined our terms, let’s look at just how bad it got in the ACC during Cutcliffe’s final two-plus years:

1. Two losses after The Jump Pass in 2019 (Notre Dame and Syracuse. Add in the loss against UVA before The Jump Pass, that’s three, and factor in how bad the offense was in the rain against Wake and you’re really at four);
2. Five in 2020 (Boston College, UNC, Georgia Tech, Miami and Florida State. And you have to be pretty bad to lose like that to a bad Georgia Tech team); and
3. SEVEN, repeat SEVEN, in 2021 (UNC, UVA, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Miami.) And these SEVEN losses weren’t in any way on the low end of the blowout definition. Duke lost by 30 or more to UNC, UVA, Wake, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Miami. Even worse, the Blue Devils lost by 40 or more to UVA (shutout) and Louisville (on the way to giving up 62 points).

The way that the 2021 Duke team lost was painful. And it was the result of a refusal to adapt schematically, hiring the wrong coordinators and mismanaging the quarterback situation. For years.

When David Cutcliffe and the Blue Devils mutually agreed to part ways, he left behind a 77-97 overall record (35-79 in the ACC), a Coastal Division title, three bowl wins, six bowl games and a lot of players who made it to the NFL. While it ended painfully, very painfully, Cutcliffe’s legacy, as time goes on, will be viewed well. Despite the lows, Cutcliffe reinvigorated Duke football. It had been neglected for decades. Despite all that neglect, Cutcliffe made the program important. He made the program relevant. And, for that, we should all be grateful.

While I said this would be a four-part series, I sort of lied. I’ve decided to do another piece on the most important parts of Cutcliffe’s legacy as the head coach of the Blue Devils. That will be a little bit down the road, so don’t be surprised if it takes some time.

Anyway, let me know what you think about what I think in the comments or on Twitter.

Go Duke!