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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Winston-Salem, NC

    A Look at Duke Football recruiting

    One thing Cutcliffe said they were going to focus on is recruiting in this state and obviously improving speed, depth, and talent. Well, he's doing exactly that. Rivals has yet to release their team rankings, so here are the team rankings of NC schools according to Scout right now:

    UNC- #28
    Duke- #32
    NC State- #40
    Wake- #65
    ECU- Not ranked


    Of our 6 commits, 4 are 3 star recruits and 1 is a 4 star recruit. 1 player, Darius Lipford, has yet to be evaluated by Scout, but holds offers from South Carolina, Clemson, UVA, and ECU. So it's quite likely he'll end up at least a 3 star prospect as well. Also of note is the in the state recruiting. 4 of our 6 commits are from North Carolina. This is a very welcomed change from the past. We have alot to be excited about as you can see. Go Devils.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Meeting with Marie Laveau
    The rebuilding of our football program is an important part of Duke's pursuit of excellence, a theme from the very beginning of the university's existence as Duke University.

    Coach Cutcliffe is bringing in better and better talent. He's employing a proven system carried out by a coaching staff who know each other and the system quite well. To top it all off, he's making the games fun again for all willing to venture out to the stadium.

    It's still possible to buy tickets at reasonable prices and have some choice about your seating location, but this may be the last season for so many options. Act now so that you don't regret passing up this great opportunity!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Lewisville, NC
    Great to see the progress in recruiting. Coach Cut heard plenty of nay-sayers about how hard it was to get good players to come to Duke, but he's proving them wrong.

    It will be nice to see some of his young talent grow and develop. Seems to me Duke could be .500 or better in the conference within a few years, and that puts us into bowls.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    The Triangle

    Duke adds another in state kid

    http://bluedevilnation.net/?p=2340 Duke got another verbal over the weekend, bring the number to seven kids signed for 2010. Five of those are in state players. Duke football has not recruited this well in state since the era Bill Murray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Murray and Wallace Wade.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    A large number of the best players in Duke history are North Carolinians, from old-timers like Bill Murray, Fred Crawford, Dan Hill, Elmore Hackney, Gordon Carver, Bob Gantt, and Billy Cox to Murray players like Jerry Barger, Sonny Jurgensen, Mike McGee, and Wray Carlton, to my peers like Leo Hart, Wes Chesson, Billy Bryan, and Steve Jones.

    Duke had a run in the early '80s-largely because of Red Wilson--that netted Cedric Jones, Chris Castor, Dennis Tabron, Emmitt Tilley, Charles Bowser, and Keith Crenshaw.

    Dave Colonna and Clarkston Hines came later in the 1980s.

    Then Duke just stopped recruiting the state. Coach after coach used the same excuse. The state's academics simply precluded signing NC prepsters. They just couldn't get in. Some years Duke would only have one or two recruits from in-state and they usually weren't top-tier players. So, UNC, State, Wake, East Carolina, VT, even Tennessee poached the top players from North Carolina, while Duke faded into in-state irrelevancy.

    Cutcliffe has exposed the can't-recruit-in-state-myth for what it was, an excuse used to rationalize years of failure. He and his staff are working the state, making contacts, and conceding nothing on the recruiting trail, all welcome contrasts to their immediate predecessors.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Southern Pines, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by jimsumner View Post
    A large number of the best players in Duke history are North Carolinians, from old-timers like Bill Murray, Fred Crawford, Dan Hill, Elmore Hackney, Gordon Carver, Bob Gantt, and Billy Cox to Murray players like Jerry Barger, Sonny Jurgensen, Mike McGee, and Wray Carlton, to my peers like Leo Hart, Wes Chesson, Billy Bryan, and Steve Jones.

    Duke had a run in the early '80s-largely because of Red Wilson--that netted Cedric Jones, Chris Castor, Dennis Tabron, Emmitt Tilley, Charles Bowser, and Keith Crenshaw.

    Dave Colonna and Clarkston Hines came later in the 1980s.

    Then Duke just stopped recruiting the state. Coach after coach used the same excuse. The state's academics simply precluded signing NC prepsters. They just couldn't get in. Some years Duke would only have one or two recruits from in-state and they usually weren't top-tier players. So, UNC, State, Wake, East Carolina, VT, even Tennessee poached the top players from North Carolina, while Duke faded into in-state irrelevancy.

    Cutcliffe has exposed the can't-recruit-in-state-myth for what it was, an excuse used to rationalize years of failure. He and his staff are working the state, making contacts, and conceding nothing on the recruiting trail, all welcome contrasts to their immediate predecessors.
    That's a spot on analysis. Let me add that game attendance should benefit from the increase of North Carolina players, as well as the Duke-Kerlina rivalry on the gridiron. Your reference to several players from North Carolina is evidence of a pretty good recruiting history in the home state. My first impression was that a lot of names were missing, but the only guys I can name for sure are Ed Meadows and Red Smith. I thought Worth Lutz was from North Carolina, because his parents lived right down the street from me in the seventies, but I couldn't find dig up anything on him. In any event, Duke's football history has a pretty long list of top players from North Carolina.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    It wasn't intended to be a comprehensive list. I could come up with lots more, Al Woodall, Troy Slade, Jimmy Tyson, et. al. Just a suggestion that Duke's recent inability to recruit its home-state is an anomaly not the natural state of things.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Meeting with Marie Laveau
    Quote Originally Posted by jimsumner View Post
    A large number of the best players in Duke history are North Carolinians, from old-timers like Bill Murray, Fred Crawford, Dan Hill, Elmore Hackney, Gordon Carver, Bob Gantt, and Billy Cox to Murray players like Jerry Barger, Sonny Jurgensen, Mike McGee, and Wray Carlton, to my peers like Leo Hart, Wes Chesson, Billy Bryan, and Steve Jones.

    Duke had a run in the early '80s-largely because of Red Wilson--that netted Cedric Jones, Chris Castor, Dennis Tabron, Emmitt Tilley, Charles Bowser, and Keith Crenshaw.

    Dave Colonna and Clarkston Hines came later in the 1980s.

    Then Duke just stopped recruiting the state. Coach after coach used the same excuse. The state's academics simply precluded signing NC prepsters. They just couldn't get in. Some years Duke would only have one or two recruits from in-state and they usually weren't top-tier players. So, UNC, State, Wake, East Carolina, VT, even Tennessee poached the top players from North Carolina, while Duke faded into in-state irrelevancy.

    Cutcliffe has exposed the can't-recruit-in-state-myth for what it was, an excuse used to rationalize years of failure. He and his staff are working the state, making contacts, and conceding nothing on the recruiting trail, all welcome contrasts to their immediate predecessors.
    What a great post, Jim! The way Coach Cutcliffe has been able to recruit players from North Carolina who meet both athletic and academic requirements at Duke has caused me to think about Duke's admissions in general. Not recruiting football players from North Carolina may actually be be part of a bigger picture of change in the recruiting of students to come to Duke.

    A recent article in the Durham Herald featured a retiring Duke employee who had been very successful in fund raising over the years. She noted the change in type of student Duke sought beginning in the 70's and 80's... no longer the state or regional top students who were likely to become preachers, teachers, lawyers or doctors in small towns, but rather students more likely to have higher paid careers... and not surprisingly, give more money.

    Coach Cutcliffe is making many important contributions at Duke that go beyond the football program. Who knows? His finding academically qualified athletes in North Carolina may end up making a difference beyond the football program.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    N. Charleston, SC
    What Coach Cutcliffe has been able to achieve in in state recruiting is certainly remarkable. That said, do we know most recent coaches haven't recruited so well in NC due to lack of effort or lack of cooperation from the university? When we were told NC kids weren't academically qualified, that may have been the case, at that time. The football program has been in a sad state of decay for decades, save for the Spurrier years. This was not the responsibilty of the former head coaches but the university leadership. I give great credit to Coach Cutcliffe, but he would not have taken this job without university leadership support.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    My understanding is that Duke's minimum standards have not changed but that Duke is taking more recruits at the minimum level.

    It's not just that Cut is recruiting more in-state. He and his assistants have been aggressive and pro-active in targeting the state. They aren't waiting for people to come to them, they are going after people. They are establishing relationships with high-school coaches and high school ADs that were not being established by their predecessors. In other words, they're acting like folks who intend to stick around awhile.

    I realize I'm something of an outlier among Duke alums and people on this board. I was born and raised in North Carolina and continue to live in the state. Duke's inability to recruit the state in football has long been a source of irritation. I asked Cut about in-state recruiting real early, maybe even his intro press conference. I liked what he said but we all know what they say about talking and walking. But he and his staff indeed are walking the walk.

    As others have pointed out, this benefits the school in so many ways. Local newspapers/TV/radio will give Duke more coverage if local kids are playing. Friends and family will be able to come to games more easily and in larger numbers.

    Win/win, IMO.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by jimsumner View Post
    My understanding is that Duke's minimum standards have not changed but that Duke is taking more recruits at the minimum level.

    .....
    Jim, Yes, in the Brodie day, and then early Nan, there was a range, and requirements that classes effectively mean or average certain targets. In 1998, the last time the NCAA released team averages, Duke's team SAT averages were third from the top, almost identical with Northwestern and about 30 points below Stanford. Since that time, Nan liberalized admissions, eliminating average targets. (I was part of DAAAC at the time.) The result - Duke Football has more leeway today than it did when Carl Franks started as head coach. Carl had a pretty hard and fast 1000 minimum, with team average targets about 1100 math verbal. The minimum is lower today, with a respectable GPA, and there are no average targets.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Forest City, NC
    I remember three NC natives from Rutherford County from the early fifties:

    Wade Byrd all-Conference LB from Rutherfordton, now a lawyer who lead Duke to several recruits from Florida where he lived (lives)

    Bert Lattimore O/DE from Bostic, NC

    Doug Padgett O/DE from Spindale, NC

    All were 1st teamers and went on to become very successful in life.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Winston-Salem, NC
    Takoby Cofield is the latest in state player to jump on board. He had offers from Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and ECU with State and UNC on the verge of offering. Scout has him rated a 3 star prospect and the #45 OG in the country. He's a major pickup as we need OL badly in this class. Overall, Scout has our class #28 in the country right now which is the top class in the state so far. Obviously, that will vary a bit as guys begin to verbal to other schools, but it definetly is a major change from the past.


    In regards to in state recruiting, a college buddy of mine has a brother that's a high school coach in North Carolina. He told me a few days ago that our recruiting in state is like night and day from where it was under past coaching staffs. He said the Duke assistants told him that the recruiting budget was virtually nothing, but Cut demanded the changes before he took the job and they were now willing to spend whatever it took to build a winner. He said in the past the Duke assistants would call here and there, but now the assistants visit multiple times a week. Also said they were really pushing the Duke education and the facilities that we're in the process of building.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Lewisville, NC

    NC Top 30

    http://recruiting.scout.com/3/2010_North_Carolina.html


    On this updated list of the top 30 prospects for the class of 2010 in North Carolina, Duke has commitments from 4 players, more than any other individual school.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Meeting with Marie Laveau
    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    http://recruiting.scout.com/3/2010_North_Carolina.html


    On this updated list of the top 30 prospects for the class of 2010 in North Carolina, Duke has commitments from 4 players, more than any other individual school.
    It's time for Duke to be back at the top again!

    The article on the front page about this newest recruit suggested that since he has grown up as a Carolina fan, some serious orientation will be needed when he moves to campus.

    Despite what the young man himself had to say recently about his loyalties, the trend among others who followed the same path is that once they were on campus, their loyalties to Duke became very clear and no longer foggy because of childhood sports loyalties. (Among basketball players I'm thinking maybe Grant Hill or Bobby Hurley among others.) If he fell in love with the campus and the football staff after one Saturday football clinic, then making the change to the right shade of blue won't be difficult!

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Winston-Salem, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    http://recruiting.scout.com/3/2010_North_Carolina.html


    On this updated list of the top 30 prospects for the class of 2010 in North Carolina, Duke has commitments from 4 players, more than any other individual school.

    And we're also strongly in it for Hill, Creecy, Martin, and Marshall. We could legitimately land 7-8 of NC's top 30 players. Incredible.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Great thread. I'm a native North Carolinian and really relate to Jim's comments. I am a graduate of Hillside and spoke to the Hillside coach at the spring game after Cut was hired and he said Cut and staff reached out to Hillside immediately, in ways that recent former Duke coaches had not - it wasn't long after that that Duke signed 2 hornets - both excellent additions.
    "This is the best of all possible worlds."
    Dr. Pangloss - Candide

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Lewisville, NC

    Another commitment

    Reports on scout.com indicate Duke has received a commitment from Juwan Thompson, a RB from College Park, GA. He is listed as 5'11", 207#, and has run a 4.4 40-yd dash; that's an excellent combination of size and speed. Thompson reportedly also had offers from Minnesota, Mississippi, Stanford, Syracuse, and Virginia.

    Another great get for Coach Cut and crew.
    Last edited by roywhite; 06-26-2009 at 11:19 PM.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    California
    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    Reports on scout.com indicate Duke has received a commitment from Juwan Thompson, a RB from College Park, GA. He is listed as 5'11", 207#, and has run a 4.4 40-yd dash; that's an excellent combination of size and speed. Thompson reportedly also had offers from Minnesota, Mississippi, Stanford, Syracuse, and Virginia.

    Another great get for Coach Cut and crew.
    His profile:

    http://duke.scout.com/a.z?s=167&p=8&c=1&nid=3706241

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Winston-Salem, NC
    Highly recruited in state DE Kareem Martin of Roanoke Rapids, NC was recently on campus and was glowing about what Cutcliffe and Duke are building. Rivals has him as the #31 DE in the country and has offers from Clemson, GT, Lousiville, Maryland, UNC, NC State, Penn State, Stanford, Virginia, VT, Wake Forest, and ECU. Look for Duke to be in his final short list of choices. He'd be a monster pickup for sure.

    In regards to our recent pickup Juwan Thompson, Rivals has him as the #34 RB in the country with a 4.4 40 and offers from Minnesota, Ole Miss, Stanford, Syracuse, Tulane, Virginia, and Wake Forest.

    This is really shaping up to be a very good class. One we might look back at as the turning point.
    Last edited by RazzyBailey31; 06-29-2009 at 01:06 AM.

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