Spring Football 2010

[watzone]

http://bluedevilnation.net/2010/02/c...ractice-early/ I just got finished chatting with Coach Cutcliffe about position changes and spring football goals. Here what he has to say in the link above. Man, are they starting early this season.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Thanks for this update, watzone. It's exciting that spring practice begins Sunday. March has become even more exiting with the Spring Scrimmage set for March 27!

[Bob Green]

Wow! Discussing Duke football in February. The times they are a changing...

Thanks Watzone! I enjoyed listening to Coach Cutcliffe.

[jv001]

Thanks Mark for the Duke Football link. Good to see Duke Football on the rise. Go Coach Cut and Go Duke...Beat the twerps!!!!!!!

[-bdbd]

Thanks Mark. I too am really tickled to be talking football at Duke during the month of February. Look out ACC, Duke is coming up!!

Looking forward to the Spring Practice reports...

[CameronBornAndBred]

I wish they hadn't done this so early. I do plan to be watching Duke basketball that day, and even if they play at night, I might be back to the beach in time to catch tip off. Also, expecially this winter, it would not suprise me if it is still cold and snowing then.

(Granted, we might not be playing that day...but it is a possibility)

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

I wish they hadn't done this so early. I do plan to be watching Duke basketball that day, and even if they play at night, I might be back to the beach in time to catch tip off. Also, expecially this winter, it would not suprise me if it is still cold and snowing then.

(Granted, we might not be playing that day...but it is a possibility)

Coach Cutcliffe makes a good case for starting spring practice earlier. This step is part of being serious about improving in football... and as he said, make it to a bowl game and spring practice won't be so early.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Coach Cutcliffe makes a good case for starting spring practice earlier. This step is part of being serious about improving in football... and as he said, make it to a bowl game and spring practice won't be so early.

I understand his reasoning..I just don't think the date was a good choice given the potential conflict.

[watzone]

He did hint that the dates are not etched in stone, which I take it means, if the men's team is playing, we'll make a switch.

[watzone]

http://bluedevilnation.net/2010/02/d...braham-kromah/

I figured a thread was needed for spring football updates -

[watzone]

http://bluedevilnation.net/2010/02/d...-talks-the-ol/

Duke OL Brian Moore says Duke wants to run the ball better next season.

[OldPhiKap]

Good for Cut. If you are going to build a championship program, you cannot take a back seat. While I recognize that the hoops team is what it is (and obviously understand its hold on the student body and fans), no one will take you seriously until you act seriously.

"Duke Football. Not taking $#!% from anyone, anymore."

[gvtucker]

Good for Cut. If you are going to build a championship program, you cannot take a back seat. While I recognize that the hoops team is what it is (and obviously understand its hold on the student body and fans), no one will take you seriously until you act seriously.

"Duke Football. Not taking $#!% from anyone, anymore."

Reminds me of the Big Ten preseason luncheon the year that Northwestern broke through and went to the Rose Bowl (I think it was '96).

Gary Barnett gets up to do his speech for his team, and he tells everyone that the motto for Northwestern football that year was going to be "Expect Victory". He expected to win every game, and wanted his players to have that same expectation. One of the people in audience asked, "Does that include your game against Notre Dame?" Several people laughed a bit.

Gary turned red; unlike most everyone else, he didn't even crack a smile at this comment. I am paraphrasing, but just a bit. "Screw you. Screw all you guys. You're damn straight we expect to beat Notre Dame, and that's because we're a better team than Notre Dame." At our table, we just looked at each other and said, "This guy's nuts." Note that this was back when Notre Dame still had one of the top programs.

They did beat Notre Dame that year. And they won many more games. But to win a lot of games, you have to first change the attitude. I think that this is exactly what Cutcliffe is doing at Duke. It doesn't ensure a big winning season, but winning a lot of games is impossible without that attitude.

[OldPhiKap]

Reminds me of the Big Ten preseason luncheon the year that Northwestern broke through and went to the Rose Bowl (I think it was '96).

Gary Barnett gets up to do his speech for his team, and he tells everyone that the motto for Northwestern football that year was going to be "Expect Victory". He expected to win every game, and wanted his players to have that same expectation. One of the people in audience asked, "Does that include your game against Notre Dame?" Several people laughed a bit.

Gary turned red; unlike most everyone else, he didn't even crack a smile at this comment. I am paraphrasing, but just a bit. "Screw you. Screw all you guys. You're damn straight we expect to beat Notre Dame, and that's because we're a better team than Notre Dame." At our table, we just looked at each other and said, "This guy's nuts." Note that this was back when Notre Dame still had one of the top programs.

They did beat Notre Dame that year. And they won many more games. But to win a lot of games, you have to first change the attitude. I think that this is exactly what Cutcliffe is doing at Duke. It doesn't ensure a big winning season, but winning a lot of games is impossible without that attitude.

Excellent post. Spot on.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Reminds me of the Big Ten preseason luncheon the year that Northwestern broke through and went to the Rose Bowl (I think it was '96).

Gary Barnett gets up to do his speech for his team, and he tells everyone that the motto for Northwestern football that year was going to be "Expect Victory". He expected to win every game, and wanted his players to have that same expectation. One of the people in audience asked, "Does that include your game against Notre Dame?" Several people laughed a bit.

Gary turned red; unlike most everyone else, he didn't even crack a smile at this comment. I am paraphrasing, but just a bit. "Screw you. Screw all you guys. You're damn straight we expect to beat Notre Dame, and that's because we're a better team than Notre Dame." At our table, we just looked at each other and said, "This guy's nuts." Note that this was back when Notre Dame still had one of the top programs.

They did beat Notre Dame that year. And they won many more games. But to win a lot of games, you have to first change the attitude. I think that this is exactly what Cutcliffe is doing at Duke. It doesn't ensure a big winning season, but winning a lot of games is impossible without that attitude.

This discussion about attitude and expectations reminds me of another matter related to football: the schedule. I've seen some fans almost blanch in response to Alabama on the 2010 schedule. Others talk about the futility of such a game and wonder why it's on the Duke schedule.

If you really want a better football program, you start by hiring the best coach you find and and then recruit the best players you can find. But it's playing with the big boys that will raise the quality of play.

[davekay1971]

Don't know if it's possible to get a transcript of the interview, but David Cutcliffe appeared on the Mac Attack on AM 610 here in Charlotte this morning. It was well worth listening to the painful show to get to the interview (Chris McClain, the host, is a huge Tar Heel and spent most of the time leading up to Cutcliffe's appearance trying to make a big deal about "Conchgate"...forgetting, I guess, that his coach threw a Presbyterian fan out of the Dean Dome and then let the SID lie like a rug to cover for him).

Coach Cut has a great sense of humor, and talked very openly and passionately about loyalty and doing the right thing, both regarding his decision to turn down Tennessee to stay at Duke and the incident involving the 3 football players who he removed from the team.

You don't have to listen to him for long to realize that this is a man for whom you'd want your son playing football.

[Highlander]

I heard it as well. Cutcliffe was asked why he spurned Tennessee to stay at Duke. After giving Tennessee props for being a great program, Cutcliffe said something to the effect of..
[paraphrase] I was right in the middle of recruiting. We had 18 kids who had signed. We had three more who had just enrolled at Duke. I spoke to my mother who is 88 and not in good health, and she said 'A lot of times people will say things that they want to make sound true, but the one thing that never rings hollow is the truth.' [/paraphrase]

He went on to say that he's not a fan at all of what happened with Kiffin's decision, and reiterated that he's not at Duke to just build a winning team, but to build a winning program.

He spoke as well about the dismissals of three players from the Duke team, and said essentially that they weren't honest with him in telling him what they had done and tried to cover it up. That was one of the main reasons that they were dismissed. He runs a tight ship discipline-wise, and felt like he couldn't maintain that if they were allowed to remain after failing to be honest with him.

Overall very good interview. The show itself isn't the same since Gary Williams (the announcer) left.

[watzone]

Here is a preview of the teams on the 2010 football schedule - http://bluedevilnation.net/2010/02/d...chedulepart-1/

[roywhite]

Freshman Josh Snead (an early enrollee) is turning heads already, with an excellent performance in an early scrimmage.

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...CLID=204896069

[DukeUsul]

Heather Dinich's blog article on Duke is the headline story on ESPN's College Football page tonight:
http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/i...ins-a-question