Same here. Only seems to work when one of the 5 functions more as an OLB or box safety who can disrupt the offense from multiple vantage points, and still cover receivers competently as needed. See Cash, Jeremy. Players like that don't grow on trees, though. And our academic requirements likely shrink the available pool even further.
Our academic requirements for top-flight recruits are basically the NCAA minimum...We can't use that as an excuse anymore. For more borderline players, Duke may have slightly higher academic standards, but it's still mostly based on football abilities/potential. Of course, coaches still look for "fit" and individuals they believe can succeed on the football field and in the classroom, but they have major leeway from an "academics stat" perspective if they REALLY want a guy.
If he does retire or is relieved of his job by the AD, I'd still like to see end his career officially as a special assistant coach at a school like Alabama, where they actually CARE about football and 80,000 plus fans show up for every game. I don't care what anyone says, it has to be somewhat depressing to run out of the tunnel in Wallace Wade stadium on a Saturday afternoon and there are 497 fans in the stadium. For someone who is a true "football guy" (a phrase that, I believe, Joe Alleva once used to describe himself), you don't want to end your career trying to raise money for the medical center.
IMHO, this is the major problem and issue for Duke football. For the most part, we're not getting "top flight recruits" to come play football at Duke (and I don't know what academic standards the athletic department and admissions office might require for such football recruits but I'm guessing it is significantly below what might be required for the rest of the non-athletic student body). Unless you have some academic qualifications and ambitions, you're not looking to come to Duke to play football (especially if you're a football "stud"). And for those talented HS football players who do have academic interests (beyond football), we're competing with Stanford, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, the Ivy League (and there are some good football players in the Ivy League), and even many of the state universities. It is not that easy to find 44 players (or more) who have P-5 football and athletic talent who will come to Duke. It is, again IMHO, why there is that long list of head football coaches, going back to the 1960's, that have basically failed at creating a long-term winning culture for Duke football (and apparently even David Cutcliffe has now failed, despite making significant short-term progress for a few years).
I think a lot of people on this board are delusional if they think that Duke just has to find "the right person" who will magically take Duke to the top echelons of college football (or even in the ACC). Call me cynical, but I just think that just ain't going to happen. Building a winning football program is very different than basketball, women's golf, tennis, etc., where a few top recruits can make a championship team. I hope I'm wrong but I wouldn't bet my life savings on it.
It's fair to say the entirety of Duke's roster does not have the same admissions floor as many P5 programs. That is, we have a bit higher academic averages for 2 and 3 star recruits but that should make sense given those types of players would be attracted to Duke. So, I agree with you. But any 4 or 5-star recruit that has an interest in Duke (and where the interest is reciprocated) would have no problem reaching the academic hurdle as long as they are NCAA eligible... Perhaps if we had a lot of 4 and 5 star recruits that equation would change (as you said, fewer exceptions perhaps). I'd imagine Stanford and ND academic averages are higher than Alabama largely because those recruits that have academics as a criteria are attracted to those sorts of places.
Football fans on this board are for the most part grounded. We just desire for the team to be competitive. No one expects Duke to compete for National Championships.
The high point of Coach Cutcliffe was 2013 - 2015:
2013: 10 - 4
2014: 9 - 4
2015: 8 - 5
For me, I am fine with going 7 - 6 with a minor bowl victory over Directional U. most years.
Bob Green
This was covered recently in another thread. Per Jim Sumner, the increased admissions flexibility that Cut has been afforded is in the form of being allowed to recruit more players at OUR academic floor (not to be confused with the NCAA minimum requirements). That floor has not been lowered, nor are more exceptions to the floor being granted.