DURHAM -- When coach David Cutcliffe agreed to take the Duke job after the 2007 season, he gave the long-downtrodden football program an instant boost of credibility.
That was nothing compared to what he did for the credibility of Duke football when he decided to stay this winter after Tennessee came calling.
"Both of those were huge moments," wide receiver Donovan Varner said, "but being that he was here and what he changed around in these two years, him deciding to stay was real huge to the program."
Varner has benefited perhaps more than anyone, even more than departing quarterback Thaddeus Lewis, from Cutcliffe's offensive know-how. He led the ACC in receptions last season while clearing the 1,000-yard mark, making him a first-team All-ACC selection. The junior is on the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award this season.
So he had as much as anyone to lose from a change in coaches and systems, but with Cutcliffe still around, everyone has a lot to gain. As Cutcliffe enters his third season in charge, coming off 4-8 and 5-7 records, the goal remains postseason play.
It won't be easy. Sean Renfree has to replace Lewis, and the Blue Devils lost their best defensive players at the same time they're switching from a 4-3 to a multiple scheme. But the big change for the Blue Devils was the change that never happened.
"I think all it did was build something that was already there," Cutcliffe said of his decision to stay at Duke. "We have tremendous respect for each other, and when I say 'we,' I'm talking about our staff and our players. It's not about me. I hope our players enjoy the way we challenge them and the way we run our program. We treat 'em well, but we work them extremely hard."
No one would have been surprised if Cutcliffe had taken the Tennessee job in January. When he arrived at Duke, he was in the process of resurrecting his coaching career after his premature dismissal from Mississippi. Cutcliffe talked about building Duke for the long term, but surely he couldn't have expected the Vols to come calling so quickly.
It would have reflected poorly on Cutcliffe had he left, no doubt about it. But the head coaching job at Tennessee - not just any SEC school, but one that expects to contend for national titles even if the Volunteers have fallen short in that area lately - would have been a pretty strong trump card for Cutcliffe to play.
In the end, who was really going to blame him?
Yet here he is, in the heat of August, watching his team practice in front of Duke's new football complex, in the shadow of a stadium that's in the process of being upgraded, trying once again to get the Blue Devils to a bowl game for the first time since 1995.
"Coach 'Cut' was one of the reasons why I came to Duke," said running back Desmond Scott, the Durham Hillside product whose decision to stay home opened doors for Duke across the area. "Him staying here means he that knows we have potential.
"With him staying, we have to show the world why he stayed."
Everything Cutcliffe ever wanted was waiting for him in Knoxville: another shot at coaching in the SEC, at the school where he had his most success as an assistant.
He turned his back on all of it, walked away from his dream job, because he couldn't walk away from Duke. He couldn't turn his back on what he started until it was finished.
