Cutcliffe's toughest job is just starting

DURHAM -- For David Cutcliffe, this is the hard part. He has picked the low-hanging fruit. He has tweaked the marketing and the traditions and the recruiting.

But when it comes to winning games, it's just starting to get difficult for the first-year Duke coach. Saturday's 49-31 loss to Miami, in a game the Blue Devils controlled well into the third quarter, showed him just how much work lies ahead.

"I'm really frustrated," Cutcliffe said. "No, I'm not. I'm mad. To be honest with you, I'm really mad. I'm angry about it. I'm angry. That's all I can say."

Up 10 points early in the third, the Devils painfully unraveled, crumpling slowly to the turf to be trampled by the Hurricanes. By the time the quarter ended, the Devils were down 11 on their way to a blowout loss.

If the 27-0 loss to Georgia Tech two weeks ago wasn't a wake-up call for the Devils, and apparently it wasn't, they can expect one from Cutcliffe this week in practice.

"We've been doing this and learning the team and learning the players and learning the different circumstances and how people respond," Cutcliffe said. "I'm really interested in looking at this tape and seeing who the real responders are in the tough times. It's disappointing to me that we didn't respond when the game got tough any better than we did."

It's going to take more than anger. Coming off the Georgia Tech loss, the Devils had everything to prove Saturday. All they proved in the second half was that they're still not good enough to beat a Miami team ripe for a fall.

A big punt to flip a field-position battle that had been running in Duke's favor, consecutive dropped passes by Eron Riley, and boom -- there it went, as Hurricanes backup quarterback Jacory Harris ran or passed for five straight touchdowns to blow out the Devils.

Riley, one of the best receivers in Duke history, went into the game with a torn ligament in his right thumb that left him trying to catch passes against his chest with alligator arms, but Cutcliffe and quarterback Thaddeus Lewis said he was catching the ball well in practice.

"No issues at all," Lewis said. "We're playing in a big game and your eyes get big, you know you can make a big play, sometimes you forget the little things -- look the ball in, and things of that nature. Unfortunately, it happened to us tonight."

Riley was hardly the only player to drop a pass or miss an assignment. It was endemic in the second half as Duke fell apart. Watching Duke unravel in the third quarter was like watching the Devils' season unravel.

Everything the Devils accomplished in the first half -- the effective running game that kept Miami's offense on the sideline, the solid defense when the Hurricanes did have the ball -- evaporated in a hurry when the momentum turned against the Devils.

Now, the challenge for the Devils is to maintain the momentum they built by taking advantage of a relatively easy opening schedule to win three of their first four games -- by modern Duke standards, a successful season.

In the throes of the ACC schedule they have lost their way. A win Saturday would have brought them within two wins of bowl eligibility, a major milestone. Instead, the prognosis is grim.

Of Duke's final six games, four are on the road, all against ranked teams or in tough environments. The two home games are against N.C. State and North Carolina.

In other words, it doesn't get any easier from here. It only gets harder, something Cutcliffe clearly realized watching his team implode in the second half Saturday.

"I understand where we're coming from," Cutcliffe said, "but I don't plan on being real patient."

For the first time in his tenure, Cutcliffe said he thought the Devils went backward Saturday. And perhaps for the first time, he realized how much work he really has to do. The tough part of his job starts now.