Duke University has hired Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe as its next football coach, four sources confirmed for The News & Observer on Friday night.

Duke scheduled a news conference for 5 p.m. today to announce the hire.

Reached at his office in Knoxville, Tenn., by the N&O at 9:10 p.m., Cutcliffe sounded upbeat, but said he couldn't talk about the Duke job yet.

Cutcliffe will replace Ted Roof, who was fired Nov. 26 after four losing seasons.

Duke athletic director Joe Alleva declined to confirm that Cutcliffe had been offered the job when leaving his office at Cameron Indoor Stadium around 7:20 p.m.

"I'll probably have something for you guys [today]," Alleva said.

Cutcliffe has previously told the N&O he was interested in the Duke job and wanted to be a head coach again.

After interviewing at Duke on Wednesday, all of the attention in Duke's search was on Cutcliffe, who is known for shaping quarterbacks and directing high-scoring offenses at Tennessee and acting as head coach at Mississippi from 1999 to 2004.

Cutcliffe compiled a 44-29 record at Ole Miss, making four bowl games in six seasons.

On Friday, Cutcliffe was preparing the Volunteers offense for the Jan. 1 Outback Bowl against Wisconsin.

Cutcliffe coached and is credited with developing NFL stars Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts and his brother, Eli, who was the No. 1 pick in the 2004 NFL draft and is a quarterback for the New York Giants.

Cutcliffe was briefly on the staff at Notre Dame -- hired to help develop its star quarterback, Brady Quinn. But Cutcliffe, 53, suffered a heart attack and left that job within months of taking it. He said in a recent interview that his health is good.

At midday Friday, both Duke President Richard Brodhead and Cutcliffe had denied that a job offer had been extended, contradicting media reports earlier in the day.

But sources, who requested anonymity because Duke had not yet made an announcement, said the deal was completed later Friday.

Cutcliffe will come to Duke after a 19-day search that spanned the nation. Duke spoke with coaches on both coasts, and initially wanted to hire former Navy coach Paul Johnson. Johnson instead took the vacant job at Georgia Tech.

Cutcliffe's task will be to "restore excitement and a winning tradition" to a Duke football program that is 22-125 since 1994, the season the Blue Devils last played in a bowl game and recorded a winning record.

Those were the words that Brodhead used during an interview with the N&O on Friday morning.

Brodhead repeatedly has said Duke is committed to football, despite its recent history as a perennial doormat in the ACC.

Last weekend, the university's Board of Trustees made a key move, approving the first phase of a plan to remodel aging Wallace Wade Stadium.

That phase will cost the school $5 million.

Brodhead also reiterated Friday that Duke will not change its admissions policy or its standards to boost the football program.

"I'll tell you that not a single coach has said that lowering academic standards is necessary for Duke to succeed in football ... no one," Brodhead said. "Everyone [we've interviewed] has said that it's not necessary and that it would be a mistake for us."

As it is now, Duke coaches recruit from a very small, albeit national, pool of solid football players with top grades and test scores.

Brodhead interviewed Cutcliffe and five other candidates privately as part of the search for a successor for Roof.

"We're looking at people who are committed to being coaches of student-athletes," Brodhead said. "That's been very important for us and for them."

Asked if the school would increase the number of football players from the lowest end of their standards, Brodhead repeated that none of the candidates said it was necessary.

However, Brodhead said the school was interested in expanding, for football, a policy of interviewing prospective student-athletes to determine if they're the right fit, academically and socially. Doing so might lead to admission of a player that wouldn't now have been admitted.

Currently, Duke administrators interview all incoming men's and women's basketball players and some of the football players.

"We have had very good conversations with Christoph [Guttentag], our Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, and people in athletics, specifically the football program, about cases where the interviews can provide particularly important information," Brodhead said.

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