Duke football needs to boost its offense. David Cutcliffe knows the man for the job
Duke football will have someone different calling plays for its offense and it didn’t involve a new hire.
David Cutcliffe said Wednesday that, entering his 13th season as the Blue Devils head coach, he will handle play calling for the first time at Duke.
“I’ve been wanting to get back in it,” Cutcliffe said on a conference call with reporters. “It’s something that’s near and dear to me. I’ve missed it. I think it’s the right time.”
Cutcliffe gained national acclaim in that role two decades ago with Tennessee, where he coached Peyton Manning as a collegian.
The year after Manning left for the NFL, Cutcliffe was the national assistant coach of the year when he called plays for the Volunteers’ 1998 national championship team.
Following his first college head coaching job at Mississippi, Cutcliffe returned to that role at Tennessee in 2006.
He joined Duke for the 2008 season, employing Kurt Roper, Scottie Montgomery and Zac Roper as play-callers during his tenure.
Zac Roper called Duke’s plays while coaching quarterbacks the last four seasons. He will continue to coach quarterbacks and, like all the position coaches on offense, have input in the game plans.
But Cutcliffe is taking over responsibility for calling plays during games.
“I’ve certainly been aware of what we are doing game planning,” Cutcliffe said. “But I’ve also spent lengthy time in with the defense. I’ve also spent lengthy time doing special teams, which requires a lot of study.”
Cutcliffe said the trust he has in the coaches on defense and special teams allows him to turn the majority of his focus to the offense, where he has such a high level of expertise.
He anticipates some 14-hour days with his offensive assistants grinding out the best game plan as the Blue Devils look to get back to a bowl game. Duke went 5-7 last season, failing to make a bowl appearance for just the second time in the last eight seasons.
“I can’t do this offensive thing as a consultant,” Cutcliffe said. “That’s kind of been my role. This has to be all in. That’s the only way I know to do that particular job. That’s how we’re going to go about it.”
Duke averaged 25.3 points per game last season, No. 11 in the 14-team ACC. That’s the fourth season in a row the Blue Devils failed to average 30 points or more.
The Blue Devils posted losing records in two of those four seasons despite having Daniel Jones, now with the New York Giants, as their starting quarterback.
From 2012-2015, when Duke played in four consecutive bowl games and averaged 8.1 wins per season, the Blue Devils averaged 32 points per game.
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 1:42 PM.