Quotes: Duke 34, Navy 31

Head Coach David Cutcliffe

Opening statement...

"I'm very proud of our effort because of the resiliency that we displayed. Our team was ready emotionally. Our staff did a tremendous job getting them ready. We had to hold on for dear life there at the end. My hat's off to Navy. I going in Navy is an excellent football team with excellent playmakers. They are well-coached. They did what an outstanding team would do - they fought back successfully. Some big plays were made tonight. None bigger than what Matt Daniels did late. I think for the first time all three phases did what they had to do. We got a little bit on our heels defensively late, but what a performance we gave in the first half. Kicking game held up extremely well and certainly offensively, we played the way we are capable of playing.

"This is the most resilient group of young men I've ever been around. I complimented Navy and I think it is the same way here at Duke. That is how you grow into a program. We won what we had to win in the fourth quarter to win the football game. When you are 1-6 and things start going away from you, it is very difficult to grasp hold of the momentum again. We had people step up and it was huge."

On the play of Sean Renfree...

"We put him in a position to be successful doing what he does best. That's taking what a defense gives you. We let other people carry some of the load. He was accurate laying the ball off. Our screens are part of our run game too, he did a great job getting the ball accurately to people who can run with the football and I'm really proud he took care of the ball. I could have told you that going in and he did that well."

On Duke's possession after recovering Navy's onside kick...

"At that point in time you take the clock. We wanted to use their timeout, which we did and we wanted to make the clock run as much as we possibly could. We weren't going to throw the football. There were going to be no incompletions. When I let it run down and took the timeout, our options were to run the ball... I thought about spreading them out and running the ball. They only needed a field goal so what we were hoping to was to punt the ball and pin them inside the 10 and give them a long field to go. When you are playing a triple option team, you got to believe you can hang on and keep the two-minute drill from being successful."

On Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs...

"Ricky Dobbs is not a good player - he's a great football player. I think he's tremendous. You don't measure quarterbacks by height or by watching them in a workout. Anybody that's watched him play games and watched him play tackles and win football games, and win them solely with his feet or legs, you have a big time player on your hands. In Division I-A, there is not 16 or 17 quarterbacks better than Ricky Dobbs. Regardless of what anyone thinks, that's a fact."

Quarterback Sean Renfree...

"It feels good to get a win. We've had a rough couple weeks but it feels great to get in a groove offensively and score some points again."

"We had a good game plan offensively, we let our guys make plays in space and our protection was phenomenal."

Players Mentioned

Matt Daniels

Duke information