David Cutcliffe Press Conference Quotes: Wake Forest

DURHAM, N.C. - Duke football head coach David Cutcliffe met with members of the local media on Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference inside Blue Devil Tower.

The Blue Devils head back on the road for their final regular season road contest of the year. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network with Dave O'Brien, Tim Hasselbeck and Katie George on the call. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. The game can also be heard on the Blue Devils IMG Sports Network through the TuneIn app or goduke.com

David Cutcliffe Duke Football Head Coach
(Ref.: Opening Statement)
"Good afternoon. I am going to start by saying I just had a little meeting with Trooper Brian Moseley, who has been with us traveling for eight years. He's a great husband, he's a great dad. He's got three children, pretty small, all 11 and under. This will be his last year with Duke football, and I just want to recognize how much we appreciate him as a man and as a public servant. You are the kind of person we want to serve the state of North Carolina. So Brian, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

"I have obviously thought a lot lately about how difficult a season streak like this is. There is nothing easy about it. It's not easy for anybody in our football world. I mean everybody, everybody is suffering in some manner. Whoever supports players, whoever coaches the players and more than anyone else the players themselves. And I realized in 44 years of coaching I've only been a part of six losing seasons. I don't really have anything to complain about by any manner. This season is not over. So, we're sitting at a four and six ledger. But I want to tell you this, because this has been the most prominent thing on my mind, out of 44 seasons I've had six losing seasons, but I've had 44 gratifying, rewarding seasons coaching football. None of them are bad.

"I told our team this week my least favorite word, and some of you may remember me saying this, is being frustrated. I don't like the word frustrated. That suggests there is no answer. We can be disappointed. We can be dejected a little while. We can be angry. We can be a lot of things, but we're not going to be frustrated. There are answers always. The answers come through work. They come through communication. They come through being detailed and tedious about everything we do. We all tend to look a little more closely and harder when times are tough. It's just a natural human response. But the most unnatural human response is staying together. It's very obvious that doesn't happen. Just look around you. That may be the most key component of what we're working on is to make sure that we're all pointed in the right direction doing the work that we should do. That's where we sit right now.

"We play a really good football team. Really good football team. Wake Forest has done -- they've done a great job there. So, to beat Wake Forest and to play well against Wake Forest will take balance. We will have to play well offensively and give us some boost there, much needed. We're going to have to be consistent and play well on defense. They provide a lot of problems. And then we got to play well in the kicking game. There's no magic to this. The only magical thing is work and that's not very magical. That's just getting sweaty and dirty and focused and paying attention in meetings and doing all the little things that you have to do in football to be successful."

(Ref.: On using the word accountable in the team's terminology)
"When you look at football my approach every time is to always look, and there's no order here, you look at attitudes and spirit and enthusiasm where it is or where it isn't. You look at scheme and then you look at personnel and you have to take all three into account when you come into accountability. Where is each and every part of it. It comes through meetings with the coaches, meetings with the players, and evaluations of film. You don't just grade technique, you grade effort, and that's what we do all the time. The accountability isn't necessarily any greater when you're getting beat. It's what I always want to see is that all of us have accountability. Ross Cockrell said it best, way back when. He said we have two choices. We can run to it or we can run from it. The best choice is always and only to run to it. That's what Duke football should be."

(Ref.: On dealing with this same scenario two years ago and on if there are any lessons that could be applied)
"That's what they remember, what they know. Anything I remember or I know I don't ever share that because the total focus from a coaching standpoint is on the current moment. You know they talk. You hope seniors are giving young people hope in conversation. Captains -- that's a role that they should play. But what we all have to be focused on is who we are, not what we are. Being the right kind of people is the best way to handle adversity. Yes, you can turn things. I've been around a lot of programs that have had to do that. Have had great Novembers to finish to be where you wanted to be because that's when all the decisions are made. But we can't do anything now about Tuesday's practice. In front of us is Wednesday's practice, and that's really where we are."

(Ref.: On if he revisits last year's Wake Forest game)
"No, I mean you're going to look at it. As a coach we study every annual opponent and because the coaches are the same, the approach, what we did poorly, what were the circumstances. Obviously, the game to some level and degree was certainly an outlier. But you do learn from scheme for one thing."

(Ref.: On how the team was disappointed a year ago in this game and how they're looking to bounce back)
"I don't bring it up but that's a natural response from a player you know. I mean that's who they are. They're competitors. They remember those things and you hope you have competitors. But you know because you say something has nothing to do with the outcome. Outcome is all about your work and what your input is."

(Ref.: On getting outworked by Syracuse)
"I mean those are some things that I said to our team. I didn't use those exact words, but I didn't think our effort level throughout the game matched theirs. That's not typical of a Duke football team."

(Ref.: On his team letting go of the past and moving forward to a rivalry game)
"Well the first thing is you can't pile things up. All the things you mentioned. We've got more than Syracuse. You can go back to the week before. You can go a lot of places with this particular team. All we can do and the only thing we can do is worry about the current week, this game. In football, I've often found it's harder to give up big victories and put them behind you than it is defeats. I mentioned that for 44 years only six losing seasons, but tough losses along the way you know. When you face those, there's your moment. Those are your chances to have a defining moment. You're not going to be defeated by them and you're not going to let yourself be defined by a loss, but you are inwardly going to know who you are.

"I started a season at Tennessee 0-6. There's a guy on a billboard that's living up there that won't come down until we win. I had to be careful where I went. I mean, that didn't happen right? But it did. I learned a lot about a lot of people. In that era, departments were all around each other and you had to go to a water cooler to get water. One of the things I've learned about losing when you are is you don't let people see you flinch. In that circumstance you go to the water cooler and somebody from somewhere else says, 'hey, boy the defense is playing awful.' No they're not. You know 'hey are yawl okay? Are you going to make it?' Is there something -- did you talk to my doctor? You understand what I'm saying. I know that part of it is funny but you clearly understand what I'm saying. At your darkest moments, I'm not talking about team, I'm talking about individual, I learned that early in life there lies your best. It's in there. All you have to do is seek it. It's in there. That's where effort lives. That's where every bit of this lives. It's not a cliche. It's real. I think when I said you run to it, not from it, that clearly defines all of these responses. Everybody has to make their own decision. My job is to evaluate everybody in that process. We're still in that process, if that makes sense."

(Ref.: On relying on senior leadership to get through this tough time)
"I think players always have to be relied on in the toughest of times. When you have a championship team, they win it. It's them. When things aren't going well and I've said this, I do own it 100 percent. But to pull yourself out -- I'm not going to pull them out of it. I may help get them there. You know I mean that. I own this where we are right now, but they have to go inside, and nobody is so resilient that they don't need people to help pull with them. That's where player and peer, not pressure, peer support lies. That's extremely important for your upperclassmen to be that. If we've trained them properly throughout our program in the time they've been here whether they're fourth-year seniors or fifth-year senior or in Edgar's case a sixth-year senior. Let's pray and hope they've learned how to do that before now, you know."

David Cutcliffe Press Conference Quotes: Wake Forest

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