David Cutcliffe Press Conference Quotes: North Carolina

DURHAM – Duke football head coach David Cutcliffe met with members of the media on Monday afternoon for his weekly press conference.

The Blue Devils travel to North Carolina on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 with Mike Morgan, Kirk Morrison, and Dawn Davenport on the call. Kickoff is set for noon. The game can also be heard on the Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD through the Varsity app or GoDuke.com

David Cutcliffe Duke Football Head Coach
(Ref.: Opening Statement)
"Well, good afternoon. I really thought we had an outstanding victory, to go back just for a second. I was impressed with Kansas and their effort and their planning. That's a program that has been under a very difficult circumstance that responded like you would want a team to respond if you're their coach. I think their coaching staff did a terrific job. It wasn't easy and that's good because I think we got better as that game went along. Also, they're good enough to show you things you better get repaired as quickly as you can.

"That emphasis was part of our practice yesterday. We're playing an extremely talented team, the most talented team that we've seen to this point, probably in a big way. If you're not sound in every aspect, if you're not doing the little things well, they will exploit it with that kind of talent. It goes back to focusing on Duke. Both of these teams know each other pretty well, and we've got to focus on doing all of the little things that we have to do to put ourselves in a position to compete with these guys. I'm anxious to get on the practice field tomorrow to see what our response will be tomorrow because I thought yesterday's practice was terrific. They went out with a purpose to get better, and that's a day after a win and that's a good test. I like where their minds were. We've got to continue that the rest of the week to be able to be successful this week."

(Ref.: On coming off three wins in a row and the defensive attitude)
"First thing I did yesterday was go in with the defensive staff. I didn't want to go in with a focus of all the things that were wrong. I went in with a focus of the things we really did well, then we had a great discussion on areas that we know have to be addressed and you have to get better. You have to look at every aspect of. You've got to look at your people, then you look at scheme. Then you look again at your people and what do they do best to lead you toward what your scheme decisions are. And then it's how do you practice them. This isn't a verbal fix. It's not something you just sit and talk about and say, 'OK, it's done.' You have to have a practice approach. I know we're young. I realize that we're not going to get any older or even that much stronger right now. We've learned a lot about ourselves. Now you have an opportunity to adjust some things, and that's been the approach. I thought the staff after practice yesterday had a great start on that last night, had a great start on it today. I met again with both sides of the ball again this morning and I like the start of our planning and our thoughts and our approach, and we'll continue that through the afternoon and evening and be ready to go tomorrow morning."

(Ref.: On the importance to pressure the North Carolina quarterback)
"Well, I think with any great quarterback that's the case, and he's a great player. He's got such arm talent, poise and timing and just a lot of ability, and he can also move and run. He's an athletic guy. We hadn't had a lot of success getting to quarterbacks. That's part of the planning. Their offensive line has four returning starters. They're big, they're strong. They've given us problems. There's a lot of work that goes in, to say, 'how are you going to provide pressure?' We've got thoughts, but I'm not going to talk about them right now. But also, you work really hard on every individual's ability to get better this week and study an offensive lineman one on one. How do you try to compete and win? It's just every bit and part of it, and we've got to try to get to him or you will have a long afternoon."

(Ref.: On the inconsistency between halves the last two weeks)
"I think sometimes that's a good thing because you take it right out to the practice field and I show them practice tape where the same thing happens. If you're 80-20 at practice, guess what you're going to be at a game. When you clock in, we are an early morning practice, so they got to get to bed. We've talked about that. You've got to come in with your best. You've got to put something in your body, you got to hydrate, you've got to eat a little bit. Your brain needs it, your body needs it. When we hit that practice field at 8:30 in the morning, we need to see, you're not going to be perfect, but we need to see 90 to 95 percent showing up of what the expectations are. When you start seeing that on a consistent basis, you become a consistent football team. It bothers me and I hear coaches say, 'well, we're going to go back and work harder.' What have you been doing? It's not working harder. It's working better. Y'all might hear me say, 'we've got to elevate our level of execution and we've got to do it better and better.' I hope you don't ever hear me say that in front of our Athletics Director that we got to work harder. No way am I doing that. I don't know how you guys get away with that. What have y'all been doing?"

(Ref.: On the improvements from week one to now)
"I think the conversions on both sides of the ball, critical possessions, critical situations. I was so concerned that we were situationally unaware and failed in too many critical situations. I felt that's my fault. That's how I feel as a coach. I reminded our coaches yesterday when you put a practice plan together, we've got a face and a schedule, then you have to execute the plan. You got to put players in situations they're going to face in the game over and over again. I don't ever want to be guilty of a player facing a situation in a game that we haven't put them in on the practice field. Even though you try to do it in August. August scares the heck out of me. We've gone down to 25 practice days. We cover every situation. Do you cover it often enough? These wins are precious. You can't let any of them slip through your fingers. I think that's the biggest improvement I see is as a team, whether it's defense, offense and as well as kicking, you've got to take advantage of those situational opportunities."

(Ref.: On how winning builds confidence)
"I think confidence is a unique thing. I think sometimes when I see a lot of swag displayed, it comes from a lack of confidence. You're trying to convince everybody else that you're ready. I think the only way that you're confident is what you do out on that practice field, when you know you're ready. I'm hopefully seeing more of that with more of our players. You earn confidence. I've had a lot of players come to me at quarterback through the years saying 'I don't think the team's confident in me.' Are you confident in yourself? Have you earned that right? Well, it goes back to that 80-20, 70-30, 60-40, 95-five. I want to see 95-five. I'm not going to ask anybody to be 100 percent right, but I think having proper confidence is a whole lot different than being cocky. This team needs to continue to try to earn some confidence."

(Ref.: On Charlie Ham in the kicking game and him making tackles on special teams)
"Well, we weren't real pleased. They didn't have to wait for the message. We delivered it. It was not our best performance in that area. At the same time, location, location, location. Have you ever heard that? The kicker should really never want to get in on a tackle. So, we got to work together better, hang time and location there and then the punt world. Yeah, we just had a couple of just unique failures at the line of scrimmage. I mean, we had a whole side of our punt team not get out, basically. That can never happen, and it hasn't really with us. So unique circumstances, we will address those areas as we always do in practice. We already added in a circuit yesterday in practice. But I like our specialists. I have a lot of confidence in Charlie. I have a lot of confidence in Porter Wilson and John Taylor. Jackson Hubbard, in my opinion, is the best holder. Nobody wants to talk about the holder. I think Jackson Hubbard is the best player at his position in the country. I've never had a holder that good and that can get lost in Charlie Ham kicking the ball, but it doesn't get lost on me. We're always constantly giving people opportunity to catch our eye in the kicking game on that practice field. If you perform well enough out there, you should be in the game. That personnel can be fluid. I want to see better performance in those areas of coverage."

(Ref.: On if Gunnar Holmberg and Mataeo Durant can get better)
"Got to. There's no question we have some weapons on offense. There's very much visual evidence. When I sat down with the staff and reviewed plays with the offensive staff, you can see where we can get better. We have specific things to work on to get better. We got to be hungry to do that. Again, talking about it isn't going to get it done. We'll only get better if we go out on that practice field and play football the way it's intended to be played."

(Ref.: On if the eight-man offensive line rotation has shown the ability to play in ACC play)
"Absolutely. I want to see more people on our team earn that. I've said it early on with this team. I want more people to earn playing time. It doesn't mean they're guaranteed to play 50 percent of the time, but that doesn't matter. If you can come out there and give us five, 10, 15 or 20 outstanding plays and rest someone else so they can give even better effort and play, that's our best chance to be a really good football team. It's a work in progress on a weekly basis. I tell them, I see you. I go up to all of them, non-scholarship players included and say 'I see you.' I watch every drill and everything we do on Tuesday and Wednesday for that reason. I will go to them individually and let them know if what I see is something awesome, then suddenly they're going to have an opportunity. If it's not so awesome, if it's on Tuesday, you got tomorrow, but I'm not going to guess whether you're ready to play Saturday. I need to know today. That's just kind of the way I've always believed in doing it."

(Ref.: On how the Duke-North Carolina rivalry has grown and evolved)
"Well, I mean, it wasn't really one in football for a while there, obviously for the reasons that we all know. Out here, when we were able to crack that in 2012, that was significant for our program. We've won a few of them. They've won more than a few. I think the football part of it has become more important. It's become more intense on both campuses. A couple of years ago over there, what a football game. Didn't love the way it turned out, but it was a heck of a competitive football game. We didn't compete with them really a year ago, but it is a great rivalry. Just merely the proximity of the two schools, it's so unique. I think people around the country have no idea really what this rivalry is until they come to the area and geographically drive between the two schools. I told somebody earlier, we may be eight or nine miles apart, but we might as well be traveling 1,000 miles because it's going to be that hostile. It definitely will be a hostile environment."

(Ref.: On the mindset going into Saturday's game now versus the preseason expectations for the game)
"Well, what people fault really is no importance because the schedules have been different. It's unimportant. I'm looking at the film. I'm looking at an extremely talented, gifted North Carolina team that is really well-coached and plays hard, and they're a handful regardless for anybody. We just got to hope that we can play as well as we can play against a team like this. They deserved all the recognition that they had coming in because they are an extremely talented football team with a great player at quarterback, a proven great quarterback. You could go down a long list of guys like that. So yeah, it's a big challenge for us."

(Ref.: On a veteran player getting flagged for taunting last week)
"Yeah, it wasn't a horrific thing. It was talking. It wasn't taunting in the sense of the word of those two were just jawing back and forth, and he felt really bad about doing that. Our offensive penalties have to stop for us to be successful in ACC play. We have addressed that. We had three holds, we had that penalty, we had an alignment penalty. We had two penalties that stopped drives that I think could have ended up with touchdowns. That can change the game. These are all the things that pile up on your desk. We certainly are addressing all of them every step of the way."

(Ref.: On if he believes that would have been a taunting penalty last year)
"Probably not, but I thought that Big 12 crew did a really fine job. I tell you what they did do. They were great communicating to me. I didn't have to wonder what was going on. I let them all know that even though we had more penalties, they were warranted in my opinion. I thought the communication was outstanding, which is important in that process."

(Ref.: On the victory bell and the importance of it)
"I didn't have to bring it up. They've already brought it up. They're well aware. We've got older guys in our programs that have rung it, and it's a big difference. And yeah, it's important. It's an important part of the process. I love the rivalries around the country for all the different prizes. I've been a part of those. We've had the beer barrel at Tennessee and Kentucky. The Egg Bowl. I like a bell a whole lot better. So, it's a big deal here."

(Ref.: On where the bell stays when housed at Duke)
"Well, we have a perfect place down there, right by our locker room. I've enjoyed that when we've had it. It's got a home and it's well in sight. It's right by our training room, between our training room and our locker room. When that space is empty, it's very noticeable."

(Ref.: On North Carolina's swings of in and out performance game by game)
"Schematically, they've not been that different. In your planning, it's just sometimes there are matchups against certain opponents that work and sometimes they don't. I'm really impressed with their offensive line, and Stacy Searels does a great job. I've watched his career and coached against him at different institutions and coached against him as a player too, aging myself again. They're a really good offensive front, so if you look at what Georgia Tech did and what Virginia Tech did you have to say kudos to them. They were able to get it done. We have to take that challenge."

(Ref.: On the offensive power early in the season and what has gone well)
"The offensive front is playing well. I think this is one of our better offensive lines, no offense, Dave [Harding]. You were a part of maybe what would be considered the best one and they're bordering on trying to attack that title. A lot of work to do, but it all starts there. I think the offensive staff and their research in the off season, their work in the spring, I think they've done a really good job of elevating our approach to running the football. I think that's going to continue to grow. Then if we're having success throwing the ball in, particularly when it's high percentage, that helps your run game because balance is still critical in football, in my opinion. Unless you're a wishbone team or an option team, I think you have to have some balance."

(Ref.: On the Atlantic side of the conference and how it is open after Clemson's loss)
"I would go all the way back in the Southeastern Conference because I was there long enough to see the baton passed. It does change. Clemson, hats off to them. What they've done has been phenomenal. It's not the fact that the league is bad. They've been that good, but it's difficult to transition from all they had and just continue on. Certainly North Carolina State's been close before with them, and they weren't close. They got it done. Congratulations to them. That was huge. But I think this league, as I look at what Boston College, Wake Forest, Syracuse, and other folks are doing, it's not an accident. Our league is better than people think it is. Clemson has made a lot of other ACC teams maybe look average at times. But I think the emphasis that we've seen at institutions toward football, when you get the ACC Network kicked in recruiting changes, you're more visible than we've ever been. So, I think it's going to be harder for any team, I'm not referencing Clemson, to dominate a league like this one. You just go down the roster of programs. There's a lot of really good programs and then all the rest of us that may be not considered traditionally powerhouses, we've got some good players, too. That's what makes a league strong is that top to the bottom? I think it's been a terrific start to the year. The first week you could hang your head, don't hang it long. That's a mistake in anything you do. You keep striving to grow. I think you're going to see over the next few years, with the emphasis of less practices, less contact, you're going to see teams be a little more erratic early than you might think. I think that's held true this year across the board, if you look at not just our league."

(Ref.: On Duke's running game and stringing together longer drives)
"Well, if we can keep converting third downs, it's huge to keep your defense on the sideline. When you have drives that were five plays, eight plays, 10 plays, you're helping your football team, much greater than you might think. I think there are a lot of factors that win football games, but when you stay on the field with the ball and you take care of the ball, guess what they can't do? Score. That's still one of the better ways to win a game."

(Ref.: On Duke's two turnovers on Saturday)
"Don't get me mad, OK? Neither one of them should have happened. I'm sorry, I just didn't sleep much Saturday night because of those two turnovers. We have to be better than that."

(Ref.: On what it takes to be good as a dual-threat quarterback)
"Yeah, I just think that it's a rhythm. If you look at most really good quarterbacks that are great ball handlers, the run and the fake have the same tempo, if that makes sense. You know the tempo of a golf swing, you'd know it well. The run game has a tempo, the fake has a tempo and when both are the same that's why they're real effective RPO team too, because their tempo is good in both cases. And then Sam Howell's got really quick hands, and he's accurate, can get it out. So, I've always loved play fakes. Had a lot of really good quarterbacks at it and Gunnar is getting better at it. There's nothing more important than being careful with the ball. You can stick it in there too long and too late and then the ball can come out. It's a tempo from here to here and then the ball comes out. I don't want to coach you all. You're not going to run any play action fakes I don't think anytime soon, right?"

(Ref.: On Gunnar's confidence growing and if that gives him more leeway to make decisions)
"Well, he makes his own decisions, that's what you do in coaching. I've heard coaches that want to holler before every play at practice. I don't believe in that. I believe in coaching on the run after a play. When our coaches are hollering instructions too much before I turn the music up at our practice. They're out there, they don't hear us. What you're seeing is what you've coached in practice. For Gunnar, part of really becoming a veteran is knowing when to lay it off. I term that as Drew Brees. I thought he was one of the best that ever played the game at that. When you do that, you win a lot of games. Instead of looking at it as sometimes a guy gets comfortable and he thinks he wants to force it downfield more, maybe that you hadn't really learned from your experience. I'm being truthful. What he did, he had a couple of layoffs the other day that told me he's arriving to where you want him to be mentally. To be honest with you, the more he plays, the more he will recognize all of those circumstances and situations. Yes, he had a couple of plays I thought he could have been aggressive down the field that I think he will be if they present themselves again. But that's playing and learning."

(Ref.: On Sam Howell as a runner)
"I thought that scoring run against Georgia Tech, I mean, that's ESPYs stuff. One of the best runs I've seen. I know how strong he is. He's got a really strong core and it shows in how he plays the game and he's athletic. He's hurt us before, so it's just another aspect of their offense and you have to account for the quarterback's legs. He's the second leading rusher on the team. Ty Chandler has been a good addition. I coached his dad at Ole Miss. We tried to recruit Ty here when Tennessee signed him. Familiar with both of them."

(Ref.: Closing remarks)
"I want to mention this before I get through. I got a double shot today. Man, and I'm feeling good. Knock on wood. I got my booster in my right arm and got my flu shot in my left arm. I'm ready. So here we go. I tell you, I encourage anybody that can, vaccinate yourself, make yourself safe, and please try to help others be safe. We all have an obligation to each other. Thank you. God bless you."

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David Cutcliffe Press Conference Quotes: North Carolina

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