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Tomko: Ten Reasons (Five Just Wouldn?t Cut It) Why The 2008 Season Was A Success
DURHAM, N.C. ? Not many 4-8 seasons can be considered steps in the right direction but football fans around the country should marvel at what David Cutcliffe accomplished in his first year at the helm of the Duke football program.
“I said we would be defined in November and we did,” Cutcliffe said. “We defined ourselves as a team that played unbelievably hard. Fierce is the word I would use.”
Here are 10 reasons why the 2008 Duke season was a success and why the future looks bright.
The energy Cutcliffe brought to the football field, the post-game press conferences, the weekly Tuesday press conferences, as well as sitting down with students for ?Have a Coke with Coach Cut’ sessions, energized and excited not only the players and the fans but also the local media covering the team.
Cutcliffe instilled his motto of an endless “pursuit of excellence” into the minds of his players from the day he arrived at Duke.
“I think this probably sums it up, I told them I really believe I am the luckiest man in college football,” Cutcliffe said. “I feel honestly and deeply about that. They have been unbelievable to coach. I have done this coaching business for 33 years and I have never had a group of young men that were as unselfish, were as totally focused on the team and I mean you can’t put a price on that.”
The other nine reasons why the perception of Duke football began to change this season can all be directly attributed to the job Cutcliffe and his staff did.
2. Fans
In less than 12 months, the first-year head coach took a program that had won four games combined in the previous four seasons and injected life and energy into his players and the fans at Wallace Wade Stadium.
The stands of Wallace Wade saw an average home attendance of 28,727 fans, the most since the 1994 season (30,845) when the team won eight games. Overall 201,091 fans filtered in through the gates of Wallace Wade, with four crowds eclipsing 30,000 for the first time in school history.
This season 100,770 more fans attended games than the previous year.
The senior linebacker distinguished himself as Duke’s best defense player and one of Cutcliffe’s favorite guys to coach on the field.
“It is to the point with Mike Tauiliili that I assume he is going to practice better than anybody on the field,” Cutcliffe said. “I assume he is going to compete at a higher level.”
The linebacker was named first team All-ACC on Monday after posting 140 tackles, 13 for a loss, a half a sack, four interceptions, five pass breakups, five quarterback hurries, one fumble recovery and three forced fumbles.
“The guy is a first team All-American,” Cutcliffe said following the season finale against North Carolina. “Any of you that have a vote in anything, he is the best defensive football player in the Atlantic Coast Conference. I have been around great linebackers. I have never been around one as productive. He is just a heck of a football player.”
Heart, focus, effort and discipline were the adjectives Cutcliffe used to define the type of player he wants to lead his football team and in his first year he found that player in Tauiliili.
4. Senior Class
The 25 seniors who were honored prior to Saturday’s kickoff against North Carolina set the tone for the revival of Duke football this season.
“I think the first thing I can do is publicly thank our seniors for the unbelievable commitment to football displayed by them for 12 regular season games,” Cutcliffe said. “They accomplished something that is real important in this whole process. What they accomplished is that it is not okay to be close at Duke... Mike Tauiliili and all those guys have set that standard.”
The seniors bought into Cutcliffe’s coaching system early, dedicating themselves in the offseason to lose weight and get in better shape through the Cutcliffe-System Diet and Exercise Program.
With only one offseason under the team’s belt, the program worked wonders. After getting beat in the second half of ball games 187-96 last season, this year’s squad outscored opponents in the second half and overtime 133-132.
A defense that featured up to seven senior starters helped decrease the total points scored against Duke from 398 in 2007 to 281 this season.
Moving forward with another offseason of preparation and tutelage from Cutcliffe, Lewis should continue to blossom into a high-caliber collegiate quarterback. Listening to the three-year starter speak following Duke’s finale against North Carolina, you got a sense that Lewis is ready to burden even more responsibility as the team moves forward.
“My senior year coming up and fortunately the younger guys look up to me,” Lewis said. “Now I have to take on a bigger leadership role and that doesn’t just start on the field; that starts off the field and doing everything right and setting an example for the younger guys.”
The example he set during his preparation for the North Carolina game should be admired by the younger guys on the team. Lewis was forced to sit out against Virginia Tech after suffering a foot injury the week before at Clemson. But Lewis rehabbed and was able to put forth a gutsy performance against North Carolina, completing 34-of-49 passes for 278 yards and a touchdown.
On the year, the junior quarterback connected on 224-of-361 passes for 2,171 yards and 15 touchdowns and was named to the All-ACC second team.
6. Fantastic Freshmen
Jay Hollingsworth, Johnny Williams, Donovan Varner and Matt Daniels all arrived at Duke this season and made key contributions on the field for the Blue Devils.
Hollingsworth led the team as a freshman in total rushing yards, finishing the season with 399 yards, a 3.7 yard average and one touchdown. Hollingsworth never shied away from contact, finishing his runs with aggressiveness throughout the season.
At receiver, the duo of Williams and Varner accounted for 51 receptions, 491 yards and one touchdown. Williams’s best game came against Northwestern, with the freshman catching 11 passes for 135 yards. Varner saved his best performance of the season for the season finale against North Carolina, hauling in 10 passes for 73 yards.
The pair are not large in stature (5’10” and 5’9” respectively) but were effective possession receivers as they used their football knowledge to find soft spots in zone coverages and their quickness against man coverages.
Daniels saw action in 10 games during the season, recording 22 tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery. His best game came against Virginia Tech when he registered one interception and recovered a fumble in the first half.
7. Road Win At Vanderbilt (SEC Country)
Cutcliffe got to return to a familiar venue on Oct. 25 when the Blue Devils traveled to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt.
Duke captured their fourth win of the season, knocking off the SEC school, 10-7, and prevented the Commodores from winning their sixth game of the season to become bowl eligible.
Leading 10-7, the Commodores tried one last gasp to squeak out a victory, but Chris Rwabukamba intercepted a Mackenzi Adams pass at the one-yard line with 38 seconds left to seal road wins in back-to-back years for the first time since the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
"It's significant any time the SEC and ACC play,” Cutcliffe said. “Our players talked about that a lot. It was my first time on this side of the ledger. I noticed before and after the game our players talked about that a lot. We have great respect for the Southeastern Conference. People know that I coached in it for a long time but these kids measure it as playing against the best.”
8. Win Over An ACC School
The Blue Devils accomplished their first win against an ACC opponent after failing to do so in their previous 25 tries. The seniors had fought through three season of never beating an ACC opponent until their 31-3 rout of Virginia on Sept. 27.
Cutcliffe was most proud of his seniors following the win.
“Real proud, first of all for our seniors that they have endured the challenges of continuing to fight through adversity and pick up their first ACC win,” Cutcliffe said following the game. “I am really, really happy for them. That was to me, it wasn’t about a streak, it was about our seniors. That is the most important thing that happened today.”
In front of 25,527 fans, the Duke defense forced a season-high six turnovers in the win, with Tauiliili intercepting a pass, forcing a fumble and recovering a fumble. Lewis threw for two touchdowns and 160 yards in the win, while Hollingsworth paced Duke on the ground with 59 yards.
9. Kicking Game
Nick Maggio connected on all 28 of his PAT attempts during the season and ended the year 11-of-14 on field goals. He connected on three field goals beyond 40 yards with a long on the year of 46 yards against Navy in week three.
Joe Surgan handled kickoff duties for the season and was the long field goal specialist because of his strong leg. Surgan averaged 62.3 yards per kickoff with two touchbacks. The long range field goal specialist attempted four field goals beyond 50 yards on the year splitting the uprights on two of them ? a 52-yarder against Navy and a season long 55-yarder against North Carolina.
Kevin Jones punted the ball 71 times, placing 27 kicks inside the 20 and boasting a 40.8 yard average on the season. Jones booted 10 kicks over 50 yards on the year with a long of 68.
10. The Future
The future of Duke football started Sunday after the North Carolina game with Cutcliffe not letting the loss linger.
“I am excited about the future,” Cutcliffe said. “You get over it real quick.”
Good things are on the horizon as the underclassmen get another offseason to grow and develop in Cutcliffe’s system.
“As we close the gap you are going to see tremendous effects of games,” he said. “We will close that gap. We will close that gap with speed and strength and size and we will maintain our competitiveness. We won’t be out-competed.”
“Our goal is not to have a good program but have the best program in college football and we can do that at Duke,” he added. “The best program in college football.”
