Birmingham native and Alabama graduate David Cutcliffe will lead his Duke Blue Devils against Alabama Saturday.
Alabama is twice as talented as the Blue Devils, but what Cutcliffe has done at Duke has been pretty remarkable. It took Cutcliffe five years to build up enough talent to win games, and in 2013 that spiked to deliver Duke a 10-4 season. Since that year, Cutcliffe has only missed a bowl game one year (2016). Duke finished 8-5 last season.
On Tuesday, Cutcliffe met with the media to preview the season and the Alabama game. Below are five interesting things he said about the Crimson Tide, via 247Sports’ Duke website.
The Duke head coach called the Crimson Tide “probably” the most talented team in the nation.
“I think (Alabama is) probably the most talented team, top to bottom, in the country. That’s what I honestly think. Along with that, they’re extremely well-coached. They don’t have a lot of penalties, they don’t bust assignments, they don’t make errors, and so they do make you play their strengths.”
How his alma mater, Alabama, shaped who he is today
“Well, I’m so old I can barely remember Alabama. You know, Alabama — not only the university but growing up there — shapes your passion for college football, shapes your passion for football. Obviously, when I’m there and being privy to Coach Bryant and the other great coaches — Mal Moore had a great influence on me, Ken Donahue, Jack Rutledge, who unfortunately all those men are gone. I think that I understood a lot about the right way to go about this coaching business, and there’s a great benefit in that.
“I think the other part that is a reality when you do go to Alabama and anything involved with Alabama football, then or now, is that you learn to expect to win, and you don’t step away from that. You expect to win, and you understand that that comes with a price. It comes with a price of the offseason, but it comes at a price for preparation.”
Why playing Alabama is a good thing for Duke in 2019
“Yeah, I think our recruiting had just continued to rise, which it has, and you always are looking two years ahead at the quality of your athletes, the speed. We’ve got a fast football team. To play these caliber of teams, you’ve got to be able to run. If you can’t run with them, you can’t tackle them. If you can’t run with them, you can’t get away from them, etc. So, I just felt like our program had earned this type of opportunity, and it wasn’t as much that it was Alabama, it was the opportunity to be in a kickoff-type game for the 150th year of college football.”
On facing Tua Tagovailoa
“You know, I think he’s terrific. He has got everything that you want to start with with a quarterback, and the thing that is most obvious is his unbelievable accuracy. He has got a great, quick release. The biggest, most difficult part of it is if he has time, he’s going to be accurate and he’s going to be deadly with the ball down the field. So, you’ve got to mix up coverage, you’ve got to mix up rush, you’ve got to a great job of consistently making it as hard as you can for him. But yeah, I just think he’s terrific. I mean, everything I see about him is great for a lot of years, and there’s no question, I mean, he’s as good as there is out there in the college game right now.”
On facing receiver Jerry Jeudy
“I don’t know if there is a better prospect than Tua, but Jeudy may be equal. There’s no stopping, you’ve just got to minimize damage. With people that explosive, that fast, coverage has to change, you have to get help different ways. And so Coach (Matt) Guerrieri and Coach (Derek) Jones and that backend have got a lot of little things we’re doing that hopefully we can get some help in proper places. But he’s not the only one they’ve got at receiver, also.”
Alabama and Duke kickoff Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET from Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
