Duke football isn't used to excitement, but that's exactly what David Cutcliffe has provided. He's relaxed, confident, funny, and dead certain he knows what he's doing.It's infectious.
One of the players was quoted the other day as saying "it's almost like we're at a real football school," or words to that effect (we're paraphrasing and not very well).
Saturday's spring game marks the first public display of what Coach Cut is trying to do at Duke. We'll see a much more fit team, for one thing. He said that this was the most poorly conditioned team he'd ever seen, and that's being addressed, with over 400 pounds being lost so far. He also seems to be creating an atmosphere of fun, but that won't last without competence. We'll get a better idea about that on Saturday, and more of one this fall.
Cutcliffe has wisely, in our opinion, tried to create a party atmosphere for the game. There are a lot of fun events going on, starting at nine.
One quick thought: it seems clear in retrospect that the conditioning played a role in the collapses Duke typically suffered in the second halves last season, usually following strong first halves.