What Do You Do When Your Football Team Is 0-4?

It speaks well of the respect David Cutcliffe has from just about everyone that we haven’t seen calls for his ouster after Duke started 0-4 and that on top of a tailspin at the end of last season (Duke is 1-9 in its last 10 games).

It won't surprise us if some people do start get antsy though and we wanted to take a minute to remind Duke fans of where they have been before.

Since the late Mike McGee departed in 1978, Duke has not kept a football coach more than five years and most got four year contracts which weren't renewed.

None of them, with the golden exception of Steve Spurrier, who left Duke for Florida, have gone on to glory, but the turnover decimated the program. When Cutcliffe was interviewed, remember, he chose to drive to Durham from Knoxville so that he could get out quickly if it was as big a disaster as it appeared.

Well it was - when Duke was sued by Louisville for trying to get out of a game contract, Duke’s attorneys successfully argued that Duke could hardly be considered a legitimate D-1 football program - but Cutcliffe took the job anyway.

He’s been loyal to Duke ever since, turning down several job offers.

We’re not saying anyone should be happy with losing. We’re sure he’s not.

What we are saying is to consider where things were and then Cutcliffe’s loyalty to Duke and also that he’s an unusually good man for someone in his profession.

On a merely practical level, Duke should do everything possible to avoid going to back to that four-and-done cycle.

More importantly, David Cutcliffe has been loyal to us. We should be equally loyal to him.