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David Cutcliffe was 8 or 9 years old when he first washed the family car.
After he proudly went inside to announce he was finished, his father pointed to some mistakes and made him start over. On the ninth try, Cutcliffe finally got it right – his first lesson in completing a job correctly.
Now, Cutcliffe believes there is an art to finishing.
“That's something a lot of us spend half a lifetime trying to develop,” Cutcliffe said.
It's also an art football coaches in the Triangle are trying to master as the 2008 season begins. Cutcliffe is a first-year coach trying to improve a Duke team that was 6-45 under predecessor Ted Roof.
North Carolina's Butch Davis and N.C. State's Tom O'Brien are in their second seasons after taking over for coaches fired after losing seasons. All are rebuilding after their teams posted losing records last season.
North Carolina
Davis came to the Tar Heels with two Super Bowl rings from his time with the Dallas Cowboys. He rebuilt the Miami Hurricanes into a national title contender before leaving to become head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
While many other schools are installing spread-option schemes with fleet-footed runners at quarterback, North Carolina runs a pro-style offense with a traditional drop-back quarterback.
North Carolina's sophisticated passing game helped redshirt freshman T.J. Yates set a school record with 2,655 passing yards in 2007.
Wideout Hakeem Nicks set another school mark with 74 receptions.
Defensive tackle Kentwan Balmer's rapid development into a first-round pick under Davis and assistant John Blake enhanced the staff's reputation for preparing players for the pros.
“John's influence on Kentwan made an enormous difference in just his focus and how he practiced, the things he needed to practice, and the techniques,” Davis said.
That NFL background has proven attractive to prospects from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, which Davis considers North Carolina's recruiting base.
N.C. State
Building a capable, deep offensive line was one of former coach Chuck Amato's biggest problems at N.C. State. O'Brien came to Raleigh after the 2006 season with an impressive history of putting Boston College offensive linemen in the NFL.
“Everywhere I've been, we've had strong offensive lines,” O'Brien said. “We've had success, so I would tend to lean that way. I think the same thing is true on the defensive side of the ball, too. You have to be able to control the line of scrimmage.”
Under Amato, players were criticized for undisciplined play that often put N.C. State among the ACC leaders in turnovers and penalties. O'Brien is a Naval Academy graduate whose middle name might as well be “Discipline.”
In recruiting, O'Brien has played off Amato's weakness to turn it into a strength for the Wolfpack. Rivals.com analyst Mike Farrell said high school coaches resented Amato for offering scholarships to Florida prospects instead of North Carolinians.
O'Brien immediately sent his staff members on a blitz throughout the state to mend relationships that soured under Amato. That paid off in February, when N.C. State signed eight of rivals.com's top 30 prospects in North Carolina – more than any other school.
Duke
In six seasons at Mississippi, Cutcliffe was 44-29.
He has a reputation as a quarterback guru after coaching the last two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks – Peyton and Eli Manning – in college. Cutcliffe is known as a master tactician of the no-huddle offense from his days at Mississippi and Tennessee, where he was offensive coordinator.
“Our goal is to score 30 points-plus every time we play,” Cutcliffe said. “At our level of Division I-A football, when you score 30 or more, you're a very high-percentage win team.”
Although recruiting wasn't considered Cutcliffe's strength at Mississippi, his staff's persistence has opened doors for him already. Duke didn't give up on highly regarded Durham Hillside running back Desmond Scott after he committed to Rutgers.
“Nothing becomes official until they sign the national letter of intent,” said Duke recruiting coordinator Zac Roper, who was commenting on the school's general recruiting strategy.
Scott changed his mind last month and committed to Duke, giving Cutcliffe a big confidence boost. Within a week after that, 13 other prospects committed to the Blue Devils.
