Why former coach David Cutcliffe finally returned to Duke, grateful but fighting emotions

As David Cutcliffe watched Duke football practice Friday, nearly three years of separation continued to melt away.

He watched players he recruited and coached at Duke, prior to his 2021 departure as head football coach, enjoying their work, reveling in a third consecutive bowl trip, eager to face No. 22 SMU next door at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday night.

He did his best to hide his emotions.

“There are still quite a few who are starters on both sides of the ball,” Cutcliffe said. “It’s really rewarding to see them turn into leaders, grown men. All of the love, all of those smiles. Whew. Yeah, I’ve had to fight back tears. I don’t want to come back and start crying, you know?”

For the first time since his 14-season tenure at Duke ended, Cutcliffe made his way back to the program he led to success few thought possible after taking over in 2008.

He’s 70 years old now and living in the Birmingham area, where he’s worked for the Southeastern Conference since his coaching career ended.

‘No business being a negative person’

Of course, he wanted to be retained following the 2021 season, when Duke went 3-9 and lost all eight ACC games to see its conference losing streak stretch to 13 games.

Duke athletics director Nina King, while expressing gratitude for Cutcliffe’s tenure as a whole, decided the program needed a fresh start. She hired Mike Elko, who led Duke to a 16-9 record in two seasons before becoming Texas A&M’s coach this season.

Manny Diaz followed Elko and has the Blue Devils 6-1 overall with a 2-1 ACC record with SMU (6-1, 3-0) up next.

Cutcliffe greeted Diaz with a smile and an embrace on Friday as they traded places for interviews on the ACC Network set. He’s happy for what he did at Duke and thrilled to see the program having sustained success again.

“I have no business being a negative person,” Cutcliffe said. “That’s doing an injustice to all of the people that were involved in our program. I don’t want to leave all of those former players, assistant coaches and people that were so near and dear to us around Duke football with a bad taste in their mouth. Now to say that’s not something you have to work on daily? Yeah, absolutely, because it was abrupt when you don’t get to say goodbye. That’s a harsh reality, but it’s not an ending unless you make it one yourself.”

When Cutcliffe first arrived at Duke, the Blue Devils had won 10 games over the previous eight seasons.

After taking Duke to six bowl games in seven seasons from 2012-18, including an ACC championship game appearance in 2013, the program regressed. Pandemic restrictions stunted its development and the Blue Devils suffered through three consecutive losing seasons at the end of Cutcliffe’s run.

Cutcliffe made Duke desirable

Both Elko and Diaz regularly said they wouldn’t have been interested in coaching Duke were it not for Cutcliffe’s work to make the program relevant again in the ACC.

Last season, a communication error led to Cutcliffe not being invited to attend a reunion weekend when Duke honored the 2013 ACC Coastal Division championship team. This weekend, the 2014 team that went 9-4 and played in the Sun Bowl is being honored with former players and coaches back on campus.

Cutcliffe joined them and celebrated just one of so many successes he had at Duke.

“There’s a lot of pride for leaving a place better than you found it,” Cutcliffe said. “Not me. We. I believe we did that, and I don’t know that anybody would take argument to that. We had a couple of tough years at the end, but the pandemic created a circumstance that made it very difficult to be a developmental program. And so that’s okay. Things happen for reasons. It’s good to put anything that was negative away. It’s time to do that. Think about all the many positive things that occurred while we’re here.”

‘It’s about people’

He’ll be introduced during a break in Saturday night’s game along with former coaches Steve Spurrier and Fred Goldsmith.

It’s the 35th anniversary of Spurrier’s 1989 Duke team that shared the ACC championship with Virginia.

Thirty years ago, in 1994, Goldsmith coached Duke to a 7-0 start before finishing 8-4.

That team was the last to make a bowl game or post a winning season before Cutcliffe rejuvenated Duke.

Now, under Diaz, the Blue Devils are heading for a bowl game in their third consecutive season. They’ll need a win over SMU on Saturday night to maintain ACC championship hopes.

Cutcliffe will gladly be there cheering them on.

“I always use the term, it’s not about places, it’s about people,” Cutcliffe said. “And, so, to see those people has just been uplifting. And then to see coach Diaz and his staff and their values so much mirror what we believed in. Seeing players that we recruited here, and I see that smile at practice behind their face mask, and it’s genuine. I see a team, as I watched them practice, they’re playing for each other. Boy, is that refreshing.”