Duke has elite backfield talent. Does that mean Cutcliffe can turn things around again?
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David Cutcliffe’s tenure as Duke’s football coach has seen the Blue Devils go from one of the nation’s worst Division I programs into a team that became a regular bowl participant.
The past two seasons, though, saw a regression that included consecutive losing seasons with an unsightly 2-9 record in 2020.
Entering his 14th season with the Blue Devils, Cutcliffe is now tasked with turning the program around once again.
He has a blueprint, having led Duke to six bowl appearances in seven seasons from 2012-2018 after the Blue Devils hadn’t played in a bowl game since 1994.
But can he get Duke back to the postseason in 2021? The job won’t be easy.
Duke is the only team in the ACC that doesn’t return a quarterback with starting experience. On defense, Duke lost three players to the NFL while three others used their super senior year, allowed under COVID-19 rules, to transfer and play at other Power 5 schools.
The Blue Devils do have a preseason all-ACC running back in senior Mataeo Durant, return all three of their starting wide receivers and have their leading tackler back in junior linebacker Shaka Heyward.
The 2020 season was certainly no fun for the Blue Devils. The coaches and players believe the work they’ve done since January will make a big difference after they weren’t able to do such offseason work a year ago due to the pandemic.
“I think that all that we went through will be a part of who we are the rest of our lives,” Cutcliffe said. “So I’m not going to blow that season off as a loss. I think we learned a great deal.”
Now his job is to ensure last season’s result don’t repeat so he can indeed turn Duke into a competitive ACC program once again.
Carrying the load
▪ RB Mataeo Durant, senior. Having led Duke in rushing yards (817) and scoring runs (eight) last season despite not taking the most carries, Durant enters his senior season the focal point of the Blue Devils offense. One of the better running backs in the ACC, he’s a guy Duke wants to have involved as much as possible when it has the ball. Durant averaged a healthy 6.8 yards per carry last season when he shared the rushing duties with Deon Jackson. With Jackson in the NFL, Durant will get even more carries. Look for him to be involved in the passing game as well as he did catch a TD pass last season among his 12 receptions.
▪ QB Gunnar Holmberg, redshirt junior. Duke’s fourth starting quarterback in four seasons, the redshirt junior is tasked with turning the Blue Devils fortunes on offense around. The knee injury that sidelined Holmberg for the entire 2019 season played a major role in Duke’s decision to take Chase Brice as a graduate transfer from Clemson in 2020. That decision proved disastrous when Brice threw 15 interceptions and Duke led the nation in turnovers with 39. So here is Holmberg, having played in six games behind Brice last season, set to handle the starting job full time. He’s a good enough athlete to be a force in the running game in addition to what he can do via the pass. Entering his fourth season in the program, he certainly has a handle on the playbook. After what the Blue Devils endured last season, Holmberg simply has to throw the ball to his teammates rather than the opposition to be an improvement.
▪ LB Shaka Heyward, junior. A linebacker has led Duke in tackles eight consecutive seasons, with Heyward being the latest in that line. He tallied 80 stops in 11 games last season and has 148 tackles over his two seasons with Duke. He’s recorded double-digit tackles five times. Now a junior on a defense that lost three starters to the NFL from last season, Heyward is among the group’s most experienced players with 17 starts in this 27 games played. Simply put, Duke needs him to have a strong season not only reaching the 100-tackle mark but in forcing fumbles and pressuring the quarterback. He does have six career sacks among his 15 tackles for loss in his career. The Blue Devils will need more of that and Heyward has the skill and experience to produce.
Areas of concern
▪ Offensive line. It doesn’t matter what kind of talent Duke has at its skill positions if the guys up front can’t push back the defenders to allow space for big plays. The Blue Devils enter the season with two new starters at tackle in sophomores Graham Barton and John Gelotte. The 6-6, 215-pound Barton impressed as a true freshmen, stepping in to start at center late in the season due to injuries. The coaching staff believes he’ll be a superb tackle and he’ll get a chance to back up that belief. The Blue Devils need center Jack Wohlabaugh to come back healthy from the knee injury that wiped out his 2020 season. An all-ACC candidate last summer prior to his injury, Wohlabaugh can stabilize the middle of the line along with returning starting guards Casey Holman and Jacob Monk. If Barton and Gelotte develop and Wohlabaugh is as good as he was pre-injury, Duke has the makings of a good offensive line. But those questions have yet to be answered.
▪ Defensive line. The Blue Devils saw a lot of defensive line talent and experience depart the program after last season. Chris Rumph (eight sacks) and Victor Dimukeje (7.5 sacks) were selected in the NFL Draft. Another defensive end, Drew Jordan (3.5 sacks), transferred to Michigan State. Defensive tackle Derrick Tangelo transferred to Penn State. So who’s left to man the front four for co-defensive coordinator Ben Albert? Senior Ben Frye is sliding out to defensive end after playing at tackle previously. After that, it’s youngsters who played behind all those departed players last season. Sophomore tackles DeWayne Carter, Aeneas Peebles, Gary Smith and Christian Rorie will get playing time in the middle. At the end slot opposite Frye look for sophomores Caleb Oppan and R.J. Oben to get playing time. Since arriving at Duke from Boston College in 2016, Albert has greatly improved Duke’s defensive line play through recruiting and development. He’s earned the benefit of the doubt. Now it’s time for all those young players to show he’s prepped them to start and contribute.
Can’t-miss game
▪ at North Carolina, Oct. 2.
It’s natural to say Duke’s game with rival UNC is always a can’t-miss game, right? Even in football, that’s true this season even after last year’s, uh, well, contest at Durham. The Tar Heels rang up 42 first-half points on the way to demolishing the Blue Devils, 56-24. The game was out of hand before the first quarter had been completed.
With Duke coming off a 2-9 season and the Tar Heels riding high with a star quarterback and preseason ACC Coastal Division championship buzz, this year’s game shapes up to be more of the same.
In theory, anyway.
The Battle for the Victory Bell has certainly shifted back in UNC’s favor the last two years. Duke beat the Tar Heels three years in a row from 2016-18, giving the Blue Devils five wins in seven contests dating back to 2012. Duke’s botched halfback option pass at the goal line allowed the Tar Heels to escape with a 20-17 win in 2019 before last year’s blowout.
This season’s game will be the ACC opener for Duke. After nonconference games with Charlotte, NC A&T, Northwestern and Kansas, Duke could enter its game at UNC on Oct. 3 with more wins than it collected all of last season.
That would make the UNC game a pivotal one for the Blue Devils, who at the very least want to put forth a more competitive effort against the Tar Heels than they did last season.
A successful season is ...
Given how last season went, the bar is low here. If Duke gets to three wins, that’s progress, right? In some ways, yes. But in the bigger picture, no.
Duke has produced back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 2010-11. The Blue Devils last played in a bowl game when Daniel Jones led them to a 56-27 win over Temple in the 2018 Independence Bowl.
With the 66-year-old Cutcliffe obviously closer to the end of his tenure than the beginning, his team needs to make a serious push to get back to a bowl game this year to re-legitimize the work he’s done.
It’s a tall order, getting from two wins to six. But Duke should be favored to win three of its nonconference games. Finding three ACC wins will be tougher and maybe the Blue Devils will fall short. But going 3-9 would not be considered a success. Duke needs to do better.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Duke has elite backfield talent. Does that mean Cutcliffe can turn things around again?."
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