There's no cutting corners, Cutcliffe's the guy for Duke

David Cutcliffe chose to drive.

Big-time coordinators invited to big-time head coaching interviews usually get the big-time red carpet treatment. Private plane. Hors d'oeuvres en route. Town car from the airport. Pampered all the way.

Quarterback guru David Cutcliffe developed Eli Manning while at Ole Miss. (Jon Gardiner)

But David Cutcliffe chose to drive the five hours between Knoxville, Tenn. and Durham, N.C.

"To be real honest with you, if I decided to turn around, I could turn around," he said.

Big time might be overstating it as Coach Cut was cutting across the South. As Tennessee's offensive coordinator he was interested in the Duke job. The Duke that has been a habitual coach killer since Steve Spurrier (still amazingly) won the ACC in 1989. The Duke that averaged less than 2½ wins per season since. The Duke that has won four games in the past four seasons.

Driving through the night, there was a long way to go and a lot of time to think.

"I wasn't very far out of Knoxville when I was (thinking) maybe I wasn't doing the right thing," Cutcliffe said. "Am I doing the right thing to even pursue this?"

Then the all-night trucker/coach asked himself another question.

"How am I ever going to know if I don't go find out?"

So here he is, this 53-year old with two Super Bowl quarterbacks -- as well as a heart bypass -- on his résumé, less than a week before signing day. Duke's recruiting ranking at this point doesn't really matter. It's not good. It's never going to be high. At least not for a while.

Dookies would settle for a football program that Coach K can be proud of. Basketball powers like Kentucky, Kansas, Stanford -- even North Carolina in the past -- have been able to do it, why not Duke?

That is what seems like the eternal question at Duke. There are no equivalents of DeMarcus Nelson or Gerald Henderson on the football roster. It looks like a long, hard slog.

By now you should know Cutcliffe took the gig. And Duke is lucky as hell. No more Carl Franks or Ted Roof or Barry Wilson. It got a respected veteran with head coaching experience. It got an offensive mind for an offensive black hole. This is a man who coached two Mannings, a national championship offense and won 10 games at Ole Miss.

That's where we must interrupt. Actually, a convergence of circumstances made this marriage possible: Cutcliffe got the head coaching bug again. Ole Miss unwisely fired him in 2004, a year after Eli Manning led the Rebels to that 10-win season. Cutcliffe also was available and maybe perceived as damaged goods, because of his bypass surgery three years ago.

He found a pastoral campus he fell in love with. He entered one of the biggest conundrums in college football. Either Duke has been bad because it hired a series of bad coaches or its admissions policy has stonewalled a generation of football talent.

One thing is certain: The school must get serious about fielding a serious Division I-A program. Right now. Funds have been approved for the initial upgrades (concession stands, bathrooms) of Wallace Wade Stadium, one of the oldest stadiums in I-A. A more wide-ranging, strategic plan for football reportedly will be presented to the Board of Trustees next month.

None of that matters, though, unless this statement changes: "We can recruit about 50 of the top 700 football players." That came from Duke Athletic Council chair Michael Gillespie in November. It should not be perceived as a boast. It's a barrier.

"All they'll tell me," said the high school coach of one of Duke's current recruits, "is there is more opportunity than in the past (to get recruits in), but it's still a guarded thing."

Cutcliffe talked around that central issue of his tenure -- special admits for academically at-risk recruits. It happens virtually everywhere. It has to, to keep a program competitive.

"I really embrace the university as it is," he said. "We're bringing in guys who are going to graduate from Duke."

For now, Duke has to hope Cutcliffe can work his magic and recruits like Sean Renfree honor their commitment. The three-star Scottsdale, Ariz., quarterback committed this week and might be Cutcliffe's next star pupil under center. For what it's worth, rivals.com has moved Cutcliffe's first class from the mid-80s this week to No. 62, largely because of Renfree's commitment.

Or take Brian Moore, a Coral Gables (Fla.) Ransom Everglades offensive lineman who blew out his knee last year in spring practice. Moore, though, didn't know it right away. He continued to practice, lift, work out and play basketball. The diagnosis didn't come until late July. He missed his senior season. Still, Moore was good, so good that even though he sat out his senior year, Duke and some SEC schools still pursued him.

The small-class private school with a roster size of 23 went 6-4 without Moore.

"If he played we might have been 10-0," said Ransom coach Dave Hewett, who quietly the mourned the loss of the only I-A recruit he's ever had.

"It crushed me because I've been doing this 37 years. He was my first Division I-A, actually recruited blue-chip athlete. Here I am not able to use him his senior year, but Duke stood by him from the beginning."

Moore hung on through a coaching change, ignored the history of losing. Sure, if everything goes wrong there is still that Duke education, but he doesn't plan on falling back on his degree just yet. During his visit AD Joe Alleva, president Richard Brodhead and B.J. Naedele, director of football relations laid out the long-range plan.

"They put the program out in little steps," Moore said, "how they look to rebuild. The first step was getting the new coach, the next step was renovations to the stadium. ... I don't think you don't ever want to admit that but the commitment was never, really fully there. (Cutcliffe) told them that before he came."

There's a lot not to like about Duke. This renovation stuff has lip service written all over it. No matter how lofty the academic standards are, every school president understands football means everything -- from endowments to season tickets. As great as Duke is, it's embarrassing its football isn't competitive.

There's a lot to like about Duke's chances. The ACC hasn't exactly been a juggernaut, so there is a chance to get competitive fairly quickly. The administration stepped up. Cutcliffe has the salary ($1.5 million per year) and support to stick it out. He is the biggest name Duke has had since Spurrier. The Ol' Ball Coach actually endorsed the move when they spoke on the phone.

A good start, but should Cutcliffe keep the engine running?

"I really liked the term, 'Leaving a place better than you found it,'" he said. "I think we were able to do that at Ole Miss in a big way. I think we were able to do that at Tennessee. Now we have an opportunity to do that at Duke."