Don't Talk to David Cutcliffe About a Recruit's Star Rating

Duke coach doesn't trust evaluation services

Duke coach David Cutcliffe doesn’t get hung up over a recruit’s star ranking from the major services.

When asked about whether Luca Diamont would have been a four-star if he’d committed early to another football power, Cutcliffe said, “Here’s what I will tell you, honestly, that I know happens. I’ve see it, to where they’re going to four-star to a majority of where their subscribers are from, are involved. If they’re not involved, then they drop them to something else. We’ve signed players through the years that were four stars that went to three, threes that went to two, and quite frankly, I don’t care. I have my own rating system, and it has not got a star associated with it.”

This year’s class—all three stars—includes just two players from North Carolina. Cutcliffe didn’t want people to read into that.

“We just didn’t have a lot of people that we thought fit—small class—what we needed,” he said. “I don’t even recall that we lost anybody. Our profile is a little different. I think next year’s class will be much broader for us in the state. There’s no intent. We started this whole class believing that we’d only have 12, so we were very selective in the areas of need.”

One of those North Carolina players was defensive lineman Aeneas Peebles.

“Hes’ so aggressive,” Cutcliffe said. “I love the defensive line that we have coming in. He is active, and he has great hands. I know that sounds funny, but he uses his hands well, extends his arms, gets off blocks. Defensive line play is more and more a part of that—strength in your hands and the ability to use them in kind of combat.”