Cutcliffe: "Anybody Worried About a Bowl Won’t Be In Our Locker Room"

Duke coach doesn't want players looking ahead

Don’t talk to David Cutcliffe about bowl games.

The Blue Devils are 4-5 on the season, and need to win two of their final three games to become bowl eligible.

But Cutcliffe isn’t looking at the last three games, just this Saturday’s contest against Syracuse. And he has no patience for anyone who is looking past that horizon.

“We’re trying to go 1-0 this week,” he said. “Anybody that’s worried about a bowl game won’t be in our locker room. That’s pretty clear, right?”

Cutcliffe then ended his press conference, going out on a bang.

Prior to that, Cutcliffe continued to try to diagnose what’s been ailing the Duke offense.

“First downs,” he said. “How do you build a series off of three downs, you know?”

Duke got a first down on the first play of the game, then went three and out on its next set of downs, and on the four possessions that followed.

“We worked hard on possessions at practice,” Cutcliffe said. “You’re trying to keep the ones (first team offense) out there six, seven eight plays. There’s an ebb and a flow, but when you again are getting stopped three and out, four and out, three and out, there’s no a rhythm to that. We do a lot of study on seasons of P&10 plays.”

P&10 plays stands for “possession and 10,” and refers to the first play of a drive.

“We look at what happens. When you gain four (yards) what s the percentage of scoring there, versus a zero gain, what is the percent?” Cutcliffe said.

“There’s a lot of science about all this, but in the end its’ not the science. It’s the getting it done.”