Cutcliffe part 2: Tight end Noah Gray "needed a break"

Cutcliffe talks Quansah, bye and injuries

In part two of David Cutcliffe’s comments to the media, he continued praising Koby Quansah, who was named to Allstate’s Good Works Team for his community work.

Cutcliffe explained that Duke nominated Quansah, “because of the sincerity of his community service, his willingness to do it often as he did. He idealizes what you want in a college football player, heck in a young person, just forget about the college football portion of it. He excels in everything he does.”

Cutcliffe talked about Duke’s attempt to identify people like that in the recruiting process.

“We work really hard at that,” he said. “It’s a tougher science, recently, because of the limited number of contacts you get. I still believe in recruiting places we know, areas you know, so if a coach tells you something (about a player) you can put it in the bank.”

Turning to football, Cutcliffe discussed the bye week and the balance between doing work an giving the players rest.

“We have to work. We know that,” he said. “We’ve been able to get the work we needed, a lot of it Virginia Tech, a lot of it Duke-based things. We can self-scout.”

But, with some players nursing injuries, rest is important.

“Noah Gray needed a break,” he said, “and we’re giving Brittain (Brown) a chance to heal.”

Cutcliffe also talked about how the bye messed with his normal weekly schedule.

“Tomorrow (Friday) is our Sunday. We’re used to having Monday off, so Saturday will be off. Sunday will be our Tuesday. You all know how I get. I will not know what day it is next Tuesday.”