David Cutcliffe on Accountability: "We Can Run To It Or We Can Run From It"

Duke coach David Cutcliffe doesn’t want his coaches or players saying they’re frustrated, because he thinks that implies that problems have no solutions. There’s another word that he considers crucially important when talking to and about his team: accountability.

“The thing with accountability … When you look at football, my approach every time is to always look, and there's no order here, you look at attitudes and spirit and enthusiasm where it is or where it isn't,” Cutcliffe said during his weekly press conference prior to the game at Wake Forest. “You look at scheme, and then you look at personnel, and you have to take all three into account when you come into accountability. Where is each and every part of it. It comes through meetings with the coaches, meetings with the players, and evaluations of film. You don't just grade technique, you grade effort, and that's what we do all the time.”

Accountability always needs to be present, not just when things aren’t going right. “The accountability isn't necessarily any greater when you're getting beat,” he said. “It's what I always want to see is that all of us have accountability.”

Cutcliffe also turned to one of his former players, and a current member of the Carolina Panthers’ secondary.

“Ross Cockrell said it best, way back when,” Cutcliffe recalled. “He said we have two choices. We can run to it or we can run from it. The best choice is always and only to run to it. That's what Duke football should be.”