David Cutcliffe Falls Out of Top 25 in CBSSports Coach Rankings

Duke coach David Cutcliffe fell five spots in CBSSports.com’s ranking of the top head coaches in Power Five football.

Cutcliffe’s rebuild of Duke’s program earned him a spot in the top 25 of previous CBSSports rankings, but the Blue Devils struggled last season and have posted a 24-26 record in the last four years, which caused Coach Cut to fall five spots, to No. 26.

In the ACC, only Syracuse’s Dino Babers (21 spots) and NC State’s Dave Doeren (17 spots) saw bigger drops in the rankings.

In the ACC, Cutcliffe and the Blue Devils fell from No. 2 to No. 4, as Cutcliffe got passed by North Carolina’s Mack Brown and Virginia’s Bronco Mendenhall.

Nationally, LSU’s Ed Orgeron, Auburn’s Gus Malzahn, Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst, Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz were among the coaches to move past Cutcliffe.

The rankings were determined by a vote of CBSSports’ college football writing team.

“Regarding the criteria used to rank the coaches, there is none specifically,” CBSSports’ Tom Fornelli wrote. “This is a highly subjective exercise based on what each voter believes makes a great coach -- winning record, recruiting chops, up-and-coming talent -- leading to a wide range of results on some.”

Clemson’s Dabo Swinney was the top-rated ACC team at No. 2 overall, just behind Alabama’s Nick Saban. Swinney also finished No. 2 last year.

UNC’s Brown was second, moving up from No. 33 to No. 20.

Mendenhall pushed UVA up from No. 26 to No. 23.

Cutcliffe and Duke were in No. 26, down from 21.

New FSU coach Mike Norvell is No. 29. FSU was No. 47 last season under Willie Taggart, who was fired after the season.

Louisville’s Scott Satterfield is at No. 31, up from 37.

Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson fell to No. 32 from 29.

Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente fell to No. 37 from 34.

Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi moved up to No. 40 from 46.

Syracuse’s Babers is at 48 after reaching 27 last year.

NC State’s Doeren is at 49, down from 32.

Georgia Tech’s Geoff Collins is at No. 57, down from 55.

Miami’s Manny Diaz is at No. 58, down from 57.

Boston College’s Jeff Hafley is at No. 63 out of 65 Power Five teams in his first year as Eagles coach. BC was at No.42 last year under Steve Addazio.