David Cutcliffe on Who Benefits From a Shortened Fall Camp

Pandemic may compress preseason practice for college teams

The coronavirus pandemic has shut down all sports this spring, and there’s the chance that the start to the college football season could be delayed as well as sports slowly begin to restart.

Teams have already had spring practice shortened (like Duke) or cancelled entirely. Now, with a good chance that preseason practice will also be abbreviated, Duke head coach David Cutcliffe discusses which types of teams will have an advantage with limited prep time.

“I will say this, I’ve had conversations with other football coaches,” he said. “Depending upon the amount of preparation time you’ve got, certainly, a veteran quarterback is going to be a huge need for a team.”

Duke has a veteran quarterback, although he’s new to the team, in former Clemson backup Chase Brice.

“I think the teams that are the most talented teams obviously gain a little bit more of an advantage in a shortened preparation time,” Cutcliffe said. “But we don’t know the model yet. To be honest with you, I like the challenge. We’re putting together our practice approach, our practice schedules. I think one of the key elements to success is not necessarily having veteran players but having coaches that will utilize time. We have time right now, and I’m fatigued a little bit with the amount of meetings, but it also energizes me. I think the biggest part of it is what are we doing from now until we do report back? What are we accomplishing there? If you’re sitting on your hands because you think you’ve got a talented, veteran team coming back, you may get a shock when the games start.”