Duke Football Promotes Special Teams Coordinator to Run Offense
By Chris Brown
Zac Roper will take over as offensive coordinator and associate head coach for next season.
David Cutcliffe has recently announced that Zac Roper was selected to be the new Baxter Family Associate Head Coach and offensive coordinator for Duke Football next season. Roper replaces former Blue Devil Scottie Montgomery, who is leaving to become the head coach at East Carolina.
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Roper has been on staff at Duke since 2008 and previously worked as an assistant under Cutcliffe at Ole Miss. Roper has spent the last three years as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach with the Blue Devils and was also an assistant with the running backs from 2008-2012. He has proven to be a great coordinator for Duke and helped produce several All-ACC performers including K Ross Martin, P Will Monday, K Will Snyderwine, KR DeVon Edwards, and KR Jamison Crowder on special teams in addition to tight end Braxton Deaver.
While Roper’s hire may come as a surprise, Cutcliffe wanted to hire someone familiar with the program and the players and is completely confident Zac Roper will be able to be the primary play-caller for the Duke offense and spoke very highly of him, saying:
"“We felt like we had the guy in Zac Roper. We’ve all seen what he’s done with our special teams, but we have a guy that has across the board coached defense, he’s coached a multitude of positions offensively, he’s run our special teams. People don’t understand that a special teams coach is the closest thing you’re going to have to a head coach; he’s done an incredible job with that. Functionally, I don’t think we could find a better football coach.”"
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Duke Football is coming off of their first bowl win in over 50 years after their Pinstripe Bowl victory over the Indiana Hoosiers, and will hope to keep the momentum going heading into next season. Scottie Montgomery helped the Blue Devils produce some of the top offensive seasons in program history in terms of total yards and scoring, which also helped lead the team to make 4 straight postseason bowl game appearances.
The Blue Devils hope to continue their improvement when they add one of the top recruiting classes in Duke history and also return several key pieces for Roper to work with on offense next season. Congrats to Zac Roper on being promoted to offensive coordinator and associate head coach and we’re looking forward to see how he does with the Blue Devils next season.