Duke Football: Two benchmarks in sight for David Cutcliffe

Although it would require a season that exceeds expectations and an adjustment to the way a few past games’ outcomes are documented, Duke football coach David Cutcliffe has a chance to finish 2018 with a winning record for his time in Durham and against a rival from Chapel Hill.

First, let’s set the record straight by correcting the posted records of the Duke football team from 2008, 2009, and 2015.

To begin with, two so-called “losses” from 2008 and 2009 should no longer be counted as losses for the Blue Devils. Due to rampant academic scandals and the accepting of improper benefits by its athletes, the UNC football program vacated all of its wins from those two seasons.

But despite the vacating of wins by the Tar Heels, for some inexplicable reason, the records of the teams that they “beat” during those seasons are apparently not supposed to reflect the fact that UNC no longer claims the games as wins. And that makes about as much sense as Duke not being credited with a win from the 2015 Miami game (keep reading for more on that).

For the sake of the truth and this article’s argument, though, the records from those two seasons have been corrected here at Ball Durham. Therefore, Duke’s record from 2008 — David Cutcliffe’s first year as coach — is now officially remembered here as 4-7 instead of 4-8. And the 5-7 mark from 2009 has been updated to 5-6.

So that brings Cutcliffe’s record at Duke to 59-65 instead of the 59-67 mark that is documented everywhere else.

But wait. It gets better.

It is too tiresome to go on another rant to explain why the Duke football team actually won its 2015 home game against Miami. Besides, anyone who watched that game already knows why. And if you didn’t watch, you can read why the game is incorrectly recorded in the history books by clicking here.

So the update of that outcome from a loss to a win brings Cutcliffe’s actual all-time record at Duke to 60-64.

That means the 63-year-old only needs to win five more games than he loses this season to give the head coach more wins than losses for his entire tenure with the Blue Devils. Assuming Duke does not reach the ACC Championship Game but does play in a bowl game, the Blue Devils must finish 9-4 or better for that to occur.

Not only would that good of a record give the Duke football team a better season than most experts are projecting, but it would also mean that Cutcliffe would join Steve Spurrier as the only two Duke coaches since Bill Murray’s retirement in 1965 to have an overall winning record in Durham.

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Since Murray’s retirement 53 years ago, there have been eight head coaches who finished their time at Duke with a losing record.

And in order to fully understand the magnitude of Cutcliffe possibly having a winning record after he completes his 11th season at Duke, consider that the two coaches who preceded Cutcliffe (Ted Roof and Carl Franks) had a 13-90 record for their nine combined seasons in charge of the program.

As for his record against UNC (reflecting the adjustments outlined above), Cutcliffe currently sits at 4-4. That means that a win at home against the Tar Heels on Nov. 10 would give the Alabama native the edge against Duke’s rival ever since he left his job as offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee in order to accept the daunting challenge of bringing a winning culture to the football program in Durham.

Same as with the overall record, having a winning mark against the Tar Heels would put Cutcliffe in the company of only Spurrier (3-0 against UNC) when it comes to Duke coaches who have pulled off that feat since the retirement of Murray (10-5 against UNC). Also, keep in mind that the four coaches who filled the 18-year gap between Spurrier and Cutcliffe (Barry Wilson, Fred Goldsmith, Franks, and Roof) had a combined 1-17 record against UNC (pending any further vacating of wins by Heels, of course).

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Considering how much it means for Duke fans to keep the Victory Bell in Durham and to embarrass Tar Heels whenever possible, if Cutcliffe were to match the 41-0 victory against UNC in 1989 by Spurrier’s last Duke team, then it would be time for the school to reward the current head coach with a lifetime contract.

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