The first ESPN.com headline dampened the spirits of Duke football fans: "Sources: Cutcliffe on Tennessee's list." Another headline from USA Today's website made things worse: "Cutcliffe reportedly will leave Duke to coach Tennessee."
Or so Duke fans thought.
It was something Duke football fans hadn't experienced in more than 20 years since Steve Spurrier was coach: a high-profile football program was trying to lure away Duke's head coach. But, a few days after the media reports, Cutcliffe said he wasn't going anywhere.
"When he announced his decision to stay here, people in my office were so happy, we could've thrown a party when we heard it," said Sandy York, a development projects coordinator for University Development. She's been going to Duke football games for more than 15 years, since she was a student. "That aspect of people talking about football at work, asking if you're going to the game - I feel like I didn't have that before him."
York isn't alone in those sentiments. As the Blue Devils prepare to open the 2010 season at home Sept. 4 against Elon University, attendance and interest in Duke football are soaring. Entering his third season, Cutcliffe has won more games than the previous five seasons combined, reinvigorated student and employee interest to its highest levels in decades and recruited some of the top coaches in the country.
"I am more deeply committed than ever to believing that we're going to get it done at Duke because I've seen enough change from a culture of losing in football to now a culture of hope and belief," said Cutcliffe, whose contract runs through 2015. "When you have choices in jobs, you have a lot of factors, and my family and I deeply believed continuing our work at Duke was the right thing to do."
Fan Base Reawakening
During the annual Duke Athletics Tour this spring, hundreds of employees, alumni and Duke football fans turned out to see Cutcliffe and his coaching staff at stops throughout North Carolina and Washington, D.C.
At the tour's final event in Durham, children to gray-haired supporters donned Duke blue clothing and cheered with Duke fight songs. They listened as Cutcliffe and women's basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie spoke about their upcoming seasons.
While TVs played a loop of Duke football highlights, fans such as visiting professor Charlotte Clark talked with friends and family about what they expect in 2010. Clark has been a regular at Wallace Wade Stadium for more than 30 years, first sitting among peers as a student and now with colleagues as an employee in the Nicholas School of the Environment.
"I love the community building aspect to events like the Athletics Tour," Clark said. "I love the opportunity to get some pre-season scoop about the team at this type of event, and to put faces to names of the coaching and support staff."
Students, employees and fans have filled seats at a quicker pace with Cutcliffe as head coach. In his first year at Duke, season ticket sales increased by about 5,600 seats. And sales of the Employee Athletic Pass, presented by the Duke Credit Union, nearly doubled the same year.
This year excitement about Duke football has resulted in another jump in sales. At the end of May, Employee Athletic Pass sales reached more than 2,660, the most ever sold with three months before the season starts. All season ticket sales were up more than 400 percent compared to last May.
"It's clear that Coach Cutcliffe and Duke football are reawakening enthusiasm in the fan base, and the success of Joanne P. McCallie and the women's basketball team incentivizes packages with the Employee Athletic Pass too," said Mike Sobb, assistant director of athletics and marketing for Duke Athletics. "We've seen such a positive reaction in the short time these coaches have been here."
Sideline Recruiting
While more fans are filling Wallace Wade Stadium, the resurgence of Duke's football program is also helping the team replenish its coaching ranks.
After former Duke star and wide receivers coach Scottie Montgomery left for a coaching position with the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, Cutcliffe lured Matt Lubick away from Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. Cutcliffe said he managed to bring Lubick in by making calls to both Lubick and his father, Sonny, lobbying heavily for Matt's talents.
Lubick, considered one of the best recruiting coordinators in the country by Rivals.com, fills the recruiting role at Duke and will serve as the passing game coordinator and coach for the team's wide receivers.
"The reputation of coach Cutfliffe's character and integrity were so important because above all, I want to work with good people," Lubick said. "I get to contribute to something that's improving every day. There's an enthusiasm here, and you can feel it."
Lubick isn't the only one. Cutcliffe also added Jim Knowles, who joined the football staff in December as defensive coordinator and safeties coach. Knowles left a head coaching job at Cornell University in New York that he held for six seasons. At Duke, Knowles will help plan defensive strategy and coach defensive players who help cover an opposing team's receivers.
"There's already been such a growth in the support of this program, and people realize that we're aiming for the same kind of excellence they'd expect from anything Duke does in academics or athletics," Knowles said. "When Duke decides to be excellent in something, we do it."
Lubick and Knowles are part of a big turnaround for Duke's football program, said Brian McLawhorn, a writer who covers Duke football and basketball for Rivals.com. McLawhorn said Cutcliffe has quickly turned Duke into a prime location for top-notch coaches because talent like Lubick or Knowles wouldn't leave jobs unless they believed it's a step up in their careers.
"I think the addition of both Matt Lubick and Jim Knowles speaks volumes about where the Duke football program is headed under the direction of David Cutcliffe," McLawhorn said. "Duke is on the upswing and folks around the program - fans, players and alumni - see this and understand what is happening. It means progress is being made at Duke, and it indicates a profound belief in what Cutcliffe is building."
A Winning Team
Duke football players like rising sophomore Sean Renfree believe the revival of Duke football is leading to big things.
"We're competing to win an ACC title," said Renfree, the team's starting quarterback. "Our team believes we can win if we do the work and continue to do what coach Cutcliffe tells us."
Cutcliffe said the buy-in for his coaching strategy revolves around creating more speed on both offense and defense, which allows for the chance at bigger plays. He added that a wide-open passing attack with Renfree means Duke can score points fast and often.
That's exactly what Victor Strandberg is looking forward to seeing this season.
Since he started going to Duke football games in 1966, the English professor at Duke said he's seen few coaches build the kind of morale around the football program that Cutcliffe has. He added that he hasn't seen the support and excitement that Cutcliffe has created since Steve Spurrier was head coach between 1987 and 1989.
During Spurrier's three seasons at Duke, he won 20 games. With Cutcliffe's upcoming third season, he has a shot at the winningest three-season stretch of any Duke coach since Spurrier by winning three or more games in 2010.
"Coach Cutcliffe lives and breathes his job, which has done great things for the program and the university," Strandberg said. "Any coach is going to work very hard, but he has a gift for connecting with players, employees and the public, and he uses that gift to maximize effort from his team and support from the fans."
As a reminder of what makes a successful program, Cutcliffe keeps a framed picture on a mantle in his office from his first game at Duke - a 31-7 win over James Madison University in 2008. The picture shows football players hoisting their helmets in celebration as students, employees and other fans go wild in the stands behind them. Cutcliffe said the photo doesn't just remind him of an exciting moment from the past, but what the program can achieve in the future.
"I constantly look at that picture and find great motivation from it," Cutcliffe said. "This is a football team for students, for faculty, for staff and for everyone in Durham. We have an obligation to represent all these people and to represent them well - by winning and playing hard.
Duke Football By the Numbers
2,906: Season ticket sales(end of May 2009)
9,762: Season ticket sales(end of May 2010)
2,292: Employee Athletic Pass sales in 2009
201,09: Total attendance in 2008 (Cutcliffe's first season)
7: Home games in 2010
33,941:Capacity of Wallace Wade Stadium
9 wins, 15 losses: Cutcliffe's record at Duke
8 wins, 50 losses: Previous five seasons at Duke