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FB:Virginia at Duke - David Cutcliffe Quotes
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Duke 55, Virginia 48
November 6, 2010
Duke head coach David Cutcliffe
On the game
“It was unbelievable. Those young men deserve to win. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but both teams played well, and played well enough to win. We were fortunate enough to get off to a good start and had a great finish. Sometimes that’s what you do to win football games.”
On playing quarterbacks Connette and Renfree
“Brandon [Connette] is a heckuva football player and we are fortunate to have two guys who can play that position as well as those two [Connette and Renfree] play it at times. You think about this game, there’s so much to talk about, I’m almost in shock. I don’t know when the last time Duke gave up 600-plus yards and 48 points and won. Anybody for that matter; it doesn’t happen very often. Guys made plays on defense that helped us win. Guys made plays on offense that helped us win. This is the exact thing we talked about Thursday night, and if you think back about the kicking game, we were about picture-perfect in the kicking game, really well done.”
On Duke’s fumble in the fourth quarter
“I still want to see that on tape. I thought, and you can’t see it clearly, but our coaches thought he landed on his back and the ball popped out. It shouldn’t happen. He got caught off the backside. Just unfortunate, but the quarterbacks took care of the ball. We took the ball away from them at times when it was really critical. So a lot of great things in every phase, which is how you win ACC football games. In the fourth quarter, facing as much adversity as often as we did, most Duke teams in recent years haven’t been able to emotionally handle that. That’s a tribute to our seniors. That’s a tribute to our freshmen and that’s certainly a tribute to our coaches. That’s certainly going to help us as we move forward with this program.”
On the fourth-down conversion in the fourth quarter
“Thank goodness they went to two-deep. We had an all-go route on and [Donovan Varner]’s got a win route. He’s got a read route for him, where he read the middle of the field open. They hand a guy vertically stretching him and [it was a] perfect throw, a tremendous throw, and a great call by Kurt Roper. Those fourth-and-eighteens, you don’t just have a bunch of those up top as a play caller, so it was a great job by Kurt.”
On Duke’s ability to run the ball
“We had six rushing touchdowns. It’s one of the things I believe in and it’s one of the reasons we were able to win the game; we ran the ball better than they ran the ball in the second half. That was critical. Obviously we gave up some big yards passing and they’re not a great passing team. We’ve got to look at ourselves and see what we’re doing defensively. But Sean Renfree is fast. I’ve been telling people. Now they might believe me.”
Duke Offensive Coordinator Kurt Roper Quotes
On the 4th-and-18 play call
“We were obviously in a tough situation with 18 yards to go and we had to get something that gets beyond the sticks. It wasn’t a play that you could throw in and hope you could run for it. So we put in a full vertical scheme all go and Donovan [Varner] has the first option. He found a way to beat the linebacker over the top and inside the safety and just made a heck of a football play.”
On the touchdown by Desmond Scott
“My thoughts at that point we were on the 30-yard line so a field goal wins. And then I was really honestly trying to be smart with the football and get something going fast and we just put in a new little crack pulse into the boundary and I’m hoping to get it to the 25 or 20 and help [Will] Synderwine. And players make plays and Desmond [Scott] stepped up and made a great play and got a couple of really good blocks over there so I think it was a game of truly players making plays.