Duke coach David Cutcliffe says COVID-19 has created unique challenges for his team

David Cutcliffe’s job has changed because of COVID-19.

In addition to traditional play calling and other footbal duties, the Duke coach has become more of a counselor as he helps players and staff deal with the stress and emotions that have come with the global pandemic.

“Somewhere in the back of your mind if you’re human, you wonder what games are going to be like and what the circumstances are,” Cutcliffe said. “It requires great leadership not only on the campuses, but requires great leadership from the conference. People need to be confident that everybody is doing every little thing they can, the best we can possibly do it.”

Recently, conferences like the Big Ten and Pac-12 suspended their seasons. And campuses across the country are dealing with coronarvirus outbreaks as students return.

Rather than keeping his blinders on, Cutcliffe is watching and reading the news because he knows his players are seeing it. He admitted that he’s concerned “for our young people” across the country.

“I certainly realized it could go south in a heartbeat at any time,” Cutcliffe said, “but we’re going to do everything we can in our power to keep them safe here.”

A unique experience

Cutcliffe, who is taking over play-calling duties during games this season, said he has a changed relationship with players as he’s spending more time with the quarterbacks and other offensive players while still trying to get sufficient time with the rest of the team. While he said he has found his groove, Cutcliffe admitted that it has been challenging, albeit fun at times.

“I think I’m going to enjoy this,” Cutcliffe said, “I better get my sleep because this is going to be stressful and challenging physically.”

In previous seasons, teams have had several months to prepare and adapt to changes. However, without spring ball and starting summer workouts on July 13, over a month later than originally scheduled, Duke is still trying to figure out its routine.

“We’re having to kind of reinvent the wheel every day,” Cutcliffe said, “and how you practice and where you are physically.”

Duke was able to get a week of camp under its belt before school started, and now the team is balancing morning practices with classes — and being exposed to the rest of the student population.

Earlier in the summer, the program had a few players test positive without knowing they had been exposed to the virus. Cutcliffe said with the high transmission potential in living spaces, the players are in individual rooms.

“There’s no magic formula,” Cutcliffe said.

Cutcliffe added that people have told him players are wearing their masks in the parking lots and in cars with one another. The facilities have signs that say “great personal hygiene, wear your mask and stay six feet apart,” Cutcliffe said, and the program is doing testing twice a week.

“I don’t think you can run from something that you don’t know how long you’re gonna live with this,” Cutcliffe said. “None of us do. But we better learn how to live with it and continue to move forward but it requires a great deal of discipline.”

The head coach told his players in the spring that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to follow the stay-at-home order, but the discipline comes with reopening. He said to assume “everybody that you come in contact with is contagious.”

“We have stayed, knock on wood, relatively healthy,” Cutcliffe said. “We’ve got a few people out, a little bit down in numbers anyway. But this team’s got great spirit. I think one of my biggest concerns watching us is to make sure we continue to make progress to get in the conditioning level of being game ready.”

First scrimmage

Cutcliffe said it’s premature to talk about anything definitive when it comes to position battles with the team’s first scrimmage on Saturday.

While the Blue Devils have had players bounce between different positions for depth purposes in the past, COVID-19 has forced teams to look for even more flexibility because of the potential of temporarily losing a man or even a large portion of an entire position group. The program has taken steps to address that possibility in its secondary, with senior Michael Carter II being able to play all safety positions and corner and redshirt junior Leonard Johnson, a “big, powerful corner,” being able to “work some at safety” as well.

“This secondary is fast, experienced,” Cutcliffe said. “It’s been a real war to watch our young receivers compete against those guys.”

From an offensive standpoint, they start practice with eight guys working at snapping the ball and playing center. The offensive line is being “rotated all over the place.” However, one position group Cutcliffe is concerned about is running backs because they don’t have many players to move around. Senior Deon Jackson, redshirt freshman Jordan Waters and junior Mataeo Durant have stood out in camp, Cutcliffe said, and a few of the non-scholarship players “are doing a great job.”

“Five isn’t even close to enough, but that’s where we are,” Cutcliffe said. “We’ve got some receivers and some people that could play in the backfield and wouldn’t take them long to learn if we had to do that.”

After the first scrimmage, Cutcliffe expects to start settling down into a “two deep” while still being aware that they could have tight ends playing at receiver some and “different things along those lines where you’re capable and ready.”

This story was originally published August 22, 2020 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Duke coach David Cutcliffe says COVID-19 has created unique challenges for his team."