Top 15 Coaching Duos in College Sports

Aug 30, 2014; Durham, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils head coach David Cutcliffe on the sidelines against the Elon Phoenix at Wallace Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports

It’s not easy winning football games; it’s even more difficult to win games at Duke. However, as Blue Devils’ head coach, David Cutcliffe enters his eighth season in Durham, the culture of winning has become something of the norm, as his Blue Devils keep improving and contending for ACC Championships.

Before Cutcliffe came to Duke, he was the head coach of Ole Miss. His stint with the Rebels wasn’t extremely successful, but one season, he and Eli Manning led the Rebels to a ten win season and a victory in the Cotton Bowl. That season was full of possibilities, but with close losses to Texas Tech and LSU, the Rebels weren’t able to get it done. The Rebels biggest loss of the season came in Week 2 to Memphis, yes, that Memphis.

After his stint in Oxford, Cutcliffe bounced around from Notre Dame to Tennessee, and after serving as the offensive coordinator in Knoxville, Cutcliffe accepted the head coaching position at Duke in 2008.

Cutcliffe didn’t experience immediate success with the Blue Devils, success came with time, and in the past two seasons, Duke has finished first and second in the ACC coastal division.

Mike Krzyzewski also didn’t experience immediate success when he accepted the head coaching job at Duke in 1980. Prior to Krzyzewski’s joining of the Blue Devils, he served as the head coach of Army, where he led West Point to an NIT appearance in 1978, and that’s pretty much it.

His career at Duke eventually took off, you could say, as he has led to Duke to an NCAA Tournament appearance each season since, with an exception to the 1994-95 season, where Krzyzewski had to step down halfway through the season to recover from back surgery and exhaustion.

Krzyzewski then went on to become the best college coach in the modern era, winning five national titles, thirteen ACC tournament championships, and making twelve appearances in the Final Four. He has also led team USA to gold medals in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic games, which doesn’t really concern his college career, but you could say it’s important as well.

Coach K will go down either as the greatest or one of the greatest to ever coach the game of basketball, and the Duke Blue Devils are very fortunate to have taken a shot with him in 1980 after little success at Army.

Next: No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers