Duke football made the right move by extending head coach David Cutcliffe through the 2021 season.
Taking over a football program at a “basketball school” wasn’t an easy task for David Cutcliffe prior to the 2008 season. He spent three seasons as an assistant for Notre Dame and Tennessee shortly after leading Ole Miss as the head coach from 1998-2004.
During that time, Ole Miss went 44-29, but he was fired in December of 2004 during the only losing season he ever coached with the Rebels. He started 4-7, but was let go by the athletic director at the time and had to find work as an assistant for Notre Dame.
Cutcliffe spent one season with the Fighting Irish before joining Tennessee for two years and then Duke’s job opened up. They targeted Cutcliffe and he knew it would be a multi-year project getting the Blue Devils to the postseason.
After winning no more than five games from 2008-11 with the Blue Devils, Cutcliffe’s program turned the corner and led them to their first bowl game in 17 years following the 2012 regular season.
Since then, he has led Duke to three more bowl games before going just 4-8 in a disappointing 2016 season.
Despite the poor campaign in 2016, the Blue Devils decided that they have their guy, extending Cutcliffe through the 2021 season, according to The Chronicle.
Duke beat Indiana 44-41 in the 2015 Pinstripe Bowl, giving the Blue Devils their first bowl victory since 1961. That kind of success is rare around Durham when it comes to football and the school is smart to make sure Cutcliffe gets a chance to keep things trending in the right direction.
Just because the Blue Devils had a poor season doesn’t mean they will continue to head down the wrong path. Cutcliffe has done a fantastic job with the program and he will continue to do so until he retires.