Saturday Blitz
Fansided

Top 5 college football coaches who are worth every penny of their salaries

By Dante Pryor

SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Head coach Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers meets head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide at mid-field after his 44-16 win in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Head coach Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers meets head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide at mid-field after his 44-16 win in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 6
Next
DURHAM, NC – AUGUST 31: Head coach David Cutcliffe of the Duke Blue Devils takes the field prior their game against the Army Black Knights at Wallace Wade Stadium on August 31, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NC – AUGUST 31: Head coach David Cutcliffe of the Duke Blue Devils takes the field prior their game against the Army Black Knights at Wallace Wade Stadium on August 31, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

3. David Cutcliffe, Duke

Riddle me this, what was Duke football before David Cutcliffe? We know the answer to that question. There was one other relevant period of Duke football and that was the Steve Spurrier era.

More from College Football News

The Blue Devils won a grand total of seven games in the ten years before Cutcliffe came to Durham. Coach Cutcliffe has had only one losing season since 2013, has taken Duke to six bowl games (a school record), has one 10-win season and has played for a conference championship. Not to mention he coached both Manning brothers (Peyton at Tennessee and Eli at Ole Miss).

Duke always has been and always will be a basketball school. It’s hard to recruit at Duke because they don’t have the resources as most other schools in the ACC and, like Stanford, a potential recruit has to qualify academically before a scholarship can be formally offered.

Duke may never win a national title. They will probably never consistently win conference titles (not with Clemson being Clemson), but the Blue Devils go into every season with a belief they’ve never had before — they believe they can find six wins and go to a bowl.

Every three years or so, Cutcliffe will have a team full of seniors that might compete to be fodder for Clemson. For this, they will erect a statue and name the stadium after Cutcliffe when he retires.

Home/College Football News