DAVID CUTCLIFFE PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
Duke has to win its remaining two games in order to become bowl eligible and that’s not going to be an easy task as the Blue Devils head to Miami. Though, I will say this: The Canes have been slipping of late and may be primed for a major upset. I know we’re not supposed to root for anyone team over the other in the media world, but I’d kind of like to see Duke get to the postseason, and if nothing else beat Miami. I just don’t think either is going to happen.
On practice since last game: Going out Sunday, I couldn’t be more pleased with our work. I was really impressed with the players and with our staff. I was equally impressed this morning. We had really good work in the kicking game and on both sides of the ball. I think we did a good job of getting a jump start on rehearsing our plans. We obviously have a lot of work to do.
On quarterback situation: Sean Renfree has torn his ACL and is facing surgery. We are working Sean Schroeder as the second team quarterback. We are working Alex King as the third team quarterback. If Thad [Lewis] were to be lost for a brief moment, we would go with Alex King to get us through a series or a few plays. If we lose Thad, then Sean Schroeder would play. He has done a nice job. Back in camp, when Thad missed probably three-quarters of our work, if not more, we had only three quarterbacks in camp. So Sean Schroeder was running with the second team all camp. I kept trying to be positive, I told Kurt [Roper] that this was great, it was force-feeding him and us to have to teach him and put him on an accelerated path. He is a bright young man. He was under the premise of operating our entire game plan and he can do that.
On Alex King: Alex [King] is savvy and a good athlete. I would feel comfortable. Alex runs all our inside drills as a quarterback. He can take the snap, he can throw it. He is an athletic guy. We are pleased that he is available. We like to keep a guy like that around our program. Alex is a good one. That is what we will do.
On other team injuries: We will start Brandon Harper in place of Mitchell Lederman. Harper played all last week when Lederman was hurt going in. When Lederman got worse, Harper played there. We have some limited numbers. We will release probably a fairly lengthy injury report on Thursday. Thursday is probably the time to do it, because right now it is too early to evaluate some of the guys. Vince Oghobaase still looks day-to-day and he did not work this morning. That is where we are. I hate talking about injuries, but it is just part of it. I want to focus on what we are capable of doing.
On who would play quarterback in late game situations: Part of my thinking is to still play Schroeder and I will tell you why. We have two quarterbacks returning to the program for sure. One of them has a limited number of snaps and one of them has none. The one that has a limited number of snaps is facing surgery. I can’t assume everything is always going to go smooth with surgery. It doesn’t hurt to get our other guy reps, game reps, in case. I don’t think its great, but Schroeder and I have talked about this and he understands the circumstance. I will think about this all week long and when if we cross that bridge, we will know what to do.
On mentality going into Miami: When I get on that plane, I want to believe we are going down there not with the hopes of winning, but planning to win. It is exactly what my conversation with the players was on Sunday night. That is the question I posed to them. I can’t answer that question for them nor do that for them. They have to do it for themselves. You focus yourself and your mind on accomplishing everything in your power to prepare to win. We don’t worry about last Saturday or next Saturday. We work on Sunday night, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning. I don’t like the people that just raise the obstacles. I can tell you 5,000 reasons we won’t win. If I tell you 5,000 reasons we won’t win, then I have to tell you 5,000 things we are going to do about it. I talked about the challenges, what they are and what we are going to do about them. If you don’t prepare well, you won’t believe you have a chance to win or are going to win when you are playing. It all comes down to the preparation; the sincere, focused, intense preparation.