Facing adversity is part of Duke football culture

Cheryl Treworgy – TSN via PrettySporty.com
Cheryl Treworgy – TSN via PrettySporty.com
Cheryl Treworgy – TSN via PrettySporty.com

DURHAM, N.C. – To say that the Duke Blue Devils have had an emotional preseason would be an understatement.

Losing starting linebacker Kelby Brown and tight end Braxton Deaver to ACL injuries during scrimmages a week apart must have gotten the team’s mindset flowing in the direction that nothing would come easy, again.

During the past two seasons, the Blue Devils fought for respect and earned it by putting in the hard work and exhibited the talent they had to win football games.

Not only did Duke post its first-ever set of back-to-back bowl-appearances, but the players also wrapped their arms around an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Coastal Division championship – the first time a conference title was celebrated on campus since 1989.

Things looked rosy heading back to Durham from the 2014 ACC Kickoff back in July as the Blue Devils were selected to finish second in the Coastal, behind only the Miami Hurricanes.

A year earlier, even after earning a spot in their first bowl game in 17 years and finishing the 2012 season at 6-7, the Blue Devils were expected to finish seventh in their division.

Understandably, the program’s first six-win season in 23 years wasn’t enough to convince many back then to expect a repeat or for them to seriously contend for any title.

However, Duke did just that and then managed to get more first-place preseason votes for the upcoming 2014 season from the media in attendance than the Hurricanes did.

That’s a big deal.

“I like the fact that our guys have earned that opportunity,” Cutcliffe said when asked about the team’s preseason selection.

“But the ones, again, that it’s most meaningless to is not prospects, it’s the actual players of the 2014 team because it’s no different than a year ago when we were picked seventh. People say, well, you had something to prove. Well, anger lasts in that regard about five minutes, and then you’ve got to go play football.”

Be it anger or continually confronting lowered expectations, the Blue Devils motivated themselves and put in the work necessary and pushed themselves over and past that hurdle.

A lot of respect was earned, and it was based on the mentality to achieve success that Cutcliffe and his coaching staff instilled in the team.

“People have given us a lot more respect for sure,” Brown said.

“Luckily we have another season to prove that we deserve it. Last season is over, man. I’m excited to move forward and do bigger and better things this year.”

Following the first 10-win season in school history, Cutcliffe, along with Brown and senior offensive guard Laken Tomlinson, left Greensboro having represented the team well.

They were in no way cocky or let on that success this season would be easy to achieve.

”The 2014 team has got to go prove itself,” Cutcliffe said.

Proving that it belongs in the upper echelons of the ACC is something that Duke will continue to work at.

Memories of short winning spurts are part of what Blue Devils gridiron history is about and what many remember and know – be it single, double or triple-year stretches during the 1930s, 50s, 60s, 80s, 90s, and now 2000s.

This season has to meet and exceed what has happened over the past six years and the substantial rewards that have been reaped during the past two.

“Coming in as a freshman at Duke University, obviously Duke wasn’t a strong program,” Tomlinson said in Greensboro.

“But working under the leadership of Coach Cutcliffe and some fantastic staff members we have there at Duke University, it’s just been an extraordinary experience to be a part of a team that’s come from so little, like everyone expecting so little from us, to being one of the top teams in the ACC. It definitely means a lot to me, and we’re going to keep working hard every day to try to be No. 1.”

When asked, the 2013 National Coach of the Year, entering into his 34th year in the coaching profession and his seventh in leading the Blue Devils, understood how far looking back gets you.

“I think you have to disregard record every year when you study yourself in that regard or you’re kidding yourself,” Cutcliffe said.

“There are a lot of things that we think win football games that we measure all of the time, but we teach winning in everything we do. We teach it as a value and how you carry yourself, and you’ve got to win off the field, etcetera, etcetera. I think that that’s where our program is getting stronger. I really do. I think that they’re challenging themselves to win at all of those marks, and I hope and believe this team has the experience, the mentality and the ability to do some of that.”

The players appreciate the respect they have gotten because they possess the mentality to work hard to earn it as it was instilled in them by their coach.

They feel comfortable speaking highly of their program and school.

“He puts it on us to create our own future,” Brown said.

“He’s there to help us along, but he knows it’s about us picking the right people to be part of the program to build it from the ground up.”

“Coach Cut doesn’t take any shortcuts,” Brown continued.

“He believes in doin’ it the long way. That’s why it took us awhile to have a great season because there wasn’t a shortcut; he wasn’t recruitin’ guys who didn’t belong in our program. He was recruiting great players who were great people at the same time, and he stuck by it the whole time.”

Apparently it is success they earned not only through hard work, but by relying on one another.

Quarterback Anthony Boone has referred to his teammates as a ‘band of brothers’.

It seems that’s the way that is has been meant to be for the Blue Devils.

However, what Cutcliffe and his staff have also worked on building during the past six years has been an available reserve of players to provide depth when needed.

They have worked to fill positions not just with bodies that wear the team’s equipment and uniform, but with talented individuals who can compete with knowledge and understanding of what is expected of them when they do so.

Even before the first kickoff takes place this Saturday against Elon, the coaches and the players have dealt with more adversity than they expected.

The team’s depth will be tested early.

“Honestly, I would say it starts with the recruiting, getting the great athletes that we have at Duke University into the program has been just a phenomenal thing for us,” Tomlinson pointed out.

“Being able to replace guys even if they’re hurt or not able to play, that’s just the one thing that we have now that we didn’t have three or four years ago.”

Those were prophetic words spoken back in July when recently selected captain Tomlinson didn’t know that his fellow captain, Brown, would go down and miss the season just three weeks later.

You could tell by Cutcliffe’s tone and his appearance when speaking of the injury then and now, that it is very concerning – on a personal level and from an X’s and O’s point of view.

“It was a very emotional time for all of us,” defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said when the reality of losing Brown for the season truly hit.

Then Deaver went down a week later.

It was another starting position that required the coaching staff to fill by dipping into the team’s reserve before even taking a snap in a game.

This is not new for Duke or any football team, but the timing of losing such experience is obviously not ideal.

However, it presents the rallying point to begin the season with a purpose and provides more meaning to the first game of the season.

Brown felt good about the team’s composition heading into the season when asked about it in Greensboro.

“Yeah, man, the good thing is we’ve got a lot of experience in the middle, me, (Jeremy) Cash and David (Helton), and we’re the bridge between the front and the back,” he said.

“We’re the guys that can help the defensive secondary stay on page and the front (to) really get pressure. We’ve got a lot of athletes coming up. We lost experience in Kenny (Anunike) and (Justin) Foxx, but we’ve got guys who are faster than both of them who I think can put great pressure off the edges. It’ll be a matter of helping those young guys in the middle step up and understand how to hold their own, how to be tough. That’s probably the toughest position on the field is defensive tackle, so it’s going to be our job to lead them and encourage them throughout the season.”

Now faced with missing the season due to injury, Brown will have to lead from the sideline, in the locker room, and everywhere else the team will be.

He knows what hard work, pain, adversity, and overcoming it all is about.

Brown and his team are facing it again.

He’s lived it, and there is no better example on this Duke team of someone who can reinforce that mentality and show the strength that is needed to overcome a negative outcome in order to create a positive result.

“I think we kind of found a groove as to how to do things,” Brown said of the team’s routine heading into the preseason.

“Now we’re set in that way. I think that’s good. Change is always good, but when you find consistency and success, I think that’s good too. That’s kinda’ where we’ve been.”

Yes, the football culture at Duke has changed and continues to evolve, but for some reason, it seems that adversity may always a part of it – for better or for worse.

“I don’t think it’s ever complete,” Brown said.

“Around campus, it’s definitely changing, but with a long way to go. We’re changing the stadium. We changed our practice fields. Everything’s kind of changing. I don’t think there’s any point where we say ‘okay, we’re done’. We’re trying to always change the culture – the process is always on-going.”