Cutcliffe easily wins ACC Coach of the Year honors

Duke

Cutcliffe easily wins ACC Coach of the Year honors

Nov 27, 2012

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Greensboro, N.C. — Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe was announced as a runaway choice as the ACC Coach of the Year Tuesday.

Cutcliffe earned 25 of 46 votes for the honor, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney finished second with seven nods.

Cutcliffe guided Duke to a 6-6 record and their first bowl bid since 1994. The Blue Devils won six of their first eight games in 2012 before dropping their final four – losses that included games at No. 12 Florida State and at Georgia Tech as well against No. 13 Clemson. More Info ACC Leaders

The six wins in 2012 match the combined victory total from the past two seasons. Cutcliffe has guided the Blue Devils to 21 victories in his four-plus seasons after Duke managed just 10 wins in the previous eight years.

Cutcliffe also won the SEC coach of the year in 2003 at Ole Miss and becomes the fourth Blue Devils coach to win the honor.

“This honor is both humbling and rewarding because of the quality of the coaches in our conference,” Cutcliffe said. “Like all awards, the credit reaches far beyond one person and this is truly one for our entire program. Ultimately, the acclaim goes to both our staff and the group of young men that came to practice every day with a desire to improve and prepare, gave their best effort on Saturdays, succeeded academically and served our community with pure selflessness. While this was a season of progress for our program, many of the goals we laid out five years ago have not been reached and we’ll continue our pursuit of excellence.”

North Carolina first-year head coach Larry Fedora received four votes and recently-fired NC State head coach Tom O'Brien received one.

Also announced Tuesday were the conference's rookies of the year. Miami's Duke Johnson won by a large margin over Maryland's Stefon Diggs in that vote and Florida State's Ronald Darby claimed the top defensive rookie by a slim margin.

COACH OF THE YEAR
David Cutcliffe, Duke (25)
Dabo Swinney, Clemson (7)
Jimbo Fisher, Florida State (5)
Larry Fedora, North Carolina (4)
Al Golden, Miami (4)
Tom O’Brien, NC State (1)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Duke Johnson, rb, Miami (34)
Stefon Diggs, wr, Maryland (11)
Vad Lee, qb, Georgia Tech (1)

OFFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Duke Johnson, rb, Miami (35)
Stefon Diggs, wr, Maryland (10)
Vad Lee, qb, Georgia Tech (1)

DEFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Ronald Darby, cb, Florida State (14)
Deon Bush, s, Miami (9)
Jabari Hunt-Days, lb, Georgia Tech (8)
Eli Harold, de, Virginia (5)
Michael Cole, safety, Virginia Tech (4)
Maurice Canady, cb, Virginia (4)
Dwayne Norman, s, Duke (2)

Web Editor: Aaron Schoonmaker

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RE: Cutcliffe easily wins ACC Coach of the Year honors

That's the thing. I'm not trying to take credit away from Cut. He's done a good job.

Just not COY good.

RE: Cutcliffe easily wins ACC Coach of the Year honors

Cut definitely did more with less. I just don't think six wins over mostly average teams is enough to earn this big honor. Exceeding expectations when your expectations are so low just doesn't warrant coach of the year honors IMO. Nor do I think being favored or not should even matter. They were only favored in three games? Maybe they should have been favored in more but were not because of their last two decades of football history.

It's ok, but we'll just have to disagree on this one. I think COY honors belong to someone who really does something above and beyond. Fedora comes to mind. New coaches, new system, roster full of some other coach's players, program on probation... and had it not been for UNC and Miami being on probation, the Holes would have been in the ACC championship game this year. Sure, the Coastal is in a down year. But Fedora made a pretty good splash for a first-year coach under those circumstances.

It is hard to view the Holes objectively, but if you do, it's hard to argue against Fedora beating out Cut. But the big thing is this further embarrasses the conference football. We just gave a blue ribbon to every kid in the class for "participation".

I think the main thing is Cut got Duke to their first bowl since 1994. But bowl bids just aren't worth celebrating any more. Seventy teams go to bowls every year. This year, Duke got over the hump against Wake (a LOUSY Wake team!) and got their six wins. But most of us that love football agree that six wins shouldn't get a team a bowl. I'm not even sure seven wins should. But that's what happens when the bowls are diluted.
- Posted by TruthBKnown Returned

You called Wake and Duke lousy in the same post where you're arguing Fedora should have won coach of the year. UNC lost to both Wake and Duke.

And to the argument that Cut played a weak schedule. They played 3 teams better than anyone UNC played - at Stanford, at FSU, and Clemson.

Nor do I think being favored or not should even matter. They were only favored in three games? Maybe they should have been favored in more but were not because of their last two decades of football history.

They are only favored in 3 games this year because on paper they simply didn't have the talent of every team they played from the ACC. They were favored against NCCU, Memphis and FIU. Wake Forest might have been a -1.5 but coming into the year, most people thought Wake had more returning talent than Duke and continue doing better in recruiting. As I said earlier, Duke is always last in the ACC in recruiting. Last year they might have done better than BC but BC's been pretty dormant over the Spaziani era so that's not anything to brag about.

The ACC was a joke this year, and it seems that you're trying to take credit away from Cut for that. But I see it as some of these ACC programs underperformed their predicted status while Duke overperformed. And every ACC team that overperformed were teams Duke had to play. And Duke's in the coastal, but still had to play FSU and Clemson.

RE: Cutcliffe easily wins ACC Coach of the Year honors

Cut definitely did more with less. I just don't think six wins over mostly average teams is enough to earn this big honor. Exceeding expectations when your expectations are so low just doesn't warrant coach of the year honors IMO. Nor do I think being favored or not should even matter. They were only favored in three games? Maybe they should have been favored in more but were not because of their last two decades of football history.

It's ok, but we'll just have to disagree on this one. I think COY honors belong to someone who really does something above and beyond. Fedora comes to mind. New coaches, new system, roster full of some other coach's players, program on probation... and had it not been for UNC and Miami being on probation, the Holes would have been in the ACC championship game this year. Sure, the Coastal is in a down year. But Fedora made a pretty good splash for a first-year coach under those circumstances.

It is hard to view the Holes objectively, but if you do, it's hard to argue against Fedora beating out Cut. But the big thing is this further embarrasses the conference football. We just gave a blue ribbon to every kid in the class for "participation".

I think the main thing is Cut got Duke to their first bowl since 1994. But bowl bids just aren't worth celebrating any more. Seventy teams go to bowls every year. This year, Duke got over the hump against Wake (a LOUSY Wake team!) and got their six wins. But most of us that love football agree that six wins shouldn't get a team a bowl. I'm not even sure seven wins should. But that's what happens when the bowls are diluted.

RE: Cutcliffe easily wins ACC Coach of the Year honors

903, you make an otherwise good point. Except that Jimbo is not a perennial champion at FSU (yet). He isn't even the defending champion. Clemson won it last year.

The point was that Cut simply didn't do anything but win a game or two that he should not have let slip away in previous years (e.g., some of those close losses to Wake).

I just don't think Cut deserved it. Not even close.
- Posted by TruthBKnown Returned

Fsu's had top 3 narional recruiting classes pretty much every year since cut started at duke. Cut's classes? Last in the acc every year except possibly last year when they might have squeaked by BC to come in 11th.

Sorry, the arguments subjective. If Fsu goes 10-2 with a acc title game and orange bowl to go, that's the worst they should expect to do. Their goal is national title and it didn't happen by at least two games against a schedule when they were favored in all 12 games. Rumors are flying that he wants out of Fsu for one of these sec jobs. That just screams out that he fell short of expectations and knows it.

Duke getting 6 wins in a season when they were favored 3 times is a much tougher accomplishment.

RE: Cutcliffe easily wins ACC Coach of the Year honors

903, you make an otherwise good point. Except that Jimbo is not a perennial champion at FSU (yet). He isn't even the defending champion. Clemson won it last year.

The point was that Cut simply didn't do anything but win a game or two that he should not have let slip away in previous years (e.g., some of those close losses to Wake).

I just don't think Cut deserved it. Not even close.

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