Duke football highlights from ACC media day availability

Cutcliffe and players discuss Sirk's recovery, program culture and more

<p>Head coach David Cutcliffe&nbsp;said last year's bowl win was like a monkey off the team's back.&nbsp;</p>

Head coach David Cutcliffe said last year's bowl win was like a monkey off the team's back. 

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Duke head coach David Cutcliffe, redshirt senior quarterback Thomas Sirk and redshirt senior cornerback DeVon Edwards joined representatives from the rest of the Coastal Division at ACC media day last Thursday to talk about the upcoming season and current issues in college football. Here are some of the most notable quotes from their availability.

On changes in the program's culture since Sirk and Edwards arrived in 2012:

When I first got to Duke, I was a little freshman and I thought everybody was really good. When I saw the guys we played against, I was like, 'Wow, this is big-time college football.' They would tell me the stories on guys they used to have that were never in shape and were just really smart and stuff like that. Now it’s guys that are three and four-star guys that come out and look spectacular before they even get in the weight room and start camp.

—DeVon Edwards

I don’t think the culture has changed. I think when Coach Cut came here, he set the standards for what we’re expecting.... We might not have the most talent on the field, but we’re going to come out there the most prepared team and we’re going to come out there the most physical team every Saturday.

—Thomas Sirk

On the impact of last year's milestone bowl win against Indiana:

The bowl game was definitely a stepping stone in the right direction. We’re not going to say that we’ve arrived and we’re not going to be complacent with that, because ultimately, we want to win an ACC championship and we want to have a spot in the college football final four. I think we have that kind of talent.

—Sirk

That’s kind of a monkey off your back. I’m not sure that we didn’t play better in the three [bowl] losses than we did the win, so that’s kind of a bonus for a coach. ‘Okay, we won, but let me tell you something. This is unacceptable, this is unacceptable,’ so there’s value in it with your players.

—David Cutcliffe

On discussions of banning kickoffs in football in the future:

If you have an award for it, why would you take it away? That’s taking away somebody’s shine.... I would think the returner is the person that would take the most punishment at the end of the day, and I don't really have a problem with it.

—Edwards

On Sirk tearing both Achilles tendons and his recovery this offseason:

When you tear your Achilles, it feels like someone kicks you in the back of the lower calf.... The first time I did it, I looked behind me to see who threw a ball at me, and there was no one there, and I immediately felt the pressure and the pain. When I tore my left one this time, I immediately knew it was the same exact feeling. I didn’t have to look behind me.

—Sirk

I asked the doctors, 'Is this something that’s a propensity for him?' They didn’t think so, but somewhere in there in the DNA, something in my opinion exists. It’s just too odd for that to happen.

—Cutcliffe

I’ve learned to be able to control my attitude. For the first one, I had a little bit more of a negative attitude for the first couple months afterwards, the ‘Why me? Why is this happening to me?’ When I tore this one February 10, my attitude was automatically positive.

—Sirk

On last season's controversial game against Miami:

I’m over it. The frustration was having no idea or no explanation. None. That’s got to happen anytime, under any circumstance.... I was emotional both ways, but do I think about it anymore? No. Every loss I’ve ever had as a player or a coach I think about from time to time. I go back to high school and I get frustrated if I let myself. I don’t like losing. I just hated not to have the ability to address our team at that moment, which I thought needed me.

—Cutcliffe

I don’t feel like it hurt the team at that point. There were just a lot of things that we had. We lost some guys to some offseason stuff, we had some other stuff going on. We just needed to sort of get back to the way we were doing things.

—Edwards

On what makes Edwards a good kick returner:

His fearlessness and his vision and his speed. It would be like you guys all lined up right and I’m going to take a 25-yard head start and I’m going to believe that I’m going to run straight right through here because there’s going to be a crack. He sees that crack and he never slows down.

—Cutcliffe

I would look on tape, early before I started taking them all the way back, and say 'Oh, I could have scored on that one. I could have scored on that one,' and that would sort of eat me up and be my motivation to take advantage of every opportunity. Once I sort of get to open field, I would not let anyone catch me because before I ran my first couple back, I got tackled by the kicker one or two times, and that got talked about for a long time after that.

—Edwards

On Sirk needing to be more careful as a runner:

Unless it’s a third down or you’re inside the 10-yard line, I’m not all about quarterbacks taking on linebackers and even safeties, let alone defensive lineman, and I want him to think about, there’s a way to do that. There’s a way to angle run. There’s a way to get down. You don’t need as many licks.

—Cutcliffe

If there are unnecessary hits on the field on a safety or a linebacker and I can get out of bounds, then I’ll get of bounds. I say that now until the game comes and I see the guy coming and I lower my shoulder.

—Sirk

On throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium:

When I walk the halls up there around the suites, they’ve got these incredible pictures of all those old Yankees that I watched as a kid. They talk to me when I walk through there. I can feel them. I can hear them. It really was that meaningful for me. I was up there recently and they asked me if I had framed the jersey that I wore. I said, ‘Hell, frame it? I wear it! What are you talking about?’ That’s how important it was for me.

—Cutcliffe, a lifelong New York Yankees fan

On satellite camps in college football:

I think that you invite third parties that have camps that have no business being in ball. We’re the last sport that scholastically recruits, so we’re in the schools or we’re with the parents. We don’t need to be dealing with 7-on-7 coaches.

When you go off a campus, and you’re not supposed to be recruiting, and you’re having contact with parents at these camps—which is happening—there are more violations that are going to occur than any other time.... Anybody that says differently is not right.

—Cutcliffe

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