Question: What is the biggest, most important event taking place tomorrow that will have every Duke fan talking for a long time to come?
If you answered the Duke-UNC basketball game, then you've either been living in a tent for the past month, or you've watched one too many Duke football losses over the last few years, or both. But it doesn't matter what your excuse is-you're wrong.
Tomorrow is National Signing Day.
It's the day of utmost suspense for all college coaching staffs, generous alumni and those creepy overweight fans who spend all their time reading recruiting Web sites about eighth-grade punters. It's the day when the greatest high school players declare where they will become the greatest collegiate players. This day has often passed without notice for Duke, but no longer. And why, you ask?
Because of Elisha Nelson Manning. (Yes, his mother still calls him Elisha, and he blushes every time.) Over the last 48 hours, every sports media outlet has hardly let us forget that the last two Super Bowl MVP's were Eli and his brother, Peyton. Well, guess what else these two have in common besides a huge ring, a lot of money and the same last name?
They both admit to owing a tremendous amount of their success to their collegiate mentor and current Duke head coach David Cutcliffe.
Now let's pretend for a second that you're a fast, strong, talented high school football player. I know it's tough for a lot of you to relate to that, but use your imaginations. You like sports. Hell, you especially like football. So you've seen the last two Super Bowls. In fact, right now you're watching Eli march around the University of Phoenix Stadium with the Lombardi Trophy hoisted high in the air while Peyton claps from his private booth above. Suddenly, the phone rings. "Hello?"
"Hi. This is David Cutcliffe. I can do that for you." I don't know about you, but I'm signing on whatever dotted line that guy tells me to.
And that's precisely the point. To a certain extent, it's actually unfair to call this Cutcliffe's first recruiting class, because he only had about 90 days to get the job done. Nevertheless, his reputation, his attitude and his two goofy-looking tutees with Super Bowl rings are enough to get any recruit listening.
That's why scout.com's No. 10 quarterback Sean Renfree verbally committed to come here rather than play at home for Arizona State, which accumulated as many wins this season (10) as Duke has in the last five years. And it's why Terrelle Pryor, the No. 1 quarterback on almost everybody's list and arguably the top recruit period, has Duke listed as one of his possible choices among perennial powerhouses such as Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Florida and Louisiana State.
Above all else, though, here's the really important thing to take away from all of this. Duke is not to be taken lightly anymore. Before now, the only time the Blue Devils ever got mentioned among these high-caliber teams was in the preseason, when they receive their annual, solitary vote in the Coaches' Poll from former head coach Steve Spurrier. And while his gesture is genuine, its effect is harmful. Each season, Duke's just a punch line missing the joke, until someone tells his confused friend the whole story. "Oh, I get it. Spurrier doesn't really mean it!"
But Cutcliffe's not laughing. And everyone's taking notice. Did you see the way this school reacted as soon as every student figured out what kind of coach this man is? Frenzied questions like, "Do you think tailgates will change if the team gets good?," "Do you think we could meet the Manning's when they come for spring practice?" and "If Coach K lets Pryor play football and basketball, will Pryor actually play for us?" are still reverberating off these Gothic walls.
So the optimism has improved, that's true. But even more impressive on Cutcliffe's part is the sheer interest he's been able to generate for Duke Football. Students might actually go into the stadium at kickoff and not back to their rooms to sleep off all that beer. Wallace Wade might not have to be a painful blemish on this university's athletic landscape. The rest of the country might have to find some other school to pick on.
It all starts tomorrow. Cutcliffe could have mastermind potential, but he can't achieve it without recruiting the best. And even if we have to wait a calendar year for Duke's first truly stellar class of the Cutcliffe Era in order to give his staff enough time to do the job right, the groundwork has already been laid.
For the time being, at least, Duke Football is a serious matter.
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