After Sean Renfree had decided to enroll at Duke, he only had to watch Eli Manning win Super Bowl XLII MVP honors to know he had made the right choice.
Eli, like his older brother and Super Bowl XLI MVP Peyton, spent his college years learning from new Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe.
Cutcliffe's reputation as a molder of professional quarterbacks must have done something, as Renfree joined 16 other recruits Wednesday in signing letters-of-intent to join the Blue Devils' football program.
"The proof's in the pudding," Cutcliffe said. "Archie [Manning] would be the first to tell you that [Eli and Peyton] were developed in the system that allowed them to continue to grow in a pro-style system. There's no reason for that to stop now."
Renfree, who chose Duke (1-11 last season) over Arizona State, Boise State and Oregon State (29-10 combined), is the 10th-ranked quarterback in the nation according to scout.com. The four-star signal-caller passed for 41 touchdowns last season and was invited to the Elite 11 Quarterback Camp the previous summer.
One of Renfree's strongest qualities is what Cutcliffe termed his "fast-twitch abililty," meaning that he makes decisions quickly and without hesitation.
Renfree is not just mentally quick on the field. The quarterback can run the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds, which fits well into Cutcliffe's emphasis on speed. The head coach said that the average 40-yard dash of his 11 skill-position commitments was below 4.5 seconds, calling it one of the fastest groups he's ever recruited.
"We made the comment, 'If you can run, we'll find you,' and we went about doing that," Cutcliffe said. "Among our skill players, I really don't know who'd win a race, and I'm sure it'd be nose to nose."
Beyond just speed, Cutcliffe's first recruiting class also stresses versatility. Aside from Renfree and kicker Paul Asack, every player was designated as either "line" or "back" in the team's press release. Cutcliffe gives these vague position assignments to every recruiting class because he is not sure where each player will line up once they arrive at Duke.
One likely lock, however, is Randez James at defensive back. James, another four-star recruit, played cornerback as a postgraduate for Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia and is already enrolled at Duke. James is actually the only recruit that Cutcliffe got the chance to see play a game in person, and the coach said he was easily the fastest player on the field that night.
While the signings of Renfree and other skill-position players certainly do not hurt, they are more long-term projects, with established players like Thaddeus Lewis and Eron Riley entrenched as starters.
The kicking game, however, needs immediate change, and Paul Asack, the younger brother of backup quarterback Zack Asack, will get his chance to earn the starting job.
Cutcliffe described the need to get a good kicker as "extremely important" and implied that he would reduce the number of kickers on the team.
"I just don't need 10 kickers on scholarship that aren't kicking," Cutcliffe said.
Although justifiably known for developing quarterbacks, Cutcliffe's tenure at Mississippi also produced at least one solid kicker. In 2003, Jonathan Nichols won the Lou Groza Award as the nation's best kicker, making 25-of-29 attempts and all 49 of his extra points.
Duke, on the other hand, made just 3-of-11 field goals and missed two extra points last year.
"We're going to give Paul an opportunity when he gets here," Cutcliffe said. "We've got a practice routine that we put kickers through, and we've been real successful with this routine."
Cutcliffe's routines have also produced the past two Super Bowl MVPs. Renfree and his fellow recruits aren't looking that far down the line yet, but they now know what's possible with Cutcliffe at the helm.
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