David Cutcliffe finally did something this summer he'd wanted to do for nearly a year but couldn't his first year at the helm.
He pushed his team to its mental and physical limits with 110-yard sprints, 5,000 total yards of running and new wrinkles in the playbook-tasks that four-year quarterback Thaddeus Lewis said the team could not have accomplished last season.
It wasn't just that they would be unable to do them. Cutcliffe was worried many players on the team would have quit had he pushed them as hard as he wanted to.
But now, it's not the coaches who are demanding more. The players ask Cutcliffe at practice if he can make the workouts harder and longer and if he can throw more wrinkles into the playbook.
Without conditioning limitations or a fragile mentality, Cutcliffe unequivocally expects this year's squad to play in a bowl game.
"We are capable of that, and my job is to coach them to that level," Cutcliffe said. "Will it be easy? No. Every hurdle gets higher on this race, but that's exciting. The bigger the hill, the more fun you have in accomplishing those things. It's harder, but a lot more rewarding."
As the players have learned, when Cutcliffe speaks, it is in their best interests to listen. He has consistently stuck to his word, whether he's talking about developing new facilities or establishing and enforcing team discipline.
When he got to Duke, Cutcliffe promised his players they would have better practice facilities and a renovated home stadium to play in.
But to the veterans on the team, it just sounded like a broken record from the previous few years.
"Coach Cutcliffe says, 'When I say something, I mean it. We're going to get us a new field,' " Lewis said. "Yeah, coach, we've heard that one a lot.. But nobody has done anything for Duke Football like he has. It almost brings tears to your eyes."
With a $10 million donation from Bob Pascal, Trinity '56, and Steve Brooks, Trinity '70, in April, Cutcliffe was able to get those renovations started. The school has completely remade the restrooms at Wallace Wade Stadium, and the practice field has been lengthened to 120 yards.
Additionally, Cutcliffe and Director of Athletics Kevin White have plans to create an indoor practice facility and possibly remove the track in the stadium. Cutcliffe said there will also be a new scoreboard in place for the new season.
His most difficult task-rebuilding his players into a legitimate ACC team-is actually ahead of schedule, he said. Cutcliffe said he thought his team was a bowl team last year and has looked even more prepared in spring ball and summer camp.
"If we had a head coach worth a darn, we'd be a bowl team and that's the truth," Cutcliffe said. "I still stay up at night thinking of a couple of games. We should've been 6-6 at worst last year."
Lewis said the biggest difference from last year to this year is Cutcliffe has only had to teach a point once before the team understands it.
"He's not saying, 'We're going to cut back on this running,' and now [he says] it's you're doing this, you're doing that, [and we say] yes sir, no sir," Lewis said. "Everyone's doing their business. No one's trying to back out of their runs or anything."
Not every player has lived up to Cutcliffe's ideals. In fact, he has had to dismiss safety and former quarterback Zack Asack, running back Tony Jackson and linebacker Trent Mackey. Asack and Jackson played significant roles last year and were expected to contribute again this upcoming season.
But like any other situation, Cutcliffe doesn't beat around the bush in addressing the issue.
"Everyone will be better for it," he said of their dismissals. "But I just believe as a parent or coach, continuing to say don't do that isn't going to work. I don't like that and it's my least favorite thing."
Cutcliffe said all three players were isolated cases and that the group he has now is the best he's ever had, mostly because they want practice to be as hard as possible. Once he heard that from his team, he knew he could expect his players to compete in December.
Because if they can handle the toughest practices without quitting, they can handle the pressure to play in the program's first bowl game since 1994.
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