Week 15: Quick Hits from Lunch with Cut

Duke head coach David Cutcliffe held his weekly press conference today. Cutcliffe talked about his team’s 27-25 victory against North Carolina and also the upcoming matchup against Florida State in the ACC Championship game. Here are some highlights from his 30-minute question and answer session. The Blue Devils play the Seminoles Saturday at 8:00 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.

Duke secured its 10th win and first ever trip to the ACC Championship game last Saturday in a close contest against the Tar Heels. Quarterback Anthony Boone played one of his best games of the year, throwing for 274 yards and two touchdowns, and the Blue Devil defense came up with big stops in the second half to keep North Carolina off the scoreboard and preserve the victory. Duke will look to ride the momentum of its eight-game win streak into Saturday's matchup against Florida State. The Seminoles are 18-0 against Duke and defeated the Blue Devils 48-7 last year in Tallahassee.

"They are truly a number one football team in the country. They are very efficient in everything that they do, very good at taking care of the football, very good at taking the football away. They have skill. They are well coached. We all know that. That's a given. The thing we have to do is focus on being the best we can be."—Cutcliffe

Heisman favorite Jameis WInston leads a Florida State offense averaging more than 53 points per game. The Seminoles have failed to score 40 points in a game just once all season—Florida held its in-state rival to 37 points last week. Winston has put up record numbers for freshman quarterbacks, throwing for 3,490 yards and 35 touchdowns to go with just eight interceptions. Only one team, Boston College, has come within two touchdowns of beating Florida State this year.

To go along with its prolific offense, the Seminoles boast the nation's top scoring defense. Florida State allows just 11 points per game and has held opponents to seven points or less six times on the year. Defensive back Lamarcus Joyner, an All-ACC first team selection, leads the tenacious Seminole defense. Joyner has racked up 60 tackles, five sacks and an interception this season and is projected to be one of the first defensive backs picked in the 2014 NFL draft.

"The thing I would go to, if I was going to be singular in a comment, would be the quality of our leadership—player leadership. There is nothing better than peer leadership to make an organization go. You look at the army, and you have generals and all this. In the end the drill sergeants, the corporals, the people right there in the trenches are the ones that make the difference."—Cutcliffe

Cutcliffe attributed the Blue Devils' success in 2013 to the process of rebuilding the Duke football program as opposed to any singular characteristic about this year's team. But Cutcliffe did note his squad's five captains—Ross Cockrell, Justin Foxx, Dave Harding, Boone and Juwan Thompson—along with the rest of its senior leadership as the primary reason why this year has been so special for the Blue Devils.

"It's very humbling. I'm thinking right now, I'm thinking about Jimbo Fisher and Steve Addazio and Al Golden and of course we have the best of the best in Frank Beamer and people that are special in this league. For our program, for our staff, for our university, that's big…. I've said it time and time again, it's the perfect storm to be surrounded by so many fine people."—Cutcliffe

During Cutcliffe's remarks, the ACC announced that he had been named the conference's Coach of the Year for the second straight year. Cutcliffe was taken aback when members of the media told him about the announcement, and he gave his thoughts on the award and the honor of working alongside the other great coaches in the ACC. Cutcliffe received 62 of the 65 votes in balloting done by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association, while Addazio received two votes and Fisher received the remaining vote.