Armed With Urgency, Duke Brings Revamped Offense Into Opener Vs. Notre Dame
David Cutcliffe and offensive aptitude are historically synonymous.
The 13th-year Duke head coach has tutored eight quarterbacks who played in the NFL, including both Manning brothers. He is less than two years removed from coaching a top-10 draft pick, current New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who arrived at Duke as an unranked recruit. He was the architect of a national title-winning offense at Tennessee, where he coached for nearly 20 years, nine as a coordinator or play caller.
His résumé makes Duke’s 2019 offensive tumble entirely out of character and puzzling. Cutcliffe is overseeing the repair job himself. He took over as the play caller, a role he has not held since his last game at Tennessee in 2007.
“I think I’m going to enjoy this,” Cutcliffe told reporters this summer. “I better get my sleep because this is going to be stressful and challenging physically.”
One of his first moves was to bring in a new quarterback. Clemson graduate transfer Chase Brice spent the last two years as Trevor Lawrence’s backup, and the former four-star recruit came to Duke for a shot at starting. He beat out last year’s backup, Chris Katrenick, Cutcliffe formally announced Sunday.
“As he got more comfortable with our system, what you started seeing was his experience,” the head coach said. “Chase played a lot of games and had a lot of game time at Clemson. You could see that pocket movement and just feeling natural in a pocket, the timing mechanism of throws.”
His comfort couldn’t have come soon enough. Duke quarterbacks threw for 179.3 yards per game in 2019, which ranked 110th nationally. The Blue Devils were 115th in pass efficiency, 123rd in yards per pass and 95th in completion percentage. Passing was a misadventure.
Brice can take them nowhere but up. He threw for 1,023 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions at Clemson while averaging 6.2 yards on 30 carries. He rescued the Tigers from a home loss to Syracuse in 2018 after Lawrence left the game due to injury.
Brice will need some help, though. Nothing about Duke’s offense was particularly impressive. It averaged 3.64 yards per carry (second worst in the ACC) and 10.1 yards per completion (an ACC low).
“They’re embarrassed by how they played last year,” DevilsIllustrated.com publisher Brian McLawhorn said. “They just couldn’t run the football at all.”
Deon Jackson is the primary running back once again, and his track record suggests his 3.7 yards per rush in 2019 were not indicative of his ability. He ran for 847 yards and seven touchdowns in 2018, averaging 5.3 yards per carry. He also has 51 career catches for 449 yards.
Jalon Calhoun and All-ACC tight end Noah Gray were Duke’s top two receivers last year, and both returned. Neither, though, averaged more than 9.5 yards per catch. The low yardage totals were a product of their usage. Of Calhoun’s 62 targets, 27 were behind the line of scrimmage and 18 more were within five yards of the line. Gray only had 16 of his 69 targets on passes at least 10 yards downfield.
With Brice, there’s hope the offense can turn into more of a vertical threat. But that idea will be squashed if he’s under duress like Duke’s quarterbacks were a year ago.
Four offensive line starters returned, though they need to reach another level for Duke’s offense to make real progress. None of them had Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grades above 60 (which is considered below average). Training camp dealt a blow, too. Center Jack Wohlabaugh, an honorable mention All-ACC selection, is out for the season with a torn ACL.
Duke’s offense doesn’t need to be a machine that churns out five touchdowns per game. It just needs to keep pace and support a defense with a few playmakers that could be one of the ACC’s better units. An oft-tired Duke defense was 42nd in yards per play, 20th in sack rate and 24th in passing yards allowed in 2019. Seven of its starters are back.
The Blue Devils’ edge rush trio could rival anyone else’s in the conference. All three members – Victor Dimukeje, Chris Rumph II and Drew Jordan – had double-digit quarterback hurries, per PFF. Rumph, though, is the unheralded star. No Football Bowl Subdivision player had a better pass-rush win rate than his 30.8 percent mark. PFF credited him with 48 pressures in 198 pass-rush snaps. He had a 93.7 overall grade, a 92.7 pass-rush grade and 13.5 tackles for loss.
“Chris Rumph has first-round draft ability,” Cutcliffe said in July. “If he stays healthy, that’s what I expect to happen.
“You should see Chris now — oh my God. He had a personal coach at home and he gained almost 20 pounds of muscle. That guy can fly. He can really, really run.”
Duke’s secondary can be a strong point, too. All four starters return, and there’s some clear depth as well. Safety Michael Carter can play either spot and is an All-ACC caliber player who had eight passes broken up last year. Opposing receivers caught only 41.7 percent of the passes thrown at cornerback Josh Blackwell, and none were touchdowns.
Michigan transfer J’Marick Woods, who would have headlined many Duke classes as a recruit, is likely a backup. There was initially no clear starting job for cornerback Mark Gilbert, a former All-ACC player who missed all of 2019 and eight games of 2018 due to injury. He was a full participant in training camp and is listed as a starting corner in Duke’s nickel base defense.
Gilbert had six interceptions and an ACC-best 21 passes defended in 2017, his last full season. The latter set a single-season school record.
“No one really knew what to expect leading into camp, and reports out of camp are that he is showing flashes of his old self, which was All-ACC and All-American before the injury,” McLawhorn said. “His return will be a huge lift for an already strong secondary if he can stay healthy.”
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