Early Signing Period: Coach Cutcliffe “Absolutely Thrilled” With Duke’s 2021 Signees
Always good when the head man is happy
Today was the day, National Signing Day, the day when every college football team in the country got better. Duke’s David Cutcliffe addressed the media to discuss Duke’s class of 18 prep signees, using words like “thrilled” and “exciting.”
We “met a lot of needs.” From a character, effort and ability standpoint . .. Duke was “absolutely thrilled.”
Par for the course. But things have been far from normal this season and like everybody else Duke has had to be nimble, flexible, adaptable.
That includes all of those in-home visits that didn’t actually take place.
Cutcliffe called this a “unusual circumstance when you haven’t seen any of these young people in person in quite some time. One of my favorite parts of recruiting are home visits and going into the home to meet all the family . . . and spend the evening with them. But over a period of time now, with as many Zooms, . .. you feel like you may know this group of young people virtually at least better than you have any class ever.”
This is also a year in which players have unusual flexibility in getting an extra season. Cutcliffe called it an “on-going process, can’t address who and how many.”
He added that he didn’t think any prospective recruits were lost due to any depth-chart uncertainties.
“A one-year guy isn’t going to affect a high-school player’s decision.”
Those 18 players include four each from North Carolina and Georgia.
No other state is represented by more than two recruits.
North Carolina makes sense. Cutcliffe said that Duke wants to recruit “inside out” and this class includes two players from Durham, linebacker Tre Freeman from Northern High School and defensive lineman Aaron Hall from Southern High School. The other two North Carolinians are from Pfafftown (Winston-Salem suburb) and Newton.
But no one from Charlotte, a fertile recruiting area for Cutcliffe. Something to watch?
But Duke did retain its hold in Georgia, bringing in four prospects from the Peach State, a quartet of speedsters, positions to be determined.
Cutcliffe said it’s no accident. Duke prioritizes Georgia.
“We put a lot of people down there recruiting because they have great spring-practice evaluation. We didn’t get that this year but . . . . we’ve seen them earlier. The competitiveness, the quality of football in the state is outstanding.”
In addition, Atlanta has a lot of Duke alums who help sell the program.
Cutcliffe said the specific positions of need that were helped by this class include defensive line, secondary, running back and linebacker, “areas where we felt like we needed to make an impact and I think we’ve done that. You can never go wrong recruiting speed and we’ve got a bunch of fast people in this class.”
But we all know that quarterbacks are the face of any program and Duke got two that Cutcliffe says are smart, high-character leaders.
Jordan Moore is from Maryland and has been characterized by some recruiting sites as an “athlete,” code for a guy who can run but doesn’t have the arm to play quarterback.
He’s 6-2, 180.
No so fast, Cutcliffe says.
Moore “is a quarterback, no question about it. . . .. he’s “going to be given every opportunity” to play quarterback.
Riley Leonard is bigger, at 6-4, 205. He’s from Alabama. Cutcliffe cited Leonard’s basketball abilities and said that both Moore and Riley excel at extending plays and making plays on the run.
This likely isn’t it. The transfer portal has been active in this most unusual year and there is a second signing period in February.
“We always leave ourselves a little bump room for whatever the circumstances are,” Cutcliffe said. “We’re not a team that’s going to be jumping and actively diving into the portal necessarily but we’ll look always at places where we think we need immediate help.”
Duke likely faces a second year without spring ball but Cutcliffe says Duke needs to get better and there are ways to do that.
“I’m not as interested in Xs and Os as in building chemistry.” He cites discipline and conditioning and says lots of running and lifting are on the agenda.
Lots of running and lifting.