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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 7, 2018

David Cutcliffe

Greensboro, North Carolina

DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I think first of all, all of our staff and team are excited about being back home. It's been a while with two long road trips. Love being a part of this unique rivalry. We have great respect for the University of North Carolina, the football program, Coach Fedora, the most unique rivalry I've ever been a part of, and we are eight, nine miles apart, and it's been an intense football rivalry, certainly in the time that Coach Fedora has been there.

But again, great respect for them, and we know what rivalry football is all about. You'd better be at your best.

I'll take any questions.

Q. A couple subjects. One, I think I speak on behalf of a lot of my colleagues in thanking you sincerely for your public statement about Al Featherston. And secondly, writing a story about a couple of local kids, one at NC Central and of course Johnathan Lloyd, who won the Good Works award from Allstate. I got to talk to Johnathan a little bit yesterday, and I'm sure you can express to me just what kind of kid he is.
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, you know if you had spoken to him, he's amazing. He inspires me. His temperament, he is always positive, which all of us need to be around people like that. That's why other young people love him so much. That's why he's had such an impact in the Durham community and the Duke community, and certainly the community back in Graham. He won the lottery a long time ago when -- he won the parent lottery. So John is a product of great people. And he's a very talented athlete, played quarterback in high school. He can play anything, great baseball player. But Johnathan is maybe the person we have in our program that most -- that works hardest at improvement, every day, every year, and you visibly see John just continuing to get better and better. I've felt myself blessed and extremely fortunate that he's been a part of this program.

Q. Just given how many injuries that your team has had to deal with this season, how gratifying was it to be able to clinch the bowl berth the way that you guys did with a win in Miami last weekend?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: It was emotional for lots of reasons. When we are on the road, you leave a lot of people at home, and certainly that would include a lot of guys that have had surgeries this year, guys that just continued to miss games. That's been kind of emotional for this team. Our Sunday meetings are always pretty unique, and I think I get the best end of the deal. Our captains do an award themselves, both sides of the ball and kicking, and I think that the respect that they've all gained this year because of so many people have stepped up when we've had to have them step up. I'd like to see us start getting a little healthier. That would be nice. But I do think this team's personality is pretty special. We're going to fight our way through November and see what happens.

Q. Why do you think that the players on this team have that characteristic, that they're stepping up when they absolutely had to step up?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: Well, I would have to attribute it first to them, who they are. You know, when your players become your best coaches, they're not legislated away from each other at any time. You know, we're not able to coach them in the summer and the off-seasons. The strength coaches have certain times. They're around each other all the time. And I think some of our older people are some of the best coaches that you have. And that's what I think all of us try to do in a program. It doesn't always work out that way, but you know, your players do coach each other. They hold each other accountable. They tell young players, hey, man, it's not okay to bust; you've got to know what to do. I think that's been a part of this team's personality. I think they are encouragers, but I think our captains, our older people, I think they take it serious to hold people accountable in this program, and I personally like that a lot.

Q. Is there any aspect of this team that is better than you had kind of thought it was going to be going into the season?
DAVID CUTCLIFFE: No, not -- I don't think necessarily. I think that I'm very pleased with our specialists, the fact that we -- Collin Wareham, being a non-scholarship placekicker that's been as efficient as he's been, he won the job in the spring, but that has allowed us to let Austin Parker focus on punting, and Austin was out of school and not a part of our team until the summer.

I'm trying not to jinx myself or them, but to this point, that's been a very pleasing aspect that was kind of up in the air. And if we're going to win down the stretch, it's going to take our specialists having to play well.

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