Duke’s David Cutcliffe Named Walter Camp 2013 Coach of the Year

NEW HAVEN, CT – David Cutcliffe, head coach of the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division champion Duke University Blue Devils, has been named the Walter Camp 2013 Coach of the Year.  The Walter Camp Coach of the Year is selected by the nation’s 125 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors.  Cutcliffe is the first Duke coach to receive the award, and the first honoree from the ACC since 2001 (Ralph Friedgen, Maryland).

2013 WC Coach of the Year – David Cutcliffe

Under Cutcliffe’s direction, the 20th-ranked Blue Devils have set a school record with 10 victories and earned their first-ever berth in the Dr. Pepper ACC Championship Game.  Duke clinched the Coastal Division title and championship game berth with a 27-25 victory over in-state rival North Carolina on November 30.

Duke (10-2, 6-2 in the Coastal Division) will face top-ranked Florida State (12-0) on Saturday, December 7 in Charlotte, N.C.  The Blue Devils enter the game with an eight-game winning streak – the program’s longest since 1941.

In addition, the Blue Devils cracked the BCS standings for the first time this season, and were a perfect 4-0 in the month of November (after going 1-19 in the month from 2008 to 2012).

Cutcliffe was hired as Duke’s 21st coach on December 15, 2007.  Last season, he led the high-scoring Blue Devils to a school record 410 points (31.5 points per game) and a berth in the Belk Bowl – the program’s first bowl appearance since 1994.

Prior to his arrival in Durham, Cutcliffe was the offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee for two years – his second stint in Knoxville.  Cutcliffe had previously served 17 years as an assistant coach on the Volunteers’ staff, rising to offensive coordinator where he tutored Walter Camp First Team All-America and future NFL great Peyton Manning.

Cutcliffe’s first head coaching stint came at Ole Miss from 1998 to 2004, where he recorded a 44-29 (.603) record and had five bowl game berths.  In 2003, Cutcliffe was named the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Rebels, and Walter Camp Second Team All-American quarterback and future Super Bowl champion Eli Manning, to a 10-3 mark and a Cotton Bowl victory.

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Cutcliffe is a 1976 graduate of the University of Alabama.  He got his start in coaching at Banks (Ala.) High School and served four years as an assistant before assuming head coach duties in 1980.

He and wife Karen have four children – Chris, Marcus, Katie and Emily, one daughter-in-law (Molly) and two grandchildren (Shivers and Bennett).

Coach Cutcliffe, along with members of the 2013 Walter Camp All-America team, will be honored at the organization’s national awards banquet on Saturday, January 11, 2014 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.  In addition, the Foundation will recognize three individuals – former Notre Dame and Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann (Distinguished American), former Penn State and Oakland Raider standout lineman Matt Millen (Man of the Year) and former North Carolina All-American Ken Huff (Alumnus of the Year) – with major awards.

Walter Camp, “The Father of American football,” first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side.  The Walter Camp Football Foundation – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team.

The Walter Camp Football Foundation is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients.

 

Walter Camp Coach of the Year recipients

2013 – David Cutcliffe, Duke

2012 – Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

2011 – Les Miles, LSU

2010 – Chip Kelly, Oregon

2009 – Gary Patterson, TCU

2008 – Nick Saban, Alabama

2007 – Mark Mangino, Kansas

2006 – Greg Schiano, Rutgers

2005 – Joe Paterno, Penn State

2004 – Tommy Tuberville, Auburn

2003 – Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

2002 – Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

2001 – Ralph Friedgen, Maryland

2000 – Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

1999 – Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech

1998 – Bill Synder, Kansas State

1997 – Lloyd Carr, Michigan

1996 – Bruce Snyder, Arizona State

1995 – Gary Barnett, Northwestern

1994 – Joe Paterno, Penn State

1993 – Terry Bowden, Auburn

1992 – Gene Stallings, Alabama

1991 – Bobby Bowden, Florida State

1990 – Bobby Ross, Georgia Tech

1989 – Bill McCartney, Colorado

1988 – Don Nehlen, West Virginia

1987 – Dick MacPherson, Syracuse

1986 – Jimmy Johnson, Miami

1985 – Fisher DeBerry, Air Force

1984 – Joe Morrison, South Carolina

1983 – Mike White, Illinois

1982 – Jerry Stovall, Louisiana State

1981 – Jackie Sherrill, Pittsburgh

1980 – Vince Dooley, Georgia

1979 – John Mackovic, Wake Forest

1978 – Warren Powers, Missouri

1977 – Lou Holtz, Arkansas

1976 – Frank R. Burns, Rutgers

1975 – Frank Kush, Arizona State

1974 – Barry Switzer, Oklahoma

1973 – Johnny Majors, Pittsburgh

1972 – Joe Paterno, Penn State

1971 – Bob Devaney, Nebraska

1970 – Bob Blackman, Dartmouth

1969 – Bo Schembechler, Michigan

1968 – Woody Hayes, Ohio State

1967 – John Pont, Indiana