It’s been years since Duke beat Wake Forest even though the games have been close. Last week, the Devils fell 24-23. The scores the previous years, all losses, were 54-48, 45-34, 33-30, 41-36 and 14-13. Duke coach David Cutliffe takes a lot of the responsibility but the Devils have to look forward to a game against heavily favored Virginia Tech.

QUESTION: It’s almost unbelievable the number of close agonizing losses you guys have had to Wake Forest over the years and during your tenure —

COACH DAVID CUTCLIFFE: I needed that. I’m just
kidding.

QUESTION CONTINUED: Do you have any rational explanation for it? And more importantly, do you worry at all about hangover from that game going into the next one?

COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, I think you
always worry about hangover when you come out
of games that hurt so badly. I don’t have any
rational explanation other than I don’t think I’ve
coached very well. It just bothers me. I mean, I’m
not just saying that. It sincerely bothers me, but I
can’t do anything about it right now other than try
to be the best I can be. But it’s a very difficult thing
to deal with as a coach, and certainly our players
have had a difficult time with it.

But no indication of a hangover today. We
don’t have that excuse or a reason. I mean, we
know what we have dead in front of us, and that’s
a great football team, so we’d best prepare. And
they did a good job of doing that today. I was very
pleased with our practice today.

QUESTION: You mentioned you don’t think you’ve coached very well. Is there anything, when you look back on the most recent one, that you second-guess yourself on a particular decision or anything?

COACH CUTCLIFFE: No, it’s not those kinds
of things. When we played like we played the first
half, we have discipline issues, way too many
penalties, our execution suffers, we have some
assignment issues.

As a coach your job is to put a
team out there prepared. And then the last part in
the fourth quarter when you don’t finish a game like
you know you’re capable of finishing it, we had a
cluster of bad plays. We missed an opportunity to
score a touchdown to go up ten, instead had to
kick a field goal. And then we kicked off and didn’t
cover it very well, and then they scored on one
play 66 yards. Then they kicked it to us and we
didn’t return it very well. And then we went
three-and-out on offense when you have to
answer. That’s all 100 percent my responsibility.
Teams don’t cluster those kinds of mistakes that
are well-coached football teams. Just being real
honest with you, it really bothers me. You have to
take a look at yourself and what you’re getting
done.