Duke establishing football appeal

Over the years, the conversation about programs like Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Indiana has centered around basketball.

In Durham, N.C., however, that may be changing.

While Mike Krzyzewski is still king, David Cutcliffe has given the football program an identity and has turned people into believers.

Cutcliffe arrived in Durham from the University of Tennessee in high regard following the 2007 season, but optimism for the program was still limited. After all, he took over for Ted Roof, who finished with a 6-45 won-loss record during his time in charge, and losing had basically become the norm at Duke.

Winning was not immediate for Cutcliffe at Duke, as he led the Blue Devils to a 15-33 win-loss record during his first four seasons. However, his hard work began to pay off during the 2012 season when the Blue Devils ended an 18-year bowl drought.

Even bigger things were to follow.

In 2013, the Blue Devils posted their first 10-win season and won the ACC Coastal Division Championship. Then, in 2014, they turned in another top-level season by finishing 9-4.

Even with their strong recent performance on the field, the Class of 2016 that Cutcliffe and his staff are assembling in Durham has still come as a surprise to most. Over the last four recruiting seasons, Duke has finished at No. 52, No. 68, No. 58 and No. 62 nationally. That they are currently No. 14 in the Rivals team rankings, ahead of programs like Oregon, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, Clemson, Notre Dame and others with their current group of commitments is nothing short of amazing.

"Selling Duke football isn't easy for many different reasons," said Mike Farrell, Rivals.com's National Recruiting Director. "First off, only the true diehard Duke football fans will argue against the term 'basketball school' being synonymous with Duke athletics. Coach K recruits five-stars and McDonald's All Americans year in and year out and just won another national title. You can't compete with that and football players prefer to go to football schools. Throw in the academic restrictions they have to deal with, the lack of facilities and fan base of some of the schools in their own state, and the list gets bigger and bigger when it comes to negatives opponents can use in recruiting. And yet coach Cutcliffe has been winning and with winning more talent is starting to arrive."

Duke's multi-faceted appeal

One of the top recruits who recently committed to Duke is four-star linebacker Koby Quansah of West Hartford (Conn.) Kingswood-Oxford, who chose the Blue Devils over offers from Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Boston College, Iowa, Maryland, Wisconsin and especially in-state rival North Carolina. He explained why he chose Duke over the rest.

"Coming from the rigorous academics at Kingswood-Oxford, it was only right that I put Duke at the top for places I wanted to continue my education," he said. "Once you step foot on campus, your breath is taken away by the beautiful architecture and the community that surrounds the campus."

Quansah believes that there are several reasons for Duke's recent growth on the field and in recruiting.

"(Among) the factors that have led to their turnaround is the construction that they are doing around their campus," he said. "They are building and improving everything, both from the school itself to the football aspects as well. An expansion to the stadium, practice facilities, offices, all of these things to add to their academics which excites and attracts more top notch kids to come join their program and turn its football team into a power house. (Duke football is) almost like a place of intellectual brutality."

That term resonates with Farrell.

"Intellectual brutality is a term that can be used for programs like Stanford, Notre Dame and Boston College, among others, over the last decade, but not Duke until now," said Farrell. "The mindset of challenging yourself both athletically and academically as a prospect is needed to head to Duke. You have to want to challenge yourself on every level."

Another top recruit who committed to Duke is four-star tight end Mark Birmingham of Ashburn (Va.) Briar Woods, who also had offers from schools like Florida State, Florida, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Birmingham made a verbal pledge to the Blue Devils last November.

"Academics was always first in my decision," Birmingham said. "I also felt very comfortable with my coaches and the values they carry for the team. Also, the gut feeling I had that Duke was it when I was on campus."

When making his decision, Birmingham realized that Duke did not have the football tradition of many of the other schools that had offered him. But the possibility of joining a program on the rise was appealing.

"I knew I had an opportunity to be a part of a great recruiting class and have an opportunity to be a part of something special and continue their recent success," Birmingham said.

During the course of his recruiting process, Birmingham has gained a great deal of respect for Cutcliffe and his methods.

"Coach Cutcliffe is the type of coach that you enjoy playing for and would do anything for," said Birmingham. "He does things the right way and takes no short cuts. He builds strong character on the team and continues to build every year to get better and better."

The top-ranked current Duke commit is four-star wide receiver Scott Bracey of Richmond (Va.) Benedictine School, who is No. 71 nationally and had early offers from most of the big-time programs around the country.

"It was just the right place for me," said Bracey, who mentioned that he still gets asked why he chose Duke despite committing almost a year ago. "Staying close to home was kind of big for me. Academics were a big part in my decision. They're a top-10 school in the world academically so I'll have a Duke degree to fall back on if I get hurt or don't have a good career."

Farrell was stunned and a bit skeptical when Bracey chose Duke so early, as were many others.

"It was a double-take commitment," Farrell said. "Bracey was a kid on my radar as a freshman and he had all the early offers kids from Virginia dream of -- Virginia, Virginia Tech and then schools like Florida, Florida State, Clemson, Michigan, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee -- you name it. So when he committed I thought, 'No way this sticks, there's a long way to go.' Here we are almost a year later and he's not even talking to other schools to my knowledge. He's bought in."

While college football blue-bloods will always hold considerable appeal with prospects, some embrace the challenge of joining an emergence program, instead of one that is already established. Bracey believes Duke fits that description.

"I feel like it's a new era for Duke football," Bracey said. "We went 9-3 during the regular season last year and we should've gone to the ACC Championship for the second year in a row. They were ranked 15th and these past two years have shown that we can compete with top teams."

Sustaining momentum

Now everyone will be interested to see if Duke can maintain this recruiting momentum all the way to National Signing Day. The recent flip of four-star quarterback Chazz Surratt from the Blue Devils to North Carolina put a small early dent into the armor.

However, one thing Duke fans don't have to worry about is finding and developing a great quarterback. After all, their head coach was the man responsible for developing a guy named Peyton Manning at Tennessee.

"That's something you have to respect the man for," said Farrell of Cutcliffe. "He made Heath Shuler a great quarterback in college, he helped make Peyton Manning a legend and he worked with Eli Manning at Ole Miss. When he was at Notre Dame for that short stint I thought he was crazy for taking Demetrius Jones and Zach Frazer as his guys over some other top quarterbacks, but I bet if he had stayed and not had his health issues he would have made one them 10 times better than they became. That's just the knack he has, whether they are born to be great like Peyton or he's going to make them great like some others, he will have a top quarterback under center and an offense that fits him."

With a strong remaining nucleus currently in place, it will be important for Duke to keep the class together as Signing Day, 2016 approaches.

"Getting early commitments is easier these days, it's holding onto them -- especially if they are good -- that is tough," Farrell said. "But these kids he is getting are choosing Duke for reasons beyond football so that makes it easier. It will be harder to sway a kid who wants that Duke degree than it would be at other schools."

The situation with Duke this summer is similar to Kentucky's 2014 class, which at certain points during that summer had its class ranked in the top five nationally (No. 1 at one point), and finished off at No. 17.

However, also known as a basketball school first, the Wildcats had some closing issues in the 2015 recruiting cycle. Still, finishing at No. 17 was a monumental recruiting milestone for the Wildcats, an even tougher assignment because of the competitive nature of the SEC and a less-than-stellar home base.

"What Kentucky did that year was more impressive, especially coming off a horrible year," Farrell said. "But they did have the advantage of selling a vision, a vision that hasn't quite come true yet. The losing streak at the end of this past season hurt the 2015 class badly. Duke is winning, they are winning in an easier conference, and Cutcliffe isn't selling a vision. He's selling something he can show, as well as amazing academics.

"That being said, it will be very, very challenging for Duke to continue to recruit and win the way they have been recently. But that doesn't take away from the story and heck, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we are seeing an ACC power developing before our eyes. That would be pretty cool because I love to see the more academically inclined schools have success because the recruiting landscape is so uneven for them."

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