DURHAM, N.C. - Don't laugh. First-year Duke football coach David Cutcliffe is signing up football season-ticket holders in Knoxville.
Cutcliffe recruited 22 fans to buy season tickets during a May 22 visit to his old hometown.
Was the former Tennessee offensive coordinator trying to turn orange Vols fans into Blue Devils?
"Absolutely," a confident Cutcliffe said. "Is that awesome? Isn't that great? We're going to set a record for season ticket sales. If you don't get on this year, you're really going to be out of luck next year."
Cutcliffe has crisscrossed the region on a Duke athletics tour to sell Duke football to jaded Duke boosters and curious non-Duke fans eager to meet the coach who shaped Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning in college. Duke last had a winning season in 1994.
Cutcliffe pitched the four-ticket family pack - seven Duke home games for $199 - as "cheaper than going to the movies."
It's going over big. Sales picked up after each speech. Duke also sold 52 more season tickets to event-goers in Charlotte, 58 in Atlanta, 44 in Greensboro, N.C. and 65 in Wilmington, N.C.
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Comments » 32
smokedoctor writes:
Yaaaawwn. Whoopdedoo. Who cares? Cutcliffe ain't orange no more.
ncvol writes:
Sounds as if he is doing pretty good at ticket sales. We know he was a good coach. He maybe able to turn their football program around. It worked for Pearl and the UT men's basketball program.Go Vols!
rusty_shackleford writes:
I don't care if Mike Ditka coached the Dookies, I wouldn't pay for tickets. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't go see those over indulged jerks if you paid me $199.
invisiblekid writes:
So Cutcliffe has sold (by my count) 241 season tickets and they have set a record for season tickets sales? That's cute, kind of like the kids setting up a lemonade stand in the summer.
LadyVolsEighTimes writes:
$7.11 a game. High School tickets cost more than that here. That great Duke Education does help grads get great jobs, Coach Cut better start working the Alum for donations.
UT makes more off parking at Lady Vols games.
bluetickhound writes:
This will not turn out well. It's like watching a trainwreck- you just can't turn away. He'll be lucky to win 2 games next year.
bigtimevol writes:
ENOUGH about coaches, players, stadiums, favorite recipes, etc, etc not involved with Tennessee! Cutcliffe has now left us twice...don't fault him, but I don't care to see articles about him every week.
Can't dig up some "feel good" story about UT coaches or player? Can't put some creativity into it...always waiting for "news" like this to come to you?
TommyJack writes:
Look for stadium expansion at Dook.
eb502us#225637 writes:
Season tickets to watch what? A dink and dunk offense that can put even the most fanatical fan to sleep. What is it with the KNS's fascination with ex-coaches? How come they're still not writing about Rodney Gardner and a slew of others. These guys at least new something about coaching unlike Buzz and Cutcliffe. Enough is enough.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
The savior of Orange has become the savior of the Dook Blue Devils.
Nice touch to the season ticket package is the clause - "If you're late, we'll hold kick-off for up to 37 minutes".
Nice move, PT Cutcliff.
bebecerveza writes:
Can we cut ties with this guy already? You think he wouldn't stab us in the back if it ment getting his team better i.e. Renfroe(I belive that's his last name).
Good luck enjoying last place in the crappy ACC conference. Don't worry David basketball is right around the corner.
bobbarbilly writes:
I always felt that Coach Cut's strength was as a quarterback's coach with the potential to be a good head coach when cast in the right surroundings but that he was lacking as an offensive coordinator.
A pass to the flat, two clouds of dust up the middle and let the punter put a hurtin' on the other team.
nicksjuzunk#646117 writes:
Sounds like Cut is workin it hard. Good job. Dang cheap tickets too... still not sure if it's worth it though.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
We did play Duke when Spurrier was there, I believe....
vol_in_lsu_land writes:
You know, I for one don't mind reading a little about Cutcliffe and his activities at Duke. He spent a lot of time at the University of Tennessee and I do not blame him for pursuing another HC opportunity. It's called a CAREER MOVE and he deserves a shot at rejuvenating Duke. I don't expect miracles, but I wouldn't be surprised if they make it to a bowl game in 3/4 years. And please don't characterize Cut's offense as being only "dink and dunk". Ainge was playing with injuries last year and that was the choice he had to make. Maybe he didn't feel Crompton was ready and he didn't want to ruin Ainge's chances at the NFL.
At any rate, his offense helped get us to the SECCG and a big bowl victory and I'm sure it will bring Duke out of the deepest corner of the cellar to at least the cellar door.
PureOrange writes:
Now just why is it that we care one little bit about what Cutcliff is doing at Duke? He was boring as a coach here, so why would we expect him to be exciting there? But either way, it comes back to, why should we care?
Please use this space to tell us about what is going on at Tennessee. Duke, and all the others, can have their own sites, but this one is what people who bleed orange cares about.
SFOrange writes:
I wish Duke well. If Cutcliff can get 25,000 fans in Wallace Wade Stadium it will be an improvement. Optimism is warranted for that down-trodden program.
khelton657 writes:
I;m glad he is doing well and it wil be a good sign for the Tennessee program if a Vol can bring some success to his next school....our coaches are not particularly sought after and that is not good. Tks, Coach Cut, hope you kick some butt and hope to be able to read about it.
alfrizzle097 writes:
Cut seems liek a pretty good guy and is a good coach. He was the oc during the '90s, and I believe I remember a DVD called a decade of dominance. He had as much success at Ole Miss as anybody in recent years. UT averaged over 30 points a game last season and made it to the SEC championship. I really don't think the criticism is warranted. He spent an extensive amount of time at UT. He made it clear that his career goal was to be a head coach. When he came back after the Notre Dame thing, I never got the impression he would be staying if a better offer came along.
In short:
He did nothing but help UT football and DID NOT betray it by leaving again. He is a man of character and I am interested in hearing if he has success.
ThurmondEppy writes:
I wish Cut the best, I really do. But gosh darn dang it, I am more than a bit tired of these articles on other schools, players and coaches.
TommyJack writes:
Thurmond Eppy, Esq. Gosh, darn, dang it?
BigOrangeVol writes:
A major expansion at Wallace Wade Stadium would be adding an extra dozen fold-out chairs under the scoreboard in the south endzone. At 34K they are even smaller than The Dud at VU and just a tad bigger than Floyd Stadium at MTSU!
Cut did hire Marion Hobby as his DC and DL coach though.
I guess somehow everyone forgot how BADLY we all wanted Cut back after a couple of years with Randy as OC and that EVERY team offensive record that is standing at UT was accomplished during Cut's years as OC; QB; OL or TE coach.
volboy81#211803 writes:
4 TICKETS TO 7 GAMES FOR $199!?!?!?
.......A WHOPPING $7.11/GAME...YEE HAW!
I bet they get what they pay for!
FishTacos writes:
Who cares about Cutcliffe and Puke?? Remember Cutcliffe is just a chip off ol' Foolmers block. Stay in North Carolina Cutcliffe and take Foolmer with you. Maybe he could buy some season tickets and help you guys "work like heck" to get better and maybe win a game next year??
pdhuff#552644 writes:
Wonder what the Vegas odds would be on ol' Cutcliff holding the Grail at Dook?
pdhuff#552644 writes:
TT- what kind of stick would you bring to a Lacrosse party?
shoalcreekvol writes:
Sounds like someone is following the playbook of the Right Reverend Pearl: Build excitement and sell season tickets BEFORE you build the team into a winner. In today's world you don't have time to build a winner and hope the fans will follow...
DannyVol writes:
TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS.
Ralph_Crampton writes:
Does anyone know if Coach Chavis has ever been offered another job by any other team? I recall, Chavis back in 1995 on a sports show saying, " we are going to get back to playing defense the way the Vols played years ago, that is, pressure the QB, ballhawk, pick-up fumbles, win some games on defense. Since then, does anyone recall, if the Vols have ever done any thing like that on defense...I don't mean on one or two occasions..but with some consistancy? Although Fulmer has been outstanding as an overall recruiter, it just seems as if we don't get defensive players like we did when Dickey was head coach..and we haven't for years. Defensive players are the backbone of a sound football team.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
bigfan502- 1:55- heresy sir, I tell you heresy. DTs are not important in the overall scheme of the current thinking.
You will be pillored and posted for suggesting we need changes. 1995, hmmmm, about right for suggestions for the family.
Thinking about giving a raise to a CEO who lost by nearly 40 to our chief rival in the SEC East.
That's the kind of forward thinking we need to become a force in the BCS.
Just a handyman's opinion......
DadwasaVol writes:
I sat with a veteran high school football coach at a wedding last weekend in North Carolina. I asked him which major college head coaches he had relationships with over the years. He knows many of them. And without my asking, he offered that David Cutcliffe is the most brilliant football coaching mind he ever came into contact with.
Colliervol writes:
So Cut still has 22 friends in Knoxville that he strong-armed into buying season tickets. Dog bites man. Film at 11.
Must have been another slow news day. Where's the monthly Johnny Majors article?
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