As expected, the resurrection of the Duke football program has landed David Cutcliffe the first of what should be multiple postseason honors.
Late Thursday morning, the Walter Camp Foundation announced that Cutcliffe has been named as its 2013 Coach of the Year. Cutcliffe is the first Duke head coach to be accorded Camp honors since the award was first handed out in 1967, and the first ACC coach since Maryland’s Ralph Friedgen in 2001.
In his sixth season with the football program, Cutcliffe and his Blue Devils set a school record for wins in a season with 10 and earned its first-ever Coastal division title. Duke will face top-ranked Florida State in the conference championship game Saturday, and will play in a bowl game in back-to-back seasons for the first time in the program’s 92-year history.
In the six years with Cutcliffe on the sidelines, the Blue Devils have won 31 games; in the 15 seasons prior to Cutcliffe’s arrival and dating back to 1993, Duke won a combined 33 games. Eight of those wins came in 1994.
Cutcliffe, along with Auburn’s Gus Malzahn and Missouri’s Gary Pinkel, were named finalists for the Maxwell Award Coach of the Year.