Here are three guys who could replace David Cutcliffe as Duke’s head football coach
The job David Cutcliffe did taking Duke football to heights previously considered unattainable means the school will aim higher for its next coach than it has in a generation.
Cutcliffe had been a head coach at Mississippi but came to Duke in 2007 after two years as a Tennessee assistant coach. After he departed on Sunday, following three consecutive losing seasons including a winless ACC mark this season, Duke’s search for his successor will aim to land a current head coach.
The two coaches Duke hired prior to Cutcliffe, Ted Roof and Carl Franks, were assistant coaches when they took over the Blue Devils. Franks arrived in December 1998 from Florida, where he was offensive coordinator, while Roof was elevated from defensive coordinator when Duke fired Franks in 2003.
The last sitting head coach to leave his job for Duke was Fred Goldsmith, who was head coach at Rice before Duke hired him in December 1993.
But that, with one exception for local ties, is where this search begins, according to sources with knowledge of the school’s plans.
Duke athletics director Nina King and associate athletics director Art Chase, who oversees the football program, will lead the search. Duke will hire Parker Executive Search to assist in the effort.
With the early signing day set for Dec. 15, Duke aims to have its new coach in place so he can secure recruits by that day.
Among the sitting head coaches of interest to the Blue Devils are East Carolina’s Mike Houston and Army’s Jeff Monken, who both have patterns of success at schools with tough academic requirements like would be faced at Duke.
Houston won three South Atlantic Conference championships at Lenoir-Rhyne, the private Division II school in Hickory, before coaching at The Citadel in 2014-15. After winning an NCAA championship at James Madison in 2016, Houston is in his third season at East Carolina. The Pirates are 7-5 and will play in the Military Bowl, the program’s first postseason game since 2014.
His salary in Greenville is around $1.5 million. Duke can offer him a significantly higher wage as Cutcliffe made $2.6 million.
Monken coaches intelligent, disciplined players at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. He’s done it successfully, too. The bowl-bound Black Knights are 8-3 with only the Army-Navy game remaining in their regular season.
Monken is an impressive 57-42 since taking over the Army program for the 2014 season and has had his contract extended twice. His salary, in the neighborhood $1 million, makes it comfortable for Duke to provide him a nice salary bump.
One coach who isn’t currently working as a head coach who will be involved in the search in one way or another is Scottie Montgomery, the former Duke player who had stints as an assistant coach for the Blue Devils (2006-09 and 2013-15).
Montgomery, the Indianapolis Colts’ running backs coach, left Duke in December 2015 to become East Carolina’s head coach. His tenure in Greenville went poorly, though, as the Pirates were 9-26 before he was fired in 2018.
He was Maryland’s offensive coordinator for two seasons before returning to the NFL, where he’d previously worked with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Just 43 years old, Montgomery is still young in the coaching profession with a wealth of experience that could make him a head coaching candidate again.
Cutcliffe and Duke parted ways Sunday after the Blue Devils went 3-9, including an 0-8 ACC record, this season. He won 77 games in his 14 seasons with the Blue Devils.
This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Here are three guys who could replace David Cutcliffe as Duke’s head football coach."