OPINION

By Tom Dienhart

updated 9:44 p.m. ET March 7, 2008

Tom Dienhart

At this exact nanosecond in time, it's better to be David Cutcliffe than it is to be the Duke football coach. It's not even close.

David Cutcliffe has a big reputation. He is a proven commodity who has won big and groomed some of the top talent in America as offensive coordinator at Tennessee and head coach at Ole Miss.

Duke football is a black hole that swallows up hopes, dreams and coaches. Duke football is a college football wannabe with no wanna.

Cutcliffe doesn't care. When I talked Friday morning with him, Cutcliffe was brimming as he waited at the airport for his two prized students to land: Peyton and Eli Manning.

It's a big weekend for Cutcliffe. He'll attend Saturday's North Carolina-Duke hoops game with the most famous quarterbacking brothers in the galaxy. Another former pupil, Heath Shuler, will be there, too.

"Oh, I'm excited," says Cutcliffe. "It's going to be fun being with those guys. I am proud of them and what they have done. And I also am excited about the possibilities here."

And that's what this is about. Possibilities. Because, really, that's all Cutcliffe has to sell right now. It buoys a member of college football royalty as he wades into a royal mess. It's all about making Duke more like David Cutcliffe.

You bet Cutcliffe knows the nation will peek in on the biggest sports spectacle of the weekend, the cameras surely panning to him at some point during the game to show the world the face of the man who is attempting the biggest resurrection job of any new BCS coach. What a recruiting tool: Come to Duke and play for the guy who helped mold the Manning Boys.

Many have tried to make Duke matter since Steve Spurrier left after leading the Blue Devils to the ACC title in 1989. And they all failed. Barry Wilson, Fred Goldsmtih, Carl Franks, Ted Roof. The bloody details of the 18 seasons A.S. (After Spurrier):

Record: 43-159-1
Bowl bids: one
Optimism: zero

Cutcliffe knows all of this. He also knows about the comprehensive study Duke did on its program, when it examined similar universities and compared them with the Blue Devils' program.

"What surprised me the most after looking at it?" says Cutcliffe. "The general apathy around the program. People seemed to accept an average effort and didn't respect the program.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures A golfing bear, collisions on the field, ramping up for the Games, and more more photos

"I respect all of those who coached here before me. They brought good things to the program. But we want to bring it all together."

But this is Duke. The excuses for failure are low-hanging fruit, ripe to be plucked by every Blue Devil coach coming off a humiliating loss to, say, Richmond.

• It's a basketball school.
• It's a bastion of ivy-covered academia with impossible entrance standards.
• It's Duke. C'mon.

"Like the movie 'Apollo 13,' failure isn't an option," says Cutcliffe. "We have to stop using the fact we're Duke as an excuse."

In addition to a flashy resume, Cutcliffe already is selling the fact Duke has started facility improvements that will see archaic Wallace Wade Stadium spruced up and an indoor practice facility constructed. And a makeover of the roster has been in the works for weeks.

"This was the worst-conditioned team I have seen in 32 years of football," says Cutcliffe. "But in the last seven weeks, we have lost 304.6 pounds. I haven't had anyone quit. We have been going hard during the week, but I give them the weekends off. There are good kids here."

And it's all right there for Cutcliffe, the possibility of turning around the worst BCS program in the nation.

"I hate saying we're 'trying' to turn around the program," says Cutcliffe. "I like saying we're 'going' to do it."

MORE FROM COLLEGE FOOTBALL

College football Section Front

Oklahoma tries to shake bowl meltdowns Oklahoma picks up offensive lineman let go by LSU Gators tight end Ingram out for season   Ohio U. lineman scores big in state lottery Ohio State football team suspends 2 players NCAA denies QB Mauk's final eligibility appeal College football cheerleaders from around the country NBCSports.com's Preseason Top 25 Vote: Who should be ranked No. 1? Heisman Hopefuls: Top contenders to win prize College football Section Front   Add College football headlines to your news reader: