By Jimmy Hyams
Duke coach David Cutcliffe has faced his share of outstanding defensive minds during a stellar 35-year career as a college coach.
As offensive coordinator at Tennessee, he faced top defenses from Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, LSU and Florida.
As Duke’s head coach, he’s gone against such stalwarts as Clemson and Florida State and Notre Dame.
And when Duke made an appearance in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game in 2013, he faced another terrific defense at FSU. Only this one was spearheaded by the man who would eventually become Tennessee’s head coach, Jeremy Pruitt.
Pruitt was defensive coordinator for Jimbo Fisher, whose Seminoles would win the national championship that season. And FSU had little trouble disposing of Duke, 45-7, holding the Blue Devils to 239 total yards.
“I thought he was just absolutely outstanding,’’ Cutcliffe said of Pruitt in the ACC title game. “Schematically, he put you in a lot of binds.’’
Usually when Cutcliffe finds his offense in a bind, he figures out a way to move the ball. Not against FSU.
Cutcliffe said Pruitt benefited from spending a lot of time around Alabama coach Nick Saban.
Before last year’s national title game between Alabama and Georgia, Cutcliffe did a coach’s film room study for ESPN, so he evaluated both teams closely. He came away impressed with Pruitt.
“I thought he had that defense playing extremely hard,’’ said Cutcliffe, who spoke recently at Tennessee’s football clinic.
Alabama lost several key linebackers during the season, yet still ranked among the nation’s top defenses.
“Sometimes you can tell more about a coach then (when he has injuries) and I thought that defense played at a high level even when they lost some of their best players,’’ Cutcliffe said.
“At the end of the day, the bottom line is, that defense got stops when that great Georgia defense couldn’t, and that was a big part of (Alabama) winning the national championship.’’
While Cutcliffe said he doesn’t know Pruitt well, he has seen Pruitt out “hustling’’ on the recruiting trail.
“You know a head coach better be out on the road and be in the right places, and I bumped into him four or five times, so I hope we were both in the right places,’’ Cutcliffe said.
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