Duke's David Cutcliffe on How Crazy Football Season Could Get

Running out of players, midweek schedule changes, all on the table

The ACC is going forward in its attempt to play football in the fall. In addition to normal injury woes, teams will face opt outs over concern with COVID-19—Duke has already had four in the preseason. There’s also the possibility of positive tests or possible exposure to the virus rendering players unavailable. It raises the question of just how many players does a football team need in order to safely play a game.

“We’ve talked about it a lot,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “From the standpoint in our board meetings as trustees, we’ve talked about it within the ACC. There’s no magic number. You can get close. You’ve got to have eight offensive linemen. You can also look at some potential two-way players, but that’s got to be done safely.”

Especially in road games, where traveling parties will be limited, to try to reduce potential exposure vectors, numbers could be a concern.

“Eight offensive linemen is the number for me,” Cutcliffe reiterated. “You need 47, 48—two-deep on both sides of the ball, plus specialists—place kicker, punter. Practicing, you really focus on the entire team, because you could get short. We don’t know who we’re going to necessarily play with.”

As crazy as the idea of running out of players may seem, there are crazier scenarios being discussed.

“One of the unique stories,” Cutcliffe said, “when you’re doing COVID testing. You’re practicing for an opponent. Then all of a sudden, the opponent you’re going to play has to opt out of that week. Suddenly, you’re finding yourself, Thursday, Friday maybe, playing someone else. We’ve given that some thought as we ‘ve gone through, as to how we’re appropriately putting our offense and defense together—strategy, Xs and Os as well as the kicking game. From a coaching standpoint, the strategy is uniquely challenging. We’re trying to give it little bit of a unique perspective. We want our young people to believe they matter anyway, but certainly, everybody matters right now—their progress and development is important to our program.”