Who Is Duke Beating--and Losing to--in Recruiting?

Our deep dive into David Cutcliffe's recruiting continues

In part one, on National Signing Day, we looked at how David Cutcliffe’s most recent recruiting class compares to previous years. The 2021 signees had fewer offers and fewer Power Five offers than the previous two years, continuing a three-year cycle of decrease.

We also looked at David Cutcliffe’s recruiting Win-Loss record (prospects signed with offers from other schools or signed elsewhere over a Duke offer), which has also declined steadily.

Today, we take a look at how Duke did against traditional rivals and who the Blue Devils are beating, and losing to, on the recruiting trail.

First, the good news: Duke has a winning record against in-state ACC rival Wake Forest. David Cutcliffe signed six prospects who also had a Wake offer and offered only two who chose Wake instead.

At 6-2, for a .750 winning percentage, Wake Forest is one of the 11 Power Five opponents that Cutcliffe has managed a winning record against.

The rest of the group includes

Arizona State, 3-0, 1.000

Syracuse, 3-2, .600

Illinois, 3-2, .600

Colorado, 2-0, 1.000

Nebraska, 2-1, .667

Indiana, 2-1, .667

Arizona, 1-0, 1.000

Washington State, 1-0, 1.000

Kansas State, 1-0, 1.000

Purdue, 1-0, 1.000

By comparison, there were 26 Power Five teams against whom Duke was winless this recruiting cycle: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State and Rutgers in the Big 10, Texas Tech and Texas in the Big 12, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Georgia, Alabama, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, Auburn and LSU in the SEC, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, USC and Oregon State in the Pac 12, and Clemson, Notre Dame, UNC, Georgia Tech and Florida State in the ACC.

David Cutcliffe offered a total of 115 prospects that instead chose one of those 26 schools. No one who had an offer from those 26 schools chose Duke instead.

Duke’s records against its other North Carolina rivals is bleak indeed:

North Carolina 0-13

NC State 1-7

Against the traditional Duke non-conference rivals (small, elite, private schools), things weren’t much better:

Notre Dame 0-11

Stanford 0-9

Northwestern 2-4

Vanderbilt 2-2

Here’s a look at the schools Duke beat the most for 2021 recruits (ranked by total wins). Note that Wake Forest is the only Power Five team Duke beat more than three times.

And here are the teams Duke lost to the most (ranked by total losses).