David Cutcliffe out as head coach at Duke

The David Cutcliffe era in Durham, NC, is over.

Duke has parted ways with the veteran head coach, per Steve Wiseman of the Charlotte News & Observer. He spent 14 seasons as the head man of the Blue Devils, posting a 77-97 record throughout his entire tenure there. He won the first bowl game for the Blue Devils since 1961, and appeared in six bowl games while winning three of them. The 2013 National Coach of The Year, Duke finished that season ranked 23rd in the AP Poll.

Associate head coach and recruiting legend Trooper Taylor will serve as interim head coach during the search.

Cutcliffe took over a moribund program that had cratered under Ted Roof and made them a respectable. After four years of building, he took the team to the Belk Bowl in 2012 and followed that up by taking the Blue Devils to their lone ACC Championship Game appearance in 2013. He’d take them to four more bowl games over the next five years but the program has since fallen off over the past three seasons. It ended with this year’s 3-9 mark that included an 0-8 record in conference. It was the first winless season in the league since Steve Spurrier’s first year in Durham.

We’ll see who Duke tries to target in a coaching carousel that has spun out of control. There’s plenty of up-and-coming coaching candidates at nearby programs in the Carolinas, including Jamey Chadwell at Coastal Carolina, Will Healy at Charlotte, and Shawn Clark at Appalachian State.