David Cutcliffe doesn't talk like he's roaming the sidelines at Duke. Sure, he wears the blue and the white and occasionally the black, but his statements at the Atlantic Coast Conference Football Kickoff last week didn't sound anything like the head football coach of the Blue Devils.
"I believe we will be a bowl team. I believe we are a bowl team. I believe we are capable of being that," said Cutcliffe, who's in his second year.
Bowl games aren't something Duke is used to. It hasn't made the postseason since 1994 and has only two appearances since 1960.
There was success under current South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, who won 60 percent of his games and an ACC title from 1987-89.
Since then, however, the Blue Devils are 47-167 under five head coaches, including Cutcliffe.
Usually, Blue Devil Nation starts the countdown for hoops season about the time school starts back in August.
So, is Cutcliffe's optimism absurd?
Believe it or not, I actually believe the guy.
For starters, he began by churning out winning quarterbacks like Peyton Manning as an assistant and coordinator at Tennessee.
Cutcliffe moved on to Ole Miss where he coached Eli Manning and won 10 games there in 2003. After a 4-7 record the following season -- without the younger Manning -- the Rebels decided to cut ties with Cutcliffe based on a difference in philosophy.
It was a big mistake by Ole Miss as the program just got back to respectability last year under coach Houston Nutt.
You see, Cutcliffe is a fantastic coach -- the best Duke has had since Spurrier.
In his first season, the team won four games, the same amount of victories it had from 2004-07.
The team improved greatly on offense and put up decent numbers on defense. And after Cutcliffe said last year his team didn't look like an FBS team based on conditioning, he applauded the shape of his players last week.
Now, with his second strong recruiting class, it's starting to look like the Blue Devils aren't nearly as far off as before.
Wake Forest, known for years as Duke's companion at the bottom, won an ACC title under Jim Grobe in 2006 and remains competitive. The league, while improving, doesn't have any truly dominant teams.
And somehow, Cutcliffe has already turned around the image of the program with the most important people: his players.
Defensive tackle Vince Oghobaase said last week that being a Duke football player is now "cool."
"I know exactly what he means, and he is absolutely right," Cutcliffe said. "It is cool to be a Duke football player."
And maybe best of all for the Blue Devil program, I don't think Cutcliffe is using Durham as a stepping stone for a bigger job. He's really sold on winning at Duke.
"Every hurdle gets a little higher on this race, but that's exciting to me," Cutcliffe said. "I have always viewed those things, the bigger the hill, the more fun you have in accomplishing those things."
(Contact Brad Senkiw of the Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., at senkiwb(at)independentmail.com.)
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