Cutcliffe's Duke Salary to Be $1.5 Million

By Dane Huffman and Dave Nathan

Duke will pay new football coach David Cutcliffe an annual salary expected to average $1.5 million, WRAL has confirmed.

Cutcliffe, the former head coach at Mississippi, has been the offensive coordinator at Tennessee.

Cutcliffe made $340,000 as a coordinator in Tennessee. His Duke salary continues the rapid rise in salaries in college football and the ACC. North Carolina coach Butch Davis recently received a $291,000 raise from his total compensation of $1.86 million. N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien makes $1.1 million annually, plus incentives.

Duke is a private school and does not have to release salary information like public institutions. But the Blue Devils have insisted they are looking to be competitive in football after years of struggling, and are willing to spend money to make that happen.

Duke initially pursued Navy coach Paul Johnson, who considered the Blue Devils but elected to go to Georgia Tech. The Blue Devils also discussed the position with Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson, former UCLA coach Karl Dorrell, Grambling State coach Rod Broadway and Atlanta Falcons assistant Hue Jackson.

But Cutcliffe, 53, rocketed to the top of Duke's list after his interview on Wednesday. He is known as an excellent offensive coach and has drawn praise at Tennessee for his leadership abilities, something that will be critical for the next Duke coach.

He also has head coaching experience, which Duke athletics director Joe Alleva had said was critical. Alleva's two previous hires, Roof and Carl Franks, were former assistants.

Cutcliffe was 44-29 at Ole Miss, with quarterback Eli Manning as his star player.

Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer had high praise for Cutcliffe.

“David is an outstanding football coach and outstanding man,” Fulmer said. “He’s got great character and integrity. His experience as a quarterback coach and coordinator is very proven. And also his experience and results at Ole Miss were very productive."

Tennessee receiver Josh Briscoe called Cutcliffe "a demanding coach" who expects to score 30 points every game.

“When you don’t do that, he lets us know he’s going to fix whatever problem that we have,” Briscoe said. “He lets us know that we didn’t go out and execute and the reasons why we didn’t.”

Briscoe called Cutcliffe “a very emotional guy” and said, “Whether it's a practice or just a walk-through, he’ll let you know exactly how he feels and what he expects.”