Three essential coaches to Duke football history will be at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday night as the Blue Devils try to upset a ranked SMU team.
The team announced on Thursday that Steve Spurrier, David Cutcliffe, and Fred Goldsmith would all be in Durham this weekend as Duke honors the 1989, 1994, and 2014 teams for their 35th, 30th, and 10th anniversaries.
Spurrier, who eventually left Duke to become a national champion with the Florida Gators, only spent three seasons as the coach. He won 20 of his 34 games (and tied another), peaking with an eight-win 1989 season in his last year on the job.
Goldsmith, the last Duke football coach to win his first five games before Manny Diaz did so this season, won his first six games when he took over the program in 1994. He ended that season with an 8-4 record and coached the Blue Devils until 1998.
Cutcliffe spent 174 games on the sidelines in Durham, the most of any coach in program history. He finished with six bowl appearances in 14 seasons and ended his tenure with a 77-97 record, but a 5-18 mark over his final two seasons dampened his body of work.
The Blue Devils finished the 2014 season with a 9-4 record, part of a 2013-18 stretch that included five seven-win seasons.
Three Duke legends will be in attendance this weekend 😈 pic.twitter.com/SgdsrcCsI5
— Duke Football (@DukeFOOTBALL) October 24, 2024
With six wins already to his credit for the 2024 season, Diaz has five games left to make his first season as iconic as the ones mentioned above. A ranked win over SMU would be a great starting point.