Now that the season is mercifully over, it's time to update my year-by-year rankings of the Cutcliffe era. Hint: Scroll all the way to the bottom to find 2020's entry!
1. 2013 - 10-4/6-2 - the magical, breakthrough season culminating in a Coastal title. Only wish we'd held on against A&M and Manziel in the Chicken Bowl.
2. 2014 - 9-4/5-3 - another mostly enjoyable year. Raced out to an 8-1 start, but choked to VT and got blasted by UNC in November. Should've repeated as Coastal champs.
3. 2012 - 6-7/3-5 - The UNC win was epic, and it was awesome to snap the 18 year Bowl drought. Losing 5 in a row, including the horrific Belk Bowl collapse sucked, but it was clear the program was on the rise.
4. 2015 - 8-5/4-4 - Year started out well, but the Miami lateral debacle killed it and arguably the Cutcliffe era as a whole. Ranked fourth for snapping the 55 year bowl win drought, and achieving a .500 ACC finish.
5. 2018 - 8-5/3-5 - Came into the year with hopes of competing for the Coastal with a veteran team, but injuries and poor coaching dashed those. Winning @ Northwestern and Baylor b2b was nice, but the horror of 59-7 vs Wake still lingers.
6. 2009 - 5-7/3-5 - I'll always have a soft spot for Thad's senior team. Loss to Richmond sucked and we faded down the stretch, but it was a solid season. I'll never forget thrashing State in Raleigh.
7. 2017 - 7-6/3-5 - Started 4-0, including a destruction of a 10-win Northwestern and a victory @ UNC, but the 6-game losing streak filled with lifeless play was brutal. At least we rallied to make a bowl, I guess.
8. 2008 - 4-8/1-7 - Cut put a respectable product on the field for the first time since the early 1990s in his first season in Durham. Won @ Vanderbilt and snapped a 25+ game ACC losing streak.
9. 2016 - 4-8/1-7 - Wins @ Notre Dame and vs top 15 UNC were memorable, but this was a rough year, and signaled the end of Cut's peak at Duke.
10. 2019 - 5-7/3-5 - Smacking VT in Blacksburg was amazing, but the choke to Pitt and the halfback pass disaster against UNC destroyed the season. Lots of miserable blowouts too, including 49-6 vs dreadful Syracuse.
11. 2010 - 3-9/1-7 - Completely forgettable season.
12. 2011 - 3-9/1-7 - Ditto. I remember having serious doubts about Cutcliffe by this year.
13. 2020 - 2-9/1-9 - Roof-esque season that was a total dumpster fire from start to finish. Easily the worst year of Cut's tenure, and hopefully the last. Destroyed in every game save the two we won, including embarrassing defeats to awful GT and FSU teams, 56-24 to Mack, and 48-0 to Miami. Coughed the ball up a staggering 39 times.