Any college team with famous football alums can use those great players to their advantage in recruiting, but Duke coach David Cutcliffe can call on a couple of high-profile quarterbacks who played their college ball elsewhere when he tries to reel in a prospect.
Yes, it sure can't hurt Cutcliffe's case with recruits when he mentions Peyton Manning and Eli Manning come to Duke to work out with Cutcliffe each year.
"They're our advantage," Cutcliffe said Tuesday at the ACC Football Kickoff event, per ESPN.
The bond between Cutcliffe and the Mannings goes back to the college days for each, as Cutcliffe was Peyton's offensive coordinator at Tennessee and Eli's head coach at Ole Miss. Receivers from the Denver Broncos and New York Giants joined Peyton and Eli for workouts at Duke this spring.
"What's great is for our players, they see this work ethic, see not only Peyton and Eli, but the receivers and how they're running routes, and they just soak it all up," Cutcliffe said. "It's fun for me, but it's meaningful for our team."
And for recruits that might one day join that team, too.
Here are four other things we learned from the ACC Football Kickoff event:
2. Fisher under fire: The coach surely looking forward to the ACC Football Kickoff event the least was Florida State's Jimbo Fisher, who reportedly spent around 20 minutes fielding questions about the program's recent disciplinary issues. He talked plenty about the steps Florida State is taking to better educate its players about behavioral standards, but perhaps the most interesting comment he made was that he has not considered dismissing star running back Dalvin Cook, who has been accused of punching a woman outside a bar, from the team. At least, not yet. Cook is expected to be a centerpiece of FSU's post-Jameis Winston offense this fall, and Cook's attorney has said his client did not strike the accuser.
3. Boyd is back. New Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi said wide receiver Tyler Boyd, one of the nation's elite players at the position, was suspended from the team for a month following a June arrest for DUI, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Boyd has since been reinstated to the team, but that doesn't necessarily mean he won't face in-season discipline over the incident. "I told him there will still be choices I've got to make as far as what we'll do," Narduzzi said. "That'll be determined. It'll be a family issue and we'll deal with it internally." The Panthers' first two opponents this season are Youngstown State and Akron.
4. Two-way star. Florida State defensive back Jalen Ramsey is entering his junior year as one of the nation's top underclassmen and is thus approaching a decision this winter of whether to return to Florida State or apply for entry into the NFL draft. But for Ramsey, there is a third prong to the decision: the Olympics. Ramsey reiterated he has no intention of giving up track to focus on football, no matter what his draft status might eventually indicate.
5. Calling on the Cowboys. Miami coach Al Golden revamped a number of things about his program this offseason following a 6-7 season capped by four consecutive losses. Among Golden's actions was a trip to Texas to meet with the Dallas Cowboys' coaching staff.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
