DUKE RECRUITS TENNESSEE FANS

Duke football coach sells season tickets in Tennessee.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Don't laugh. First-year Duke football coach David Cutcliffe is signing up football season-ticket holders in Knoxville, Tenn.

Cutcliffe recruited 22 fans to buy season tickets during a May 22 visit to his old hometown.

Was the former Tennessee assistant trying to turn orange Volunteers fans into Blue Devils? "Absolutely," a confident Cutcliffe said. "Is that awesome? Isn't that great? We're going to set a record for season ticket sales. If you don't get on this year, you're really going to be out of luck next year."

Cutcliffe has crisscrossed the region on a Duke athletics tour to sell Duke football to jaded Duke boosters and curious non-Duke fans eager to meet the coach who shaped Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning in college. Duke last had a winning season in 1994.

Cutcliffe pitched the four-ticket family pack -- seven Duke home games for $199 -- as "cheaper than going to the movies." It's going over big. Sales picked up after each speech. Duke also sold 52 more season tickets to event-goers in Charlotte, 58 in Atlanta, 44 in Greensboro, N.C. and 65 in Wilmington, N.C.

courtesy: The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.