09 verbal Lex Butler talks rehab and Duke Football

[watzone]

Lex Butler sustained an unfortunate Accilles tendon rupture this season. He of course is the brother of current Duke freshman Lee Butler. It was good to see that Cut and company eased his mind when he thought he might have to go a dfferent road.

http://bluedevilnation.net/?p=1056

[CameronBornAndBred]

Nice to read about Duke's response to this. One positive is that the injury came so early in his season, that he should be well on his way to being fully rehabilitated by the time he puts on a Duke uniform. He also will most likely redshirt anyways, so that's 2 years until full game action.

[footballfan2]

i too like Duke's response. But it raises the question.... what if he never fully recovers. Should Duke continue to give up one of the 85 scholarships, advise him to find other financial means, or just tell him to pack his bags?

Back in the day... it didn't matter. But with scholarship limitations, every scholarship matters now. He would be taking up someone elses spot. And if Duke wants to join the "big leagues".... Cause you know Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel would tell him to start looking elsewhere.

[Acymetric]

i too like Duke's response. But it raises the question.... what if he never fully recovers. Should Duke continue to give up one of the 85 scholarships, advise him to find other financial means, or just tell him to pack his bags?

Back in the day... it didn't matter. But with scholarship limitations, every scholarship matters now. He would be taking up someone elses spot. And if Duke wants to join the "big leagues".... Cause you know Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel would tell him to start looking elsewhere.

But what if we lose him and it turns out he not only recovers, but becomes quite a player? We won't know how well he recovers pretty much until next season starts. Plus, and I see this as the bigger issue, sticking with him will show that we honor commitments to recruits which can only help recruiting.

Oh, and his brother already plays for the team, so I would think we would want to try and avoid anything that might strain the relationship with the family. They've already said the scholly stays, and I think its definitely the right call.

[Bob Green]

...And if Duke wants to join the "big leagues".... Cause you know Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel would tell him to start looking elsewhere.

It's called class and it separates Duke from other programs.

[footballfan2]

It's called class and it separates Duke from other programs.

lol. honestly that's a PC answer in my opinion. It has nothing to do with "class", and the only thing it really separated us from was being a winning team. A sports scholarship is based solely on you being an athlete. If you're no longer an "athlete" do you deserve a scholarship? Why... when another person is out there wanting that spot? We all know that scholarships are not "four-year rides". In fact they are renewed each year.

Overall its an interesting question. I think Cutcliffe is doing the right thing. In addition, with modern medicine, the kid should make a good recovery. But my question is: what if he doesn't. Almost all programs release kids each year... except for maybe Duke in the past. Well if we all want Duke to be competitive, Duke has to do two things:

1) Recruit from the same pool as other schools. I've been told this is already in place. Duke no longer has higher academic admission standards.

2) Getting rid of "deadwood" each year. Usually 3-5 kids each year are "asked" to leave. Of course this would hurt our graduation rate.

[Bob Green]

lol. honestly that's a PC answer in my opinion.

I don't know you and you don't know me, but if you did know me you would never refer to me as PC. My friends refer to me as obnoxious and my "not friends" refer to me as an A-Hole. Sorry, but I'm not being PC, a program with class doesn't drop a recruit because of an injury.

[footballfan2]

I don't know you and you don't know me, but if you did know me you would never refer to me as PC. My friends refer to me as obnoxious and my "not friends" refer to me as an A-Hole. Sorry, but I'm not being PC, a program with class doesn't drop a recruit because of an injury.

So for example, if a freshman has a career ending injury, you'd expect them to keep him all four/five years. Now maybe if the injury occured while he was playing the game, but what if happened before he even got to college or during some freak car accident?

Sorry but I just don't think the school should use a scholarship on him. Now maybe they help him get financial aid or make give him a GA position or help him transfer to another school. A scholarship is a year to year thing. We don't demand that all our players stay for four/five years... why should they expect a "free-ride" for four/five years?

[Indoor66]

Sorry but I just don't think the school should use a scholarship on him. Now maybe they help him get financial aid or make give him a GA position or help him transfer to another school. A scholarship is a year to year thing. We don't demand that all our players stay for four/five years... why should they expect a "free-ride" for four/five years?

Maybe we should because we are the adults in the equation. :)

[watzone]

So for example, if a freshman has a career ending injury, you'd expect them to keep him all four/five years. Now maybe if the injury occured while he was playing the game, but what if happened before he even got to college or during some freak car accident?

Sorry but I just don't think the school should use a scholarship on him. Now maybe they help him get financial aid or make give him a GA position or help him transfer to another school. A scholarship is a year to year thing. We don't demand that all our players stay for four/five years... why should they expect a "free-ride" for four/five years?

I currently see a single prospect in this position at Duke. He can and should come back from this injury.

[Uncle Drew]

Now I will say IMO players in the two major college sports often seem to have me first attitude. So often their goal is playing inthe NFL or NBA and most of us believe when a player inks with Duke they owe Duke a little something called loyalty. Sure you have players that enter the draft early, and often times it seems we never got to see the real player they would become in a Duke uniform.

Bur let's say hypothetically they dropped this kid, who for all we know will be as good (perhaps better after the injury a la Brian Zoubek) as advertised. If you don't think other potential recruits would hear about that and other coaches would use it against Duke you're crazy. Sure Duke is disappointed the kid got injured just like the player himself is bummed. But at a time when Duke football is trying to build a reputation as a school where players want to come, the last thing they should do is kick a player to the curb.

As far as getting rid of deadwood EACH YEAR because some players didn't pan out like coaches and fans wanted......wow that sets a really great standard. It was infered that Coach Doh ran off some UNC players to open up scholorships for more tallented recruits and a ton of us on here blasted him for it. But it's okay for a Duke coach to potentially do the same thing? Now if a player decides they aren't Div I material and transfers that's one thing. If I ever hear player X was urged to get lost to open a scholorship I would lose a ton of respect for Coach K, Cut or any coach at any school across the nation.

I think Bob said it best, it's called "CLASS". And for the record he's a Mac, not a PC.

[killerleft]

Isn't this the same situation that Erik Meek went through with the basketball program? He was injured in a hit-and-run accident while riding his bike. His injuries were potentially more serious than Lex Butler's, but Coach K and Duke honored the scholarship offer.

Whether Meek had issues resulting from the injuries that kept him from becoming the player he hoped to be, I can't say. But surely a single scholly is more important in basketball than it would be in football.

I like it when we hear these things about Duke. It reaffirms for me one of the reasons I've always been a Duke fan. Athletes are people, not cattle. And they are expected to be students.

OK, those are two reasons.

[RelativeWays]

But guys, dont we want all our coaches to follow the Jim Calhoun example?

This isn't pure altruism on Duke's part (though I do think they want to give this kid a chance). If I remember correctly, this kid was something of a hot prospect before the injury, and afterwards every school but Duke bailed. If he doesn't recover, Duke, in its current state, isn't losing much ground. If he does recover and contributes, well thats something future prospect will see quite favorably. :cool:

[killerleft]

True altruism is hard to find. But the guy had verbally accepted a sholly from Coach Cut.

[Indoor66]

True altruism is hard to find. But the guy had verbally accepted a sholly from Coach Cut.

If we do not honor our offer, Coach Cut is not who he says he is and Duke is not what it says it is. There are issues above just winning. Honoring the offer is just the right thing to do. Duke says it does it right. Next play.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Duke has to do two things:

1) Recruit from the same pool as other schools. I've been told this is already in place. Duke no longer has higher academic admission standards.

2) Getting rid of "deadwood" each year. Usually 3-5 kids each year are "asked" to leave. Of course this would hurt our graduation rate.

1) I don't believe that for 1 second. We may allow more "exceptions" than in the past, but even those have to be projected as able to graduate, as with the basketball team. And Coach Cut wants smart kids, and we'll start getting a much higher percentage of these super bright 5-star uber achievers (that historically have gone to Stanford or ND for example). Winning has a habit of doing that and Coach Cut is creating a winner.

2) Just because a player doesn't become a star, we need practice players too; you can't have 85 4 and 5 star players. Now if a kid wants to leave to seek more playing time at a lower level of football, I can understand that, but those that WANT that Duke degree, they stay at Duke for 4 years and graduate. And by the way, winning that Academic Achievement Award for highest graduation rate in Div. 1 football is very important to me, and to many other fans. Of course, some day, I'd like to see us match that with a concurrent National Championship.

[CameronBornAndBred]

1)
2) Just because a player doesn't become a star, we need practice players too; you can't have 85 4 and 5 star players. Now if a kid wants to leave to seek more playing time at a lower level of football, I can understand that, but those that WANT that Duke degree, they stay at Duke for 4 years and graduate. And by the way, winning that Academic Achievement Award for highest graduation rate in Div. 1 football is very important to me, and to many other fans. Of course, some day, I'd like to see us match that with a concurrent National Championship.

That's a great point Ozzie. Remember who Cutcliffe gave a ton of credit to for the Navy win? The scout team. He said without them and their work the week before it would have been a different game.

[bluedevil864]

All of you who say that the his scholarship should be taken away...yal dont know what yal are talking about! Players miss there senior season with injuries all the time! Matter fact Duke has a true freshman name Brian Moore who missed his ENTIRE senior season but has bounced back and starts right now for Duke on the offensive line! And Im pretty sure there is plenty more this has happen to!