He wasn’t on the team last season and if memory serves correct, he wasn’t in school
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Feel free to move or remove this if inappropriate, but I am not sure what thread it'd fit better and am not sure a new thread makes sense... posting here because it's football related.
The 9th Street Journal, a Durham-focused publication sponsored by the DeWitt Wallace Center at Sanford, write about a guest presentation by the Durham Sheriff to the football team, which sounds like it had some unintended consequences.
Putting aside the debate over the substance of presentation, which was based on data that's been the subject of widespread controversy, I appreciated the look into the mindset of the team and attitudes toward the coaching staff at a critical juncture of what turned out to be Coach Cutcliffe's final season.
They name names, and multiple players spoke on record, which I found notable.
https://9thstreetjournal.org/2022/02...traffic-stops/
"This is the best of all possible worlds."
Dr. Pangloss - Candide
Wow, that is infuriating. Makes me feel a lot less bad about letting Cutcliffe go. He has many fine qualities, but this is inexcusable.
From the same series of articles: "The presentation we shared in mid-October 2021" https://9thstreetjournal.org/2022/02...-presentation/
I don't gamble, money or pastry, but is there any chance that Monday 10/11 (right after GT) was the date of that presentation?
I agree with other posters that this definitely shows distance between the staff and players. Not what you want to see.
I respect Coach Cut for trying to start these conversations. Current culture makes it just about impossible, it seems. This example is a sad but unsurprising microcosm of how difficult it is to have these conversations. I would imagine even a perfect presentation would be met with major resistance given current societal discourse and feelings.
I can believe that the intent was good, to try to foster some sort of dialogue, but the execution of the idea was horrible in almost every way. Start with the fact that it’s on the players day off during the season. During the season, you don’t have a lot of free time as a player. Almost every minute of almost every day is booked with some sort of activity, weather classes, practice, film session, practice, studying, or whatever. Even if this idea was executed perfectly, it should have been in the off-season when there’s a little more time for things outside of football in school.
So it started off on the wrong foot even before it got started, and then it just went horribly wrong from there. Cuts complete misread of the thoughts and concerns of his players is telling. Sure, one would hope that everyone would be respectful of anyone doing a presentation and there’s probably room to give that message to the team, but the overwhelming message should have been an acknowledgment and an apology that the presentation and conversation were not at all what the intent was. Not surprising that the team lost some fight after that incident and performed so poorly the rest of the year.
Off by a week, but I see where you're going. While you must account for the quality of the competition somewhat, before the presentation Duke was out-scored by the opposition 221-189 over 7 games...afterwards, Duke was out-scored 256-85 over 5 games.
This might be the new dictionary example for "losing the team".