Duke Football 2022

[chrishoke]

Mike Elko is the perfect fit for Duke. Perfect!

Question, was Elko considered for the Virginia job?

[CameronBornAndBred]

Mike Elko is the perfect fit for Duke. Perfect!

That's key. Whether it is the mesh of the coach and the school, or the area, or the timing, a hire can either be a great coach, simply ok, or not work out.
At the time, the mesh with Cutcliffe and Duke was perfect, and for the current time, history is seemingly repeating itself. In the long run, some of the other schools' hires might work out great even though they are off to rough starts, or they may continue on as ugly and bring their ADs down with them.

Happily for us, King and Elko seem to both be great fits for Duke, and here's hoping that we are all enjoying both for a long time.

[SavDukeGrad]

Mike Elko is the perfect fit for Duke. Perfect!

Question, was Elko considered for the Virginia job?

Believe me, I looked at a UVa board Sat. night. And lots of their fans were asking this exact question!

Agree that Elko seems like the perfect fit for Duke.

My only complaint so far is that every time I type his name, my phone autocorrects it to Elmo. 😂

[chrishoke]

Our former D coordinator Jim Knowles today:

Adam Rowe liked
Anthony Nash Jr.
@AnthonyNash83
·
3h
Hold on now Jim.
Quote Tweet
Dan Hope
@Dan_Hope
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5h
Jim Knowles talking about his time coaching at Duke: “We had a lot of great future doctors and lawyers, not necessarily professional football players.”

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Since we're doing the guess what HereBeforeCoachK meant game, I'm putting my hat in the "elko was third choice" bucket. Hard to know for sure, but Elliott, Marcus Freeman and Josh Gattis were also near the top of the list and maybe Nina gave offers to a couple of those guys first prior to Elko.

You are right...what I meant is that Elko was her third choice. Elliot and Freeman were who I was referring to, and THANK GOD......

Since someone else brought up hoops, let me be clear, I am under zero impression that anyone not named Coach K is who hired Scheyer...it's pretty clear that this decision was made in a meeting with all the coaches...and also clear that Nina wanted Amaker, but it was Coach K who called Amaker to tell him he was NOT getting the job. Which I think would have been a disaster...for a number of reasons...but that's discussion for another day, another thread.

[AustinDevil]

Our former D coordinator Jim Knowles today:

Adam Rowe liked
Anthony Nash Jr.
@AnthonyNash83
·
3h
Hold on now Jim.
Quote Tweet
Dan Hope
@Dan_Hope
·
5h
Jim Knowles talking about his time coaching at Duke: “We had a lot of great future doctors and lawyers, not necessarily professional football players.”

According to SI, he continued on to say "but a good carpenter never complains about his tools."

https://www.si.com/college/ohiostate...michigan-state

I will agree with Mr. Knowles that the word "tool" is relevant in describing this quote.

[luvdahops]

You are right...what I meant is that Elko was her third choice. Elliot and Freeman were who I was referring to, and THANK GOD...

Since someone else brought up hoops, let me be clear, I am under zero impression that anyone not named Coach K is who hired Scheyer...it's pretty clear that this decision was made in a meeting with all the coaches...and also clear that Nina wanted Amaker, but it was Coach K who called Amaker to tell him he was NOT getting the job. Which I think would have been a disaster...for a number of reasons...but that's discussion for another day, another thread.

Was it Nina who really wanted Amaker or Price? I have heard it might have been more the latter.

[Acymetric]

Our former D coordinator Jim Knowles today:

Adam Rowe liked
Anthony Nash Jr.
@AnthonyNash83
·
3h
Hold on now Jim.
Quote Tweet
Dan Hope
@Dan_Hope
·
5h
Jim Knowles talking about his time coaching at Duke: “We had a lot of great future doctors and lawyers, not necessarily professional football players.”

On a more positive note John Latina gave Duke a shout out after the win on Saturday:

https://twitter.com/JohnLatinaDuke/s...24066122600451

[Papa John]

You are right...what I meant is that Elko was her third choice. Elliot and Freeman were who I was referring to, and THANK GOD...

We shouldn't draw any conclusions about any of the three on such a small body of work. I suspect that Freeman will do quite well at ND—they stumbled out of the gate, but have righted the ship and his recruiting is top notch. That said, I'm very pleased with Elko, hope that his success continues this season, and also hope that he's thinking of perhaps building a legacy in Durham rather than using us as a stepping stone.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

We shouldn't draw any conclusions about any of the three on such a small body of work. I suspect that Freeman will do quite well at ND—they stumbled out of the gate, but have righted the ship and his recruiting is top notch. That said, I'm very pleased with Elko, hope that his success continues this season, and also hope that he's thinking of perhaps building a legacy in Durham rather than using us as a stepping stone.

Well this is a message board, and drawing conclusions is what we do....for sure, it is a small body of work - but should we wait 5 years before we comment? Certainly not.

That said, the Clemson OC that UVa hired did not put up impressive numbers with the amazing talent he had at Clemson. I think we can call that one over rated. I know less about Freeman...and he did beat the Heels...so there is that...

[DukieInKansas]

Not sure where to put this, but I just watched Noah Gray take a direct snap and score a touchdown on a sneak. Loved it.

It was a very fun game - and that was a great play. Mahomes points to Kelce and Gray takes the snap and goes on for the TD.

[johnb]

According to SI, he continued on to say "but a good carpenter never complains about his tools."

https://www.si.com/college/ohiostate...michigan-state

I will agree with Mr. Knowles that the word "tool" is relevant in describing this quote.

I know nothing of Knowles as a person, but his tenure as Duke’s DC corresponded with Duke’s best stretch since the 1960’s, and his departure for Oklahoma State was followed by our return to mediocrity and elevation of OSU’s defense to top 10 status nationally. He’s now over at Ohio State (the other OSU, THE OSU of central Ohio), where their closest win so far was a double digit victory over Notre Dame.

In addition to his comments about Duke, which struck me as valid, insulting, and funny, he mentioned that one of his linebackers “doesn’t really say much. He just grunts and does his job.” That sounds insulting, but Knowles then adds, “he’s picked (the defensive scheme) up as quickly as anyone I’ve ever worked with.” He also said that he said he joked with a different linebacker after he was caught on his interception return: “I told him, ‘I thought you were a running back. No wonder they moved you to linebacker.’”

Sounds like Knowles is quite practiced at teasing guys about what they’re good at, which is a very different type of humor than sarcasm or mocking someone’s weak points. He may lack the conservative tact to be a P5 HC, but my hunch is that his guys like him.

[AustinDevil]

I know nothing of Knowles as a person, but his tenure as Duke’s DC corresponded with Duke’s best stretch since the 1960’s, and his departure for Oklahoma State was followed by our return to mediocrity and elevation of OSU’s defense to top 10 status nationally. He’s now over at Ohio State (the other OSU, THE OSU of central Ohio), where their closest win so far was a double digit victory over Notre Dame.

In addition to his comments about Duke, which struck me as valid, insulting, and funny, he mentioned that one of his linebackers “doesn’t really say much. He just grunts and does his job.” That sounds insulting, but Knowles then adds, “he’s picked (the defensive scheme) up as quickly as anyone I’ve ever worked with.” He also said that he said he joked with a different linebacker after he was caught on his interception return: “I told him, ‘I thought you were a running back. No wonder they moved you to linebacker.’”

Sounds like Knowles is quite practiced at teasing guys about what they’re good at, which is a very different type of humor than sarcasm or mocking someone’s weak points. He may lack the conservative tact to be a P5 HC, but my hunch is that his guys like him.

I’m well aware that Duke’s defenses did well under him. I think you’re right that the players under him must generally like him. I have no idea if he’s good at the particular skill of teasing those players in a motivating way, and neither do you, but it doesn’t matter in the case of this quote because he hasn’t been trying to motivate a Duke player for nearly five years. This week’s quote is a gratuitous cheap shot, followed by a disingenuous attempt to pretend he’s not actually taking that cheap shot. Players can like him without actually grasping his true character. Or maybe this quote is just out of character. Either way it does not reflect well on him.

[75Crazie]

This week’s quote is a gratuitous cheap shot, followed by a disingenuous attempt to pretend he’s not actually taking that cheap shot.

It's a cheap shot to call his former players, who were playing at an institution of higher learning, good students?

[budwom]

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I took the comment as something of a realistic compliment. Nothing to be insulted about.

[HoKogan]

Well this is a message board, and drawing conclusions is what we do...for sure, it is a small body of work - but should we wait 5 years before we comment? Certainly not.

That said, the Clemson OC that UVa hired did not put up impressive numbers with the amazing talent he had at Clemson. I think we can call that one over rated. I know less about Freeman...and he did beat the Heels...so there is that...

You may be right about Elliot but its still hard to tell. One has to remember that Bronco retired because his starting offensive line decided to up and transfer on him, so there's that to consider. I think when you have a coaching change like that, your early success is dependent on those returning players buying in to the new guy. In some circumstances that might be easier at a place like Duke where you've had 2 terrible seasons (and 3 seasons without a bowl) whereas UVA had success. I know a lot of Clemson fans were happy Elliott left and felt that his offensive schemes held back the talent.

Its the same for Freeman, VT's Brent Pry, whoever takes over for Collins at GT, they are coming into situations where the previous coach didn't leave under smooth circumstances. Its probably going to take a couple of seasons for their methods to bear fruit. Again, it took Cut 4 seasons to get Duke to .500, even though the team was becoming more competitive in the earlier seasons.

[AGDukesky]

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I took the comment as something of a realistic compliment. Nothing to be insulted about.

Agreed, I don’t even see an insult in there

[chrishoke]

FYI, Knowles was the head coach at Cornell - he was let go there - before getting the DC job under Cut. When he spoke at the Blue Devil Club, he came across as a genial professor type.

[orrnot]

Jim Knowles talking about his time coaching at Duke: “We had a lot of great future doctors and lawyers, not necessarily professional football players.”

Regardless of whether you think the remark insulting, consider this Twitter followup from Duke football alum/vocalist Lee Rodio:

“So, this got me thinking. With some help from @cbgivens we figured that during Knowles tenure at Duke he had 12 exclusively defensive players that would go on to make NFL rosters compared to 3 future doctors and 2 future lawyers. Friendly #FYI”

[sagegrouse]

It's a cheap shot to call his former players, who were playing at an institution of higher learning, good students?

The reference to "future doctors and lawyers" has been around for at least 50 years. It's a harmless description and probably better than just blurting out that Duke has few future NFLers.

Kindly,
Sage
'Heck, Bill Futrell ran for a long TD against UNC in 1963 as a Duke med student'