CBS rates all the first-year CFB coaches... Coach Elko gets an A. Four coaches get an A+.
College football first-year coach grades: Lincoln Riley earns 'A-' as Mario Cristobal starts with 'F'
How did all 29 first-year coaches do during their debut campaigns in 2022?
https://www.cbssports.com/college-fo...starts-with-f/
"Elko was a solid hire at Duke, but results came quicker than anyone could have imagined. The Blue Devils won nine games for the first time since 2014 behind improvement on both sides of the ball. Duke has a young quarterback, Riley Leonard, to build around."
I think he used a different set of criteria for Power 5 and Group of 5, so there was only one P5 coach who earned an A+ (hard to argue with TCU) - the other two A+ grades were G5 schools/coaches where I think he was using a different standard. Besides Elko and Dykes it looks like there were two other A and two A- grades among the P5 coaches.
Cool to see Elko (and by extension Duke) get some recognition, thanks for the link!
There was a marvelous festouche on the Mizzippi State board regarding hiring a new OC...I give them credit for enthusiasm, page after page of stuff, the focus being they were "finalizing a deal" with Johns at one point per multiple sources of theirs. When that fell through, they focused on other top P5 assistants...needless to say, the hiring from App left them a bit deflated.
As it turns out, they did ask to speak to Johns who told them he was not going anywhere.
Why would anyone want to leave what Elko is building? I understand a DC or OC taking an opportunity to move up the ladder/pay rung two or three years from now but I would think being at Duke at this exact moment of ascension has to be a dream job, at least in terms of job satisfaction.
Good question, which I think was somewhat answered at the MSU site's thread. They made the assumption that Duke salaries suck, and it would be easy to wrangle him away because they are Big Time and we are Small Time.
Turns out they were wrong. Per Adam Rowe at the Devils Den (which I recommend, Elko Lodge, for football fans) Duke's previous assistant salaries were among the worst in the ACC, now they are in the upper third.
I think Nina King has a firm grip on reality, knew what it would take to get Elko in the first place (lots of money, including for assistants and other staff) and what it will take to retain them. Now that we all know that Elko was a home run hire, I'm fully confident she'll do whatever she can to keep the staff intact (which can't always be done, sometimes guys DO have to leave for better opportunities, such is life) because football is driving the revenue bus upon which her entire athletic dept is dependent.
The Clemson game, which has a decent chance of being the opener, just got a lot tougher with a new OC from TCU. The TCU series in 2028/2029 just got a lot easier.
Clemson Link: https://www.tigernet.com/clemson-foo...tt-riley-21023
Do we have a full list of Duke players who entered the portal? I saw where Matt Smith (TE) put his name in the portal, but had not seen that reported previously.
Thanks, Bob and Nugget, that is exactly what I was looking for.
The extent to which Elko has revamped the roster (in a very good way) is incredibly impressive...