Yes. Rehashing for the nth time how few wins Duke had before he arrived is irrelevant, since we ALL note and thank him for rejuvenating Duke football. No one questions that.
But the current discussion is about job security, and what Duke offers vis a vis other schools...and any notion that Cut was not given an ultra long leash is just laughable. In fact I would say that, of all 131 FBS teams, he had the very longest leash of anyone during his last season. By many measurements, at the end of last year Duke was the worst P5 program by a fairly wide margin. He'd completely lost the team. (and yes, we still thank him for his contribution).
Point being that Elko may (emphasis) not necessarily be looking to rise up the coaching ranks...The very reasonable Duke salary (estimated to be $4 million plus), good work environment (good AD) and very solid job security is not to be sneezed at.
Ask Paul Chryst whom Wisconsin fired after going 67-26...that would not happen at Duke, of this I'm quite certain. Get to a bowl more often than not at Duke and the job is very very secure. But who knows what Mike Elko is thinking. Much (as always) may be determined by how much his family likes living in NC...