Jump to content

OT - Another B1G coach in trouble - DJ Durkin


Recommended Posts

4 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

That's why I think it was crazy for Muschamp to go off on anonymous sources.  Why would anybody go against a big program?  Nothing to be gained and everything to lose if you attach your name to it.

When I asked them about his comments...they were just like why in the hell would you put your name in something like this. But there's a history of Urban, Florida, Will,etc...Jeremy Foley. They also laugh at what we as fans discuss on message boards because we usually have about 1% of the facts. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 89
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Usually always comes back to $. My guess is that Durkin's buyout would cost more than a settlement with players family and strength coach. They (Maryland) chose to look good by saying it's their fault but the underbelly is simple. They think Durkin can win games and that ultimately is worth more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, CauseThatsMyDJ said:

These colleges that hang on to their coaches no matter what really make Glass look good for canning our most successful football coach since Mallory.

I'll only say this. Fred Glass is smart and he knows the right way to play certain games. However...these reports (player treatment) didn't just pop up in the fall of 2016. They popped up more and more to the point where he realized the only way to save his skin (since he gave Wilson the new contract) was to find proof and not have IU on the hook for the $. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like Maryland was trying to use the unfortunate death of the lineman as an out here.  They just blamed and canned the training staff and seem like they're hoping that will be good enough.  There's supposedly video of that day, so hopefully the truth will surface with that to see who was and wasn't responsible.  It's almost like they're trying to say that Durkin wasn't directly involved in the death, so he's free and clear.

The bigger issue as far as Durkin's job is concerned should be the toxic culture he created.  It sounds like he was an a-hole, and let (told?) his assistants to be that way too.  The culture he set up there is enough on its own to get him canned, even if he wasn't directly responsible for McNair's death.  Plus, when you're the head coach of a major program, you know everything that is going on.  This wasn't just a rogue strength and conditioning coach smacking trays out of kids hands and treating them like trash.  The culture of fear and intimidation was started and approved of by Durkin.  I didn't have much respect for Maryland athletics and their fans before, but they would go down to OSU, Michigan, and PSU levels if they don't fire him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great post, Leather.

I have no problem with old school toughness.  Repetition in practice, mental persistence, and a demanding culture can often result in success.  That's a way to get tough, clean football.  Often, the team that plays a cleaner game can win.  How many drives can you score a TD after suffering a holding call?  I bet the stats are low on that.  Turnover differential, avoiding mistakes, playing a clean game leads to wins. Mental and physical toughness are a way of life in football.

But, this is way beyond that.  While a demanding environment may be expected, Durkin sounds like an amateur dufus.  He sees his coaching mentors and tries to be like that.  He ended up being an amateur and cannot figure out where to draw the line.  He deserves no respect.  That young man was put into Durkin's guidance by his family.  That's a responsibility.  He wants to be tough like Nick Saban, but in the end, he cannot draw the line.

That poor young man died of heat exhaustion.  Durkin is the CEO of the program.  From what I can tell, this was an avoidable, senseless death. Shame on Durkin.   I have not heard that he was a Hank Gaithers where he was a ticking time bomb.  He was a very young person who got heat exhaustion.  It was avoidable.

Ok, fine, the family will recoup millions.  But that won't bring the kid back to his family.  Ask any of us if we'd trade millions for our beautiful children.  It ain't happening.  And I haven't heard a single thing from Durkin that makes me think he "gets it."  Instead, he gets others to rally around him and defend him while a young man PLAYING FOOTBALL died.  He should be sitting in a dark room reflecting day and night.  I wish there were a way to criminally prosecute him.  A young man under his charge died.

I would say the same thing if an IU coach did it.  

As for the the trainers, sure, they have their marching orders, but in the end, they have a responsibility from the training standpoint to stand up to the coach.  I suspect they were all scared of Durkin, who is a essentially an immature nobody.  That is also shameful.

Let this be a lesson to every freaking coach out there from Saban on down.  Develop procedures and allow the trainers to be free to take action on their own regardless of how spitting mad some imbecile head coach, who will never win anything anyway, feels.

Rant over but I am tired of these coaching morons who have too high of an opinion of themselves because they coach ball as if they've been to medical school or something.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great post Bob.

All I can say is if that was my kid that died.......I don't care about the money, I want some asses and lots of them.  Make them hurt as best I can for what I am going thru and still am.  I better shut up before I start really using some profanity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think more information needs to be gathered before Durkin is fired, because there’s a separation of church and state between the football staff and the medical/training team, so to speak. It sounds like there was an utter failure at the hands of the medical/training staff which resulted in this unfortunate, sad and ultimately avoidable death. 

But with that said, coaches hire their staff, coaches hire their admins and S&C coaches, but the medical/training team isn’t something the coach is involved with, and once a player is taken off the field, the coach isn’t involved in the treatment, he doesn’t oversee or have oversight of the medical team. The medical team not following protocol is outside of Durkin’s scope and responsibility. 

Where Durkin could/should be liable is with the bullying/abuse that allegedly has been going on in the locker room and with the S&C staff in general, and did that treatment play a part in this death. Durkin does oversea the S&C staff and that is his responsiblility. 

Sounds like to me, while being completely negligent up this point, Maryland is taking the right course of action with this investigation. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't blame Durkin for McNair's death.  Sure, somebody's probably to blame somewhere along the lines, but from what I saw it wasn't your "normal heatstroke kind of day."  I read that it was just a normal day in the 80s and that there wasn't really anything that out of the ordinary of what they were doing.  When I played baseball in college, we would run 3 or 4 sets of 300 yard sprints, and they ran 10 sets of 110 yard sprints.  Not really that crazy of a thing to do.  But, it does sound like the medical staff should have done a better job.

Like I said before, where I hold Durkin accountable is the culture it sounds like he created there.  From what's come out, it sounds like Rick Court was a prick.  He was one of Durkin's first hires, the same month Durkin was hired.  From all accounts, the two were very close, and in the recent report, one quote said they were joined at the hip.

Durkin has made the following quotes about Court:

"It's so important, I believe, that the strength coach and the head coach are directly in line with one another in terms of what's important, what's the message we're delivering, and Rick and I are.  We're totally synchronized in that and so he's huge.  He's critical to all we do."

"Rick Court, our strength coach, is our most important hire I made.  That guy is unbelievable.  When you're changing a culture, that's where it start's.  And so we've flipped the world upside down on these guys.  Rick and I are as about in line with how we see things as you can possibly be."

If the reports coming our are halfway as bad as they sound, he should be fired.  No way was Court doing all of this behind Durkin's back.  If Court had created this culture, Durkin endorsed it and is just as guilty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

I don't blame Durkin for McNair's death.  Sure, somebody's probably to blame somewhere along the lines, but from what I saw it wasn't your "normal heatstroke kind of day."  I read that it was just a normal day in the 80s and that there wasn't really anything that out of the ordinary of what they were doing.  When I played baseball in college, we would run 3 or 4 sets of 300 yard sprints, and they ran 10 sets of 110 yard sprints.  Not really that crazy of a thing to do.  But, it does sound like the medical staff should have done a better job.

Like I said before, where I hold Durkin accountable is the culture it sounds like he created there.  From what's come out, it sounds like Rick Court was a prick.  He was one of Durkin's first hires, the same month Durkin was hired.  From all accounts, the two were very close, and in the recent report, one quote said they were joined at the hip.

Durkin has made the following quotes about Court:

"It's so important, I believe, that the strength coach and the head coach are directly in line with one another in terms of what's important, what's the message we're delivering, and Rick and I are.  We're totally synchronized in that and so he's huge.  He's critical to all we do."

"Rick Court, our strength coach, is our most important hire I made.  That guy is unbelievable.  When you're changing a culture, that's where it start's.  And so we've flipped the world upside down on these guys.  Rick and I are as about in line with how we see things as you can possibly be."

If the reports coming our are halfway as bad as they sound, he should be fired.  No way was Court doing all of this behind Durkin's back.  If Court had created this culture, Durkin endorsed it and is just as guilty.

Agree, though that’s whats being investigated now. I’m sure if the findings are bad that Durkin will be gone. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, rico said:

I am trying to figure out what a "normal heatstroke kind of day" is.

Haha.  I couldn't think of a better way to word it.  It wasn't a day that was 97 degrees and burning up outside is what I was going for.  I read it was in the mid 80s, so the first thought might not have been heatstroke like it probably would have been if it was in the upper 90s.  Still no excuse to not use an ice bath which is what it sounds like might have happened.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, BobSaccamanno said:

As we saw with Kevin Wilson, though, the training staff can often be subservient to the coaching staff, i.e., the coaching staff sets forth a culture of intolerance and expectation, and the training staff falls in line.  The head coach is the big figure here.  

Depends on what you mean by 'training staff'? The strength and conditioning staff? Yes, that is the coaches team and he is responsible for hiring, setting the culture, etc., and if the bullying allegations are true then I believe Maryland will fire Durkin. The medical team not carrying out protocol on a potential heatstroke victim has nothing to do with the head football coach. That's not his staff, he didn't hire them, he doesn't set the protocols for them, etc.

It's a separate entity for a reason. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the Kevin Wilson scandal, there were accusations that the trainers did not properly treat injuries or the well-being of the players.  Wilson wanted them to play with pain, and the trainers fell in line.  

I agree with you that the Maryland trainers have no excuse.  They should be able to stand up to a coach and even go over his head to the AD, with paper trails.  But, we are seeing the opposite.  The trainers become subservient to the coaches.  Having a little problem with the heat, push through it...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

Haha.  I couldn't think of a better way to word it.  It wasn't a day that was 97 degrees and burning up outside is what I was going for.  I read it was in the mid 80s, so the first thought might not have been heatstroke like it probably would have been if it was in the upper 90s.  Still no excuse to not use an ice bath which is what it sounds like might have happened.

What was the humidity?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, BGleas said:

Depends on what you mean by 'training staff'? The strength and conditioning staff? Yes, that is the coaches team and he is responsible for hiring, setting the culture, etc., and if the bullying allegations are true then I believe Maryland will fire Durkin. The medical team not carrying out protocol on a potential heatstroke victim has nothing to do with the head football coach. That's not his staff, he didn't hire them, he doesn't set the protocols for them, etc.

It's a separate entity for a reason. 

100%

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




×
×
  • Create New...