Maryland Football ... issues

kg01

kg01

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DJ Durkin was one I'd always wanted us to target as DC. Was surprised when he got the Maryland HC gig. Seems things have taken a dark turn for him after the death of an OL during summer workouts. Stories of a "toxic environment" are coming out now and Durkin has been put on administrative leave.

Unsurprisingly, the player's family attorney is calling for Durkin's head ...

https://www.si.com/college-football...on-leave-maryland-jordan-mcnair-toxic-culture
"Had this coaching staff done even minimal heatstroke training, they would have seen immediately that that's what was going on," Murphy said. "They would have iced him and called the ambulance immediately, but there was this unexplainable one-hour delay from the time that he had a seizure and the time the ambulance actually came. That's really concerning."
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"Concerning"? Shiii, depending on what was going on during that hour, it could be downright criminal.

Near the top of the list of surprising items in all this is the fact that former uGA AD, Damon Evans, is the AD at Maryland?! Sorry but the red panty incident would've kept him off my short-list if I were them.
 
MikeJackets1967

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kg01 said:
DJ Durkin was one I'd always wanted us to target as DC. Was surprised when he got the Maryland HC gig. Seems things have taken a dark turn for him after the death of an OL during summer workouts. Stories of a "toxic environment" are coming out now and Durkin has been put on administrative leave.

Unsurprisingly, the player's family attorney is calling for Durkin's head ...

https://www.si.com/college-football...on-leave-maryland-jordan-mcnair-toxic-culture


"Concerning"? Shiii, depending on what was going on during that hour, it could be downright criminal.

Near the top of the list of surprising items in all this is the fact that former uGA AD, Damon Evans, is the AD at Maryland?! Sorry but the red panty incident would've kept him off my short-list if I were them.
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I think DJ Durkin will wind up being canned by Maryland
 

takethepoints

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If abusive football programs were being accepted by university administrations to insure victories, see:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news...197609261&mc_cid=e74ddcd160&mc_eid=3efd616175

I would also note that the AD at Maryland is our old friend, Damon "I'm not trying to bribe you" Evans, of Ugag fame. Birds of a feather.

We hear a lot about our athletic program at Tech and, no doubt, there are rocks the GTAA wouldn't like to see turned over, but it's actually remarkable how little of this foolishness crops up here.
 

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takethepoints said:
If abusive football programs were being accepted by university administrations to insure victories, see:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news...197609261&mc_cid=e74ddcd160&mc_eid=3efd616175

I would also note that the AD at Maryland is our old friend, Damon "I'm not trying to bribe you" Evans, of Ugag fame. Birds of a feather.

We hear a lot about our athletic program at Tech and, no doubt, there are rocks the GTAA wouldn't like to see turned over, but it's actually remarkable how little of this foolishness crops up here.
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The dwag trolls that come on here will tell you (when confronted with numbers like 40 arrests in the last 6 years and a 41% graduation rate) that they don't care. That's their words. So when Maryland hires an AD who has a history of unethical behavior, that tells you they're wanting to set up that same culture - win a sports game at whatever cost it takes. Sad.
 
kg01

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takethepoints said:
If abusive football programs were being accepted by university administrations to insure victories, see:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news...197609261&mc_cid=e74ddcd160&mc_eid=3efd616175

I would also note that the AD at Maryland is our old friend, Damon "I'm not trying to bribe you" Evans, of Ugag fame. Birds of a feather.

We hear a lot about our athletic program at Tech and, no doubt, there are rocks the GTAA wouldn't like to see turned over, but it's actually remarkable how little of this foolishness crops up here.
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Yeah, this story is getting far too little 'play'. A kid lost his life because of this crap. Oh and ... https://gtswarm.com/threads/maryland-football-issues.15291/

Also notable, and just amazingly indicative of how/why this nonsense still goes on, was Coach(sic) Will Muschamp's response to the 'toxic environment' story. He apparently blasted the anonymous sources for revealing what was going on.

If I'm a parent of a SC player, I yank my son from Muschamp's team.

It's not the '70's man. Sports science, supposedly, has come a long way since the days of disallowing guys to drink water as a way of "making 'em tough'. You can build a fit, ready football team without the Junction Boys tactics nowadays and any coach who doesn't understand that needs to be fired before he kills another parent's kid.
 
kg01

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Dang, President said they accept legal and moral responsibility for what happened. Apologized. Surprisingly strong statement. Most would be wishy-washy about it.

Threw athletic training staff under the bus. Specifically said, "our training staff, not the coaching staff, ...." made mistakes.

Huh?
 
kg01

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OMFG, said they provided additional training to training staff and 'put some things in place'.

Also wants to "address the bullying .... uh, alleged bullying ... these are allegations ... " We have hot lines in place but we learned about it from the media ... regardless of the source .....

He was clearly throwing students under the bus here.

"We will make recommendations and will respond to those recommendations." Huh?

"We will put together a team, blah, blah, blah ... and research these allegations!!!"

Yeah, this is bullsh*t. Waste of time. He's saying nothing now.
 
kg01

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Only person fired right now is head strength/conditioning coach ... since he was in charge ... I guess ...

... but they put in cooling stations so .... all good.
 
kg01

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GTJackets said:
How do you as a coach even accept the opportunity to continue when you know your players lined up to air their grievances about you? I can't see where it benefits either of them to keep him on as a coach. Maybe just so Durkin can say "see, I did nothing wrong" and hope for a new job.
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From the tone of the President and AD, they are going to take the stance that this was all fabricated media reports.

So ... I guess the head coach did nothing wrong. As a dad, I'm yanking my kid from that place. Retaliation is coming.
 
northgajacket

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bwelbo said:
The dwag trolls that come on here will tell you (when confronted with numbers like 40 arrests in the last 6 years and a 41% graduation rate) that they don't care. That's their words. So when Maryland hires an AD who has a history of unethical behavior, that tells you they're wanting to set up that same culture - win a sports game at whatever cost it takes. Sad.
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That is because the fans need a self-esteem boost. It is not just college football either, soccer hooliganism began during the austerity measures in the 1980's, the ones who rioted were mostly unemployed and felt like being fans of a winning club was all they had.

In regards to Maryland, this isn't the first time they have had unethical behaviour by coaches. Lefty Driessel kept trying to get a coed to drop sexual assault charges against one of his players and the University stood by him.
 
Milwaukee

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Unfortunate situation for sure, but what in the hell does the athletic director's so called ethics have to do with a kid collapsing due to a strength coach? Quite the reach. #thwg
 

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Milwaukee said:
Unfortunate situation for sure, but what in the hell does the athletic director's so called ethics have to do with a kid collapsing due to a strength coach? Quite the reach. #thwg
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When you instill a culture of winning games at all costs, bad situations should not be a surprise. Whether it’s mistreating kids or their arrests or poor graduation rate. And you’d see school officials just poo poo it too. It’s what you hear from their fans on this board – ho hum.
 
kg01

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Milwaukee said:
I don't think you were KG.
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Ah, ok. I was trying to work up some poster-on-poster offseason beef before the season starts and we actually have something to talk about. :D

Milwaukee said:
Unfortunate situation for sure, but what in the hell does the athletic director's so called ethics have to do with a kid collapsing due to a strength coach? Quite the reach. #thwg
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I don't think there's a 1-to-1 relationship, however, the tone set from above does trickle down.

As of right now, the takeaways from yesterday's press conference seem to be as follows:

a. It's all on the training staff. All of it.
Head guy is gone already. Apparently resigned/received settlement which seems odd - your (in)actions led to the death of a kid and a likely multi-million dollar settlement from the family but we can't fire you 'with cause'?***

*** More on that below.

b. The bullying allegations are a separate discussion/issue.
They were keen on separating the two. Made yesterday about apologizing, answering for the kid's death which seemed appropriate. Plan on addressing the bullying stuff separately.

c. Want time to mull over additional action (i.e. coach's future)
IIRC they say this will likely not wrap up until mid-Sept which means they'll be into their season before a resolution is reached.

My only issue is that the event and the culture cannot be separated. One led to the other. No one apparently felt comfortable letting the kid take a freaking break. Durkin is the genesis of all of it.

Here's what Durkin said about Rick Court when he was hired:

"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,” Durkin said, as reported by the Carroll County Times. “We're totally synchronized in that and so he's huge. He's critical to all we do."
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*** Ding, ding, ding ... here's why Court was given a settlement when he left. No doubt it comes with a confidentiality agreement so he can't turn around and point the finger at Durkin.

On Evans, he may skate on this since he's only been there a few months.
 
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