- May 30th, 2007, 10:55 am
#87602
I am also a Duke fan and I can't stand John Feinstein but, that said, he's 100% right. Duke athletics has suffered for at least the last two decades and it's suffered from the top down. There is an institutional hubris there that says, "We're Duke University. So long as we have the basketball teams, we're fine." Well, it's not fine. The Duke admin effectively quit supporting athletics as soon as they gave Coach K the lifetime contract. Now, Goestenkoers(?) is gone. That's a big loss and there's no reason in the world that she would have fled the scene for Texas or anywhere else if the admin were actually supporting the program. The football team isn't just bad; it's horrendous. I saw their game vs. VMI from '05 and it was just painful to watch. VMI was bad (yeah, yeah, I know; we were worse) but Duke wasn't much better and that's more than just a coaching problem. You even kind of got the sense this past year that Coach K is getting tired of it. With his back issues and the admin drama, I'd be suprised if he doesn't retire within the next 4 years or so. It's enough to put a tear in that Blue Devil's eye.
"I invite all the young champions on Liberty Mountain to come up and rub my woolly mustache."