ESPN: The inside story of a toxic culture at Maryland football




I think this is far worse if true than the Urban Meyer story. What a toxic culture Durkin has created. The stakes are too high and the kids pay the price.
 



I am sure glad he is not the Gophers' football coach. What a contrast between him and PJ Fleck in how they run their programs.
 

That is a jarringly damning article. That’s the kind of stuff that can immediately halt a program’s progress.
 

This is gonna be a mess. It looks like Durkin is not currently on administrative leave (which is ridiculous). The external review is supposed to finish up on September 15th, a few weeks into the season. I think there's a good chance we see Durkin fired at that point along with multiple other coaches. And there will likely be some heads rolling in the Athletic Department as well.

Wins and losses are an important part of a football program but they certainly aren't everything. This type of stuff makes me glad to have PJ running the program. You can hate his schtick, but I think most of us are fairly confident that the program is run pretty cleanly.
 
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If this is true, which I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. What a f’in prick. F U Durkin. Can his sorry ass for cause, he should never coach again, period. Have to be an imbecile not to fire the guy and his sorry excuse for a strength coach. Hell, could bring manslaughter charges.


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http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/...ball-staff-maryland-leave-20180810-story.html

The University of Maryland has placed members of football coach DJ Durkin’s support staff on paid administrative leave based on the initial findings of the external review examining the circumstances leading to the death of redshirt freshman Jordan McNair, the university announced Friday.

A school spokesperson declined to name the individuals who were placed on leave, pending the outcome of the review being conducted by Walters Inc., a South Carolina-based sports medicine consulting firm. That review is expected to be finished no later than Sept. 15...


...After McNair’s death, the university commissioned “an external review of the procedures and protocols surrounding athletes’ health and safety,” the school said in a statement about the decision to place staffers on leave.

“Pending the final outcome of this review, the university has placed members of the athletics staff on administrative leave,” the statement said. “We will be able to speak in greater detail when the review is complete and shared with the public. Our thoughts remain with Jordan McNair’s family, friends and teammates.”

A source confirmed Durkin, who is going into his third season with the program, remains the Terps coach. On Friday, in his first interview since the start of fall practice, Durkin told Big Ten Network that McNair’s death was a “tremendous loss.”
 

God why can’t a story like this come out about Wisconsin


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Disgusting stuff. How in 2018 does this happen? With all the social media and transparency it wouldn't seem it would take years and a death to uncover it. Reminiscent of the Rutgers basketball coach verbal abusing players a couple years ago. How did Maryland rack up the high recruiting classes in this atmosphere?
Obviously, these tactics don't work when it comes to winning games either based on their recent achievements. Very sad.
 



I think this is far worse if true than the Urban Meyer story. What a toxic culture Durkin has created. The stakes are too high and the kids pay the price.

Durkin coached for Urban Meyer at Bowling Green and Florida. Watch the Veritas video with past Florida players talking about Meyer and you'll see a lot of similarities between the two -- way too excessive of workouts (till you pass out), humiliating individual players in front of teammates, and so forth. Makes me like PJ all the more.
 


Durkin coached for Urban Meyer at Bowling Green and Florida. Watch the Veritas video with past Florida players talking about Meyer and you'll see a lot of similarities between the two -- way too excessive of workouts (till you pass out), humiliating individual players in front of teammates, and so forth. Makes me like PJ all the more.

+1 I thought the exact same thing when I read the two stories. I have read stories about Saban and he's the same way as well, in fact his is so legendary he belittled a Miami Dolphin so much he cried! Granted I don't recall if he was a rookie or not but that is pretty impressive to get to that level. These are not nice people. I think stuff like this helps a coach like Fleck who is positive message.
 

I am sure glad he is not the Gophers' football coach. What a contrast between him and PJ Fleck in how they run their programs.

Agree with this unless there's something about PJ we don't know, but from what we are seeing and led to believe, PJ is the opposite of the Durkin style coaches.

I didn't hear about the player death until this article hit.
Sounds like a lawsuit is in the works because when the player was overheating, there was an hour long period that was unaccounted for before he went to the hospital, and an anonymous player(s) stated that when it happened they walked him off the field in the opposite direction of getting help. (Probably to admonish the player for a while until they realized it was that serious and unfortunately too late). When he arrived at the hospital his temp was 106 which means he had not been iced down yet.
 

Durkin coached for Urban Meyer at Bowling Green and Florida. Watch the Veritas video with past Florida players talking about Meyer and you'll see a lot of similarities between the two -- way too excessive of workouts (till you pass out), humiliating individual players in front of teammates, and so forth. Makes me like PJ all the more.
I don’t think there’s any question that Durkin has picked up on Meyer’s methods of operation and implemented them. It should also be noted that the Maryland head strength coach was an assistant strength coach at Ohio State for Urban Meyer.

I’m certain that these methods have made the players’ athletic lives very uncomfortable, some miserable, which is exactly what it is designed to do. IMO, it’s driven by big salaries and big egos or both.

However, it is also very possible that this young man’s death was due to physical inabilities to do difficult training. Difficult training that is a part of any D-1 football strength and conditioning program.
 

Wow. Horrible story. This is going to cause some serious damage to their program. I bet they wish they still had Friedgen.

Any recruits that we were in on?
 

My Lord, this is sickening. When the report initially came out that a 19 year old Maryland football player had died, I guess my initial reaction was that he probably had some undetected heart issue.
This story bugs me to no end. If this crap is close to true, shut it down. If that were my child a bazillion dollar settlement would not suffice. I'd only be able to function if the people involved were jailed.
Tell me again why it's such a good idea to have these eastern teams in the Big 10? Maryland, ick. Penn State, gross. Rutgers, phooey.
 

If the report is accurate and emergency services weren’t called until an hour went by this looks very, very bad for them.

Despite Iowa, Oregon, and a number of other cases it seems like S and C still pushes too much, too soon in some cases. Particularly with big men on high heat index days they should be extra careful. I just don’t get it.

The rest of the article is classic one-sided ESPN garbage. Yes, I’m sure some players are disgruntled and willing to trash the coaches. I’m sure others have no problem with them but were conveniently left out of the story. Most of the “abuse” is almost laughable.
 

I don’t think there’s any question that Durkin has picked up on Meyer’s methods of operation and implemented them. It should also be noted that the Maryland head strength coach was an assistant strength coach at Ohio State for Urban Meyer.

I’m certain that these methods have made the players’ athletic lives very uncomfortable, some miserable, which is exactly what it is designed to do. IMO, it’s driven by big salaries and big egos or both.

However, it is also very possible that this young man’s death was due to physical inabilities to do difficult training. Difficult training that is a part of any D-1 football strength and conditioning program.

Seriously - 'difficult training.' It's one thing to push players - it's an entirely different matter to abuse them.

Right or wrong, good or bad, the old days are gone. When I was a student manager for my HS FB team back in the late 60's & early 70's, they would not let the players take water breaks during practice. today, if a coach tried that, he would not only be fired, but there would be lawyers lining up around the block to file lawsuits.

We're not talking about the Marines here. this is not boot camp. It's not life and death. It's football practice. The players' health and well-being has to be considered.

Yeah, you can work players hard. but if it crosses the line into excessive or physically threatening, I maintain you will lose more players than you will help. Again, right or wrong, today's young people are wired differently than they were 40 years ago. The days of the abusive coach are gone, because (most) players won't accept it.
 

A lot of this reminds me of the latest season of Last Chance U. I don't know why anyone would want to play for coaches like this. "Tough love" is one thing, this is going too far.
 

If the report is accurate and emergency services weren’t called until an hour went by this looks very, very bad for them.

Despite Iowa, Oregon, and a number of other cases it seems like S and C still pushes too much, too soon in some cases. Particularly with big men on high heat index days they should be extra careful. I just don’t get it.

The rest of the article is classic one-sided ESPN garbage. Yes, I’m sure some players are disgruntled and willing to trash the coaches. I’m sure others have no problem with them but were conveniently left out of the story. Most of the “abuse” is almost laughable.

Couldn’t agree more. ESPN is like most news services, they print what they think will cause the most reaction, not necessarily the truth. Afterall, they have the last word. Watching Durkin, yesterday on the BTN, he put on a great face. If all this is true, Durkin might be in line for a movie role as he put on a great act. Couldn’t find any source that listed which Maryland staff were put on administrative leave. Urban Meyers problems are not even in the same zip code as Durkins.
 

A lot of this reminds me of the latest season of Last Chance U. I don't know why anyone would want to play for coaches like this. "Tough love" is one thing, this is going too far.

Yep,

I'm sure most of the players have no idea that their coaches will act like this when they are in the middle of an in home visit.
 

Seriously - 'difficult training.' It's one thing to push players - it's an entirely different matter to abuse them.

Right or wrong, good or bad, the old days are gone. When I was a student manager for my HS FB team back in the late 60's & early 70's, they would not let the players take water breaks during practice. today, if a coach tried that, he would not only be fired, but there would be lawyers lining up around the block to file lawsuits.

We're not talking about the Marines here. this is not boot camp. It's not life and death. It's football practice. The players' health and well-being has to be considered.

Yeah, you can work players hard. but if it crosses the line into excessive or physically threatening, I maintain you will lose more players than you will help. Again, right or wrong, today's young people are wired differently than they were 40 years ago. The days of the abusive coach are gone, because (most) players won't accept it.

Agree with all of this. When one of your players dies because of a conditioning drill, it's definitely time to start examining things a lot more closely. And like you said, this isn't boot-camp for soldiers going to war. It's collegiate athletics. No more and no less than that.

And honestly, there's a huge difference between encouragement and pushing a player to do/be their best versus bullying someone. If a coach (or any other professional) relies on bullying as a motivating philosophy, they probably aren't very good at their job.
 

Most players survive conditioning training just fine. The main problem, it seems, with this scenario was a) excessive exercise of a high BMI, read “overweight” individual on a high heat index day on the first or second day of practice, b) a delay in recognizing a serious problem, c) an apparent 1 hour delay in calling emergency personnel. Like a plane crash, it’s usually a confluence of factors including multiple human errors.

The yelling at players, etc seems like sour grapes. Let’s see if anyone defends the coaches after that hit piece. If there are crickets then it’s a little more damning.
 

Seriously - 'difficult training.' It's one thing to push players - it's an entirely different matter to abuse them.

Right or wrong, good or bad, the old days are gone. When I was a student manager for my HS FB team back in the late 60's & early 70's, they would not let the players take water breaks during practice. today, if a coach tried that, he would not only be fired, but there would be lawyers lining up around the block to file lawsuits.

We're not talking about the Marines here. this is not boot camp. It's not life and death. It's football practice. The players' health and well-being has to be considered.

Yeah, you can work players hard. but if it crosses the line into excessive or physically threatening, I maintain you will lose more players than you will help. Again, right or wrong, today's young people are wired differently than they were 40 years ago. The days of the abusive coach are gone, because (most) players won't accept it.
I’m saying that a few players aren’t prepared to endure training that many others are. It’s the strength coach’s job to figure that out. I’m not excusing anyone. But the reality is, that all D-1 programs push players to the extent that is extremely difficult. If poor judgment is used, it can be dangerous.
 


My Lord, this is sickening. When the report initially came out that a 19 year old Maryland football player had died, I guess my initial reaction was that he probably had some undetected heart issue.
This story bugs me to no end. If this crap is close to true, shut it down. If that were my child a bazillion dollar settlement would not suffice. I'd only be able to function if the people involved were jailed.
Tell me again why it's such a good idea to have these eastern teams in the Big 10? Maryland, ick. Penn State, gross. Rutgers, phooey.

Minnesota (and all other B1G teams) get 50 million reasons a year.
 




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