It's official. The Roof era is over at Duke University.
With the 20-14 OT loss to rival North Carolina on Saturday, Duke AD Joe Alleva decided to part ways with embattled head coach Ted Roof. Roof's tenure with the Blue Devils concludes with a 6-45 record over 4+ seasons, including winning only 1 of his final 32 games.
Now, we move on to the ignominious task of searching for a new head coach for arguably the worst program in the BCS conferences.
Four years ago, I argued loudly and publicly to anyone who would listen that the Devils should make their move for a former Duke coach, one who was struggling in the NFL and looking for a return to college. I stated that Joe Alleva should have driven straight to Washington and make the ole ball coach Steve Spurrier the highest paid coach in college football history. Alas, this did not happen, as Duke went in-house and hired the retread defensive coordinator. Spurrier, on the other hand, went to South Carolina, a program with nearly as much futility as Duke, and built it into a national program in three short years.
Now, Duke stands at another crossroads. There is momentum to hire either the offensive or defensive coordinator as to not shake up the current chemistry and players. I dare them to do this. Tired ideas get you nowhere.
Here's an idea. How about the hottest coach in the country, one with NFL experience, and a unique mindset towards running an offense. Duke should make a move for Hawaii's June Jones.
While it may be tough to lure Jones from Hawaii to North Carolina, Jones is losing star QB Colt Brennan after this season and is itching for a chance to prove that his system can work at a major level. Moreover, I think Jones could take an athletic QB like sophomore Thaddeus Lewis and work wonders.
Will Duke make the bold decision? Or will they make the 'safe' choice?
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3 comments:
First off Dave, you cannot seriously compare the football program at Duke to that of South Carolina. SC actually has fans, and lots of them, not just tailgaters. Except for 2 awful years in 1998 and 1999, they have consistently been .500 or better in the past 25 years, a claim Duke cannot even come close to matching. On top of that, Spurrier received a membership to Augusta National to be the coach, so while I like WaDuke, no way would Spurrier have even considered Duke. Even so, Spurrier has not done much at SC; they are no more nationally prominent than they were when he arrived, which is to say they are still toiling in the world of insertnamehere.com bowls. As for June Jones, an interesting choice, and perhaps it would take a nontraditional coach to succeed at Duke, but is Durham really worth leaving Hawaii? How about Lloyd Carr, I hear he has a lot of time on his hands and he won't have to worry about playing Ohio State.
What about Bill Callahan? He sure shakes things up...and opens up offenses. Duke's defense cant get any worse (28 pts to ND) so Callahan cant screw that up anymore.
If I were an AD at any college in America, my top choice to coach my football team would be Dan Mullen. Mullen is currently the O-coordinator and QB coach at Florida. He has been Urban Meyer's right-hand man ever since Meyer's days at Bowling Green.
All that said, I don't think Duke could pry Mullen away from Florida unless they seriously paid the man.
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