WACO, Texas — Meeting in emergency session, the executive committee of the
American Football Coaches Association voted unanimously to expel Duke University
head football coach David Cutcliffe from its ranks for “conduct unbecoming a
collegiate head football coach.”
“He is making us all look bad,” said Edward Spitzenmaus, the executive director of the
AFCA. “Coach Cutcliffe’s actions have disrupted the entire football hierarchy, a set
system which his willful actions have damaged, hopefully not irreparably,” said
Spitzenmaus.
“A coach at a place such as Duke simply cannot turn down an offer from a place such
as the University of Tennessee, not without grave consequences to college football as
a whole,” added Spitzenmaus.
According to football analyst Mel Kiper, Jr., “When the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks fired
their coach Jim Mora, after one season’s tenure, Cutcliffe should have known that day
that he would be changing jobs. The coaching carousel is pretty predictable really.
“Here’s the way it goes. Mora’s gone on Friday. University of Southern California’s Pete
Carroll is hired by Seattle on Tuesday; the same day Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffen
is hired by USC to replace Carroll. Cutcliffe should have been picking out his suit for
the press conference in Knoxville on Wednesday.
“Instead he was ‘mulling over the decision.’ That was OK, playing hard to get is a
standard part of the salary negotiation process — but announcing on Friday that he is
staying at Duke, that is nigh unto unforgiveable,” said Kiper. “The man didn’t even ask
Duke for a raise,” a clearly befuddled Kiper added.
The ripple effect of Cutcliffe’s “inexplicable inaction” is still being felt, said Myles
Brand, the president of the NCAA, in support of the AFCA’s decision. “How do you
think Lane Kiffin felt when Cutcliffe refused to leave Duke? Kiffin was willing to
sacrifice his family, putting his responsibility to the larger system above personal
factors,” said Brand.
As analyst Kiper explained Kiffin’s sacrifice, “When he took the USC job, Kiffin didn’t
have time to tell his brother-in-law, David Reaves, one of his assistant coaches.
Reaves found out Kiffin was gone while sitting in a restaurant watching TV. Kiffin gets
it.”
“Cutcliffe obviously doesn’t. He was talking to his wife and his child, and, God help us,
‘praying about his decision,’ when he should have been negotiating with the Tennessee
AD. The man has no sense of propriety,” Kiper added.
Since it was founded in 1922, the improvement of the coaching profession and the
sport of football has always been among the top priorities of the American Football
Coaches Association.
RoyHasGotToGo.com re-activated
CHAPEL HILL — Following three consecutive losses, and four losses in the past five
games by the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team, Nathaniel Naibobb
has announced that he has re-activated the RoyHasGotToGo.com website. Naibobb
says he expects traffic to be brisk.
The site, which was de-activated in April 2009 following UNC’s national championship
win, promotes itself as “a place for those disgruntled with Roy Williams to become
more disgruntled.”
“Oh, sure, the yea-sayers are going to say that Coach Williams has the best winning
percentage among all active Division I head basketball coaches — but who wouldn’t
with the players he has had?” asks Naibobb.
“Take John Calipari, head coach of the soon-to-be number-one-ranked University of
Kentucky Wildcats. If you give him credit for the two final-four seasons worth of wins
that were vacated for NCAA-rules violations, his record may be just about as good,
maybe better,” Naibobb observed.
“UNC’s national championship was great and all that — but I can’t count the sleepless
nights I’ve spent since then thinking about underclassmen going pro, recruits who got
away, and games missed because of injury. We fans deserve better.” said Naibobb.
The Tar Heels, who were ranked in the preseason poll in the top 10 for one primary
reason (jersey color), now teeter on the brink of extinction at number 24.
Gary D. Gaddy has figured out a way for Roy to tell the Tar Heel twins, Travis and David
Wear, apart. One of them wears “43” and the other doesn’t
A version of this column was published in the Chapel Hill Herald on Friday January 22,
2010.
Copyright 2010 Gary D. Gaddy
garygaddy.com 