The inside story of a toxic culture at Maryland football
- Thread starter GSG
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Michiganball
Well-known member
I get the not to push to hard, definitely for someone life to be in danger(though I wonder if the poor kid had some pre existing condition), but some of those complaints are a bit weak sauce. You were yelled at,, called a b!^@h? something was thrown in your direction?(for shame) Verbal abuse, intimidation , hell that sounds like some regular jobs I had as a kid.
JJ Husker
Well-known member
Hey, as long as they quit killing players.......Can't imagine this is helping their recruiting. Doesn't sound like a place I would like to play or let my kid play at. Pretty hard to get players to run through walls for you if they can't stand you or the culture you are fostering.
Michiganball
Well-known member
Very true, but killing players? Plural? Doubt it would happen again, deaths in training do happen however in other sports as well, also just as rarely. Story definitely doesn't help recruiting, but I wonder how much of this is Espn trying to get another big scoop by inflating Maryland's "sins" with certain quotes and over dramatic presentation, despite that this is what goes on in most successful programs, minus the mean yelling.
JJ Husker
Well-known member
I have no idea if ESPN is embellishing or inflating or over dramatizing but it seems there are plenty of sources who are/were inside the program that are telling similar damning stories. I’ll disagree with you that this is how successful programs are run. There’s a significant difference between pushing athletes to their limit and their best and what seems to be happening at Maryland. And there is also a big difference between an unexpected sudden training death and one in which there were apparently signs of medical distress that were ignored. Should we return to the days when water was for the weak? The coaches and trainers have to be aware that physical limits do in fact exist.
Mierin
Well-known member
The problem I have with the screaming, verbal abuse, throwing s#!t at people is I find it highly unlikely that it's a good teaching method or a good motivator. So not only does it not accomplish your goals, you're also making people feel like s#!t.
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Landlord
Banned
In all seriousness, screw this antiquated, archaic macho masculine bulls#!t. The world has moved on, and there's no room for legitimate abuse masquerading under the guise of tough love anymore. Defenders will chalk it up to the pussification of society or snowflake culture, but that is not the case. Reality is that society has grown up and has found better behavior towards goals. There are better, healthier ways to inspire, encourage, teach, criticize, punish, etc. than something straight out of a 1960's military boot camp manual.
Not only that, but that approach isn't even conducive to high yielding results anyways. Even from a selfish/win at any cost perspective, that approach just isn't effective towards getting the most out of your players.
Not only that, but that approach isn't even conducive to high yielding results anyways. Even from a selfish/win at any cost perspective, that approach just isn't effective towards getting the most out of your players.
Mierin
Well-known member
How would you define seeing it work? We have examples of assholes being winning coaches but we don’t know they wouldn’t have been good without throwing chairs at people.
husker98
Well-known member
This is for Teachercd to respond too but i'll also throw this out for consideration that Bob Devaney would be "seeing how this works". He nearly got into a fist fight with jerry murtaugh at one point, and some of the other stories you can read about his reign reveal lots of profanity and intimidation and a treatment of players that we would deem unacceptable but is still in use today.
But as the result shows this method of coaching can be very effective when done correctly, making an incredibly tough and resilient team that can survive anything. And built our program.
However on the flip side if done incorrectly it can lead to an epic implosion or other fall flat on face performances. For instance UCF under o'leary also used this style and it worked until his final year when injuries and other misfortunes piled up and the team quit on him to go 0-12.
huKSer
Well-known member
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teachercd
Well-known member
I guess I would define it by saying they still get a ton of kids out for the team and they still field good teams.
It is often times really tough for the a$$h@!e type coach to change how he/she coaches...I am the laid back joke around coach and I just really have a hard time trying to change and be a$$h@!e tough guy coach.
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gorp512
Well-known member
It's not. Scott Frost mentioned his philosophy of positive reinforcement within the first 5 minutes of his introductory press conference. Autonomy and self efficacy are beautiful things.