The inside story of a toxic culture at Maryland football

husker98 said:
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.
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To be fair, Jerry Murtaugh would get in a fist fight with Mother Theresa. 20 years after he was done playing he and his brother(s) could still be found starting bar brawls. Guy was a violent tool.

But more importantly, the culture has changed significantly in the last 30-40 years. That's pretty much just the way coaches were back then.

 
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I don't really have a problem with profanity in general from coaches, but it kind of depends on how it's used. I do not have a problem with a college or pro coach saying "What the F*$k are you doing?" or "You guys are playing like s#!t right now."

However, if it shifts toward "What are you doing you mother f*$&#r?" or "You are just a piece of s#!t." or "stop being such a p#@!y" then it's more problematic. If these last three examples are rare, I can live with it. If it happens routinely, then it's more troublesome.

 
Durkin is done IMO.  This is categorically worse than what happened to Beckman at Illinois and he got whacked.

 
Hans Gruber said:
I don't really have a problem with profanity in general from coaches, but it kind of depends on how it's used. I do not have a problem with a college or pro coach saying "What the F*$k are you doing?" or "You guys are playing like s#!t right now."

However, if it shifts toward "What are you doing you mother f*$&#r?" or "You are just a piece of s#!t." or "stop being such a p#@!y" then it's more problematic. If these last three examples are rare, I can live with it. If it happens routinely, then it's more troublesome.
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I agree. I have no problem with them swearing or even yelling at players. The problem is belittling them, making fun and mocking, making them over eat, and running them out of the program in a chickensh#t manner. The coaches are there to help the players learn and operate at their peak, not to be an outlet for their aggression. It’s just stupid if they think this treatment will lead to anything good for the team or players.

 
Comfortably Numb said:
To be fair, Jerry Murtaugh would get in a fist fight with Mother Theresa. 20 years after he was done playing he and his brother(s) could still be found starting bar brawls. Guy was a violent tool.

But more importantly, the culture has changed significantly in the last 30-40 years. That's pretty much just the way coaches were back then.
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Precisely, this is why there is still so much of it going on. i imagine it will die or evolve with time. But our program and many others where built with that model so i find it hard to look down on anyone else for using it. 

And yea jerry is the best  :D

 
Comfortably Numb said:
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.
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Well they are run with that much intensity, I did not say humiliation or ignoring a person in distress  was part of them so not sure why you are going there. No one I think disagrees with physical near death limits and not wanting a player to actually die, but they are driven hard physically in any top program, no if and but. If you are not driven past your last limit you dont improve. this goes for sports or most things in life.

 
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Michiganball said:
Well they are run with that much intensity, I did not say humiliation or ignoring a person in distress  was part of them so not sure why you are going there. No one I think disagrees with physical near death limits and not wanting a player to actually die, but they are driven hard physically in any top program, no if and but. If you are not driven past your last limit you dont improve. this goes for sports or most things in life.
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I went there because that is where Maryland seems to have gone. Of course successful programs are pushed, hard, to achieve that success. Do you really think that is all that is going on with Maryland?

 
Swiv3D said:
Better question is how many times have players had stuff thrown at them or were forced to eat junk food like private Pyle? 
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I only ask because there is no physical way the Huskers put on as much muscle weight as has been reported by lifting and training to failure like the Maryland staff allegedly had the Terps doing. They wouldn't have lasted until camp if they had. 

Those training methods are so archaic and incompetent that it's amazing someone was allowed to do that to players in 2018. They will be slower, more susceptible to injury, and gassed easily. 

 
husker98 said:
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".
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Bob Devaney coached 50 years ago. The profession of coaching, as well as psychology, science, social science, neurology, and so on have all advanced a whole hell of a lot in 50 years and taught us new, better, more effective ways of conducting ourselves. 

 
Landlord said:
Bob Devaney coached 50 years ago. The profession of coaching, as well as psychology, science, social science, neurology, and so on have all advanced a whole hell of a lot in 50 years and taught us new, better, more effective ways of conducting ourselves. 
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Thats true. But for this generation of coaches, and the next generation they are teaching, this is what they know. And worse it has been successful for a good number of them so this culture wont just disappear because some people said its bad all of a sudden. And as this is a success driven industry they will continue to do what they know works because it puts food on the table for them and their families. 

These things change with time, and i'm sure it will. And the sport will be better for it. 

 
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