Weaker teams can provide stronger futures
July 31st, 2008 - by
Why is this man smiling?
This smirking gent is none other than new Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe, and indeed, he should be smiling.
First of all, because one can assume the cameraman told him so (and from my experience, cameramen mean business when they tell you to say “cheese”).
But secondly, because Cutcliffe is finding out that just because you take over a team with a combined four wins over the last four seasons, doesn’t mean you can’t sign two 4-star and three 3-star recruits.
And Cutcliffe did just that.
Now, this isn’t to say that the Blue Devils, who were 1-10 last year, are going to be BCS-bound in 2008 — or even have an above .500 winning percentage. But rather than accepting the fact that Duke has, is and always will be a “basketball school,” Cutcliffe is making a conscious effort to improve his situation.
That’s lesson one — although you might be playing against some teams that have been historically better than your school, doesn’t mean you should come in expecting to lose. Otherwise, what are you playing for – to be average?
Put in some extra practice time, do that one extra-rep. I guarantee that four-star recruits weren’t lining up outside of Cutcliffe’s door. He had to put in some extra elbow grease to get where he wanted to be, including fighting the big boys. From the article:
The headliner has to be four-star running back Desmond Scott, the nation’s No. 4 all-purpose back out of Hillside (Durham, N.C.). He turned down scholarship offers from many of the nation’s top teams, and he had made a commitment to Rutgers. But he had a change of heart and is instead staying closer to home.
Here’s lesson two — as a recruit, don’t shed away from the opportunity to be a big player at a sub-par team. During the recruiting process, the goal is to stand out and above the crowd. So why should you necessarily play for a team where you’re going to be back in the crowd? If Scott were to go to an Virginia Tech, a USC or a Ohio State, he’d still be a four-star recruit, but he’d be surrounded by a lot more fellow four-star recruits and some blue-chippers. And at those programs, there’s a lot of pressure to have a very successful season.
With Duke, Scott is at the forefront. He’ll more than likely start as a freshman, and because Duke has been so bad, he’s not going to feel a ton of pressure to win five or six games. If Duke wins just two, the season’s better than last year.
Here’s another thing going for some of these less powerful schools – you can get a good education! In the 2007 NCSA Power Rankings, which “are calculated for each college/university at the NCAA Division I, II and III levels by averaging the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup ranking, the NCAA student-athlete graduation rate of each college/university and the U.S. News & World Report ranking,” Duke finished in 3rd place, ranked No. 8 in academics and No. 16 in graduation rate. My alma mater, Truman State University (No. 69 on the list), never really had tremendous football or basketball programs, but we were ranked No. 1 as far as graduation rate.
And here’s what I tell every family I talk to: Unless you’re in that extreme upper echelon of football, men’s basketball and baseball and have a realistic chance of being drafted, it’s all about getting that degree. Playing for a competitive program is important to some players, but in the end, what you do on the field will pale in comparison to what you do in the classroom.
So don’t immediately rule out a school because of its low winning percentage. Ten years later, after you’ve graduated from that school, and when you’re working at a job that you love and making a decent living, you’ll realize that you’re truly experiencing a high winning percentage.
