Mike Elko is done with Duke University Football

What's wrong? I have no clue what to get my book club secret Santa. Wine? We bring that every week. Wine and a 40-ounce tumbler.

Go on. With a clever statement, so you love putting wine in it. Naughty, but from where? Piper Lou. They have unlimited buy one get one free with Code Radio on tumblers, tees, hoodies, personalized everything.

Even Christmas party shirts. Unlimited buy one get one free? Go with Code Radio at piperlou.com. That's piperlou.com. Ben Bird. Bull City Coordinators, I believe, is how it's titled, but they are at Duke Football Coverage. He does the Duke Football blog and podcast, and they are all about what's best for Duke Football. He joins us on the Adam Gold Show.

Ben, thank you very much for your time. Your overall thoughts, sort of about how Mike Elko chose to leave, which is certainly not flattering, but also that he chose to leave. What's running through your head?

What are you guys getting ready to talk about tomorrow? Well, Adam, thanks a lot for having me on. I appreciate it. As far as why and how, I just want to first say thank you to Coach Elko for his almost two full seasons, the two bowl games.

I appreciate what he did here, which included making the players enjoy football for the first time in a long time. There's a whole back story there that we don't have time to get into, I'm sure. I'm not going to complain about him going to get a bigger paycheck. He's got families to feed. I understand that.

You know, we're in a business, we do different things, but we're in it to make money. That's fine. As far as how he left, I think that the way that he left under the cover of night, like the Baltimore Colts or like the abandoning of the embassy in Saigon, that kind of image that we have of it is going to haunt him for a long time. I don't think that it was a good thing. I think the Zoom meeting that apparently he did at 10 in the morning with the players. I don't think that was a good thing. I think it's a bad look.

As far as him leaving, I know that you're going to start hearing some stuff about from his camp about lack of NIL support and maybe Duke hadn't fully adapted to that yet. And we need to wait for all that stuff to come out. Sure. Okay. Whatever. I understand it.

But you're in year two and it's a new landscape. And Duke, you know, like you remember that ridiculous movie Armageddon where Bruce Willis says you're NASA. For Christ's sakes, you've got a room of people that just think stuff up and then a room behind them backing them up. Okay. I'm sure Duke could figure it out if you give them time.

I mean, they started the Durham Devils Club this year. Right. And then on top of that, Elko has gotten all the support that he's wanted. Okay. I mean, Elko is supposedly a smart guy. I don't think there's any question about this.

But this move is the exact 180 degree opposite of smart. Okay. A&M is an eight to nine win program, eight to nine win a year program. Just look at them since they joined the Big 12. Eleven to win seasons are outliers. Okay. And, you know, someone in Fisher, we're not having losing seasons every year.

And they both got shown the door. Okay. Going to A&M, what he's done in Durham will get him fired. Okay. I'll get a large buyout because there's a lot of money there. Yeah.

Get that. That makes sense. But it's kind of like the birds from the Ozarks when they're like, yeah, you know, we can launder money for this drug cartel.

Nothing bad will happen at all. You know, they delude themselves into thinking, yeah, this is a good job. This makes a lot of sense. You know, it's like arrested development. Oh, no, it never works out. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking that it might.

But but it might work for us. And I just I don't get it. I mean, it's his ability to succeed in Durham is, you know, obviously, you know, other than the injuries that they suffered from this year, he's done very, very well there.

He's building something. It's easier, I think, to get to the playoffs in the ACC than it is the SEC. Yes. It just it does not make sense to me, especially the school. This is the first head coaching job you had. They opened the wallet for you, hired all the staff you want. D.C. left in the off season. They opened the wallet so you could get Santucci to come coach here in Durham.

It's done everything that you wanted. You do not treat a school like that. I've left law firms in my career and I know it's not the same, but this is not how you leave a place. I'm disappointed in that. And then we can talk about his legacy later, which I'd like to get into. But those are my general thoughts on Elko leaving and the reason for him leaving. I just don't think it's a good move on his part. No, I agree with you. Two things that I have that I said.

One, when I saw the news last night was he's getting a bigger paycheck, but he's going to have the same chance to win. And part of it is the landscape. Part of it is the neighborhood. And when you're sitting in the SEC and you're Texas A&M and now you're the second biggest fish in your own state, in this in that same conference behind Texas and you're dealing with Oklahoma. And now those two schools have even more reason to get the recruits you want because they also have deep pockets and they're in the SEC. And you're dealing with Alabama and LSU and Georgia. And if Florida ever gets it back or Tennessee stays consistent, it is just that much more difficult. You can definitely win enough at Duke to put yourself in position because we're not dumb. The SEC or the ACC, rather, in a for a general rule, isn't as strong or as deep as the Southeastern Conference.

We all understand that. I also think that and I said this a few minutes ago and I think I told you this earlier when you and I were chatting offline was I believe that Duke rather Texas A&M will fire Mike Elko well before Duke ever fires another football coach. I don't think Elko's got more than four years before he's going to get fired when he doesn't win 10 games a year. And I think Duke will find a coach that can keep them in a pretty good spot. And they're not about to fire a coach that just keeps them competitive and good. Like they they let David Cuckliffe be the head coach there well beyond his sell by date.

And they weren't even competitive and good the last few years. I think you're I think you're absolutely right. And to your point about Elko likely being shown the door and A&M. I'm not wishing that that happens to him. I don't I don't hold any ill will about that.

I mean, you know, if he succeeds great, I think it's going to be very difficult. And let's go back to why what happened to the previous two head coaches who were there despite their success. OK.

But but think about it like this, too. Stuks was Judy was boring. Hello. Then Judy discovered Chumba casino dot com.

It's my little escape. Now Judy's the life of the party. Oh, baby. Mama's bringing home the bacon. Whoa.

Take it easy, Judy. The Chumba life is for everybody. So go to Chumba casino dot com and play over 100 casino style games. Join today and play for free for your chance to redeem some serious prices. Chumba casino dot com.

No purchase necessary for prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details to be the guy. They were going to hire him.

And then there was some sort of palace, too. So you're going to go into a play. You're going to go into college station knowing that you're second. You're the second choice. You're not the first option. Does that make any sense?

How committed are they to you? I mean, you might be committed to them to dust off that fleece that you had when you were on the staff there early in the morning. OK, but I mean, it doesn't make sense. And he had a chance for a real legacy here in Durham if he had stayed like another three years and given us five good years. I mean, Adam, when we look back on the Elko era, we're going to ask ourselves, what is his legacy? We're going to say, well, he has fewer wins than Fred Goldsmith. OK, his teams never beat Carolina. I'm not going to get into the reasons behind that.

I don't have enough time for that today. But, OK, he didn't win a division title. He didn't want a conference title. Cutcliffe and Spurrier did both of those.

And they also beat Carolina. Spurrier never lost to him. Right. And Elko is not even going back to a place where he won the Heisman like Spurrier did. He's not going back to his alma mater where people can excuse it. He's not. He had a chance to build a legacy here. But what did he do?

He took he came into the perfect situation in Durham, which is kind of counterintuitive. But here's what I mean by that. You know this.

I'm I'm in my early 40s. I followed Duke football for a long time. OK, Duke is at its best under a specific set of circumstances, typically when there is an older roster there. That's what Elko inherited. And then he took that older roster, got the maximum out of it, got guys to buy in, got guys to come back again, appreciate him making them love football again.

That can't be you can't appreciate that enough. But he got every year out of that eligibility. He stripped the resources and then he left to go to Texas A&M.

And that makes perfect sense because that's how all the alums in College Station got the money to pay Jimbo's buyout through through stripping the natural resources. Wow. Let's just be real.

That's very funny. Look at the roster. Yeah, you're right.

No, you're right. For next year. Look at the roster for next year.

Look at all the guys Duke are losing. And there's a credible argument that bitter fans are going to make. I'm not going to get into that. I'm going to wait and see. But but it's fair to say he wasn't willing to do the program rebuilding work like Cutcliffe did.

Let me ask you two quick things. We only have about 90 seconds left. So you're saying that the roster next year is not going to be great. So it's going to be a difficult rebuild. It's actually really one question is going to be a difficult rebuild. And there is a sentiment out there that Duke should not go after somebody that they believe they'll have to replace.

I believe it's the opposite. I believe they should plan on replacing, not firing, but replacing a head coach every two or every three years, because that means your head coach is in demand. I think that that is certainly a good take.

I mean, let's be honest. Every time you hire a head coach, you're planning on firing him at some point. That's just the way these things work. Right. There's very few people who stay forever.

All right. I think the fan base would like to see a guy who's going to be in it for the long haul, kind of like Cutcliffe was. There's got to be a balance between what we got with our last two head coaches, though. Well, again, I think David Cutcliffe stayed because he chose not to go back to Tennessee even after they pursued him.

He could have gone back. Right. So I just think that if you're Duke, you are it is to your benefit to hire a coach that other schools want.

That means you have done well. It's hard. The Duke job for obvious reasons, academic restrictions, lack of lack of local fan support. I we Cutcliffe got here and, you know, before the aughts began and even at the height, Wallace Wade Stadium wasn't filled.

It ain't a big place. It's hard to create a game day environment that is that is, I don't want to say, worth coming to that is super attractive to high school kids. So you're recruiting a special kind of player, a player who's probably looking at it academically as much as anything else. The opportunity to get a Duke degree like Notre Dame wants those guys to Florida State wants those guys.

All programs want those types of players. It's it's difficult when you can't sell the other things. It's really hard to win there. So I think if you get the right coach, you should just plan on hiring the the next right coach two or three years down the road. I just don't think you can hire somebody. You won't be successful if you're trying to hire somebody long term. You may be right about that.

I think that that's that's the correct way to look at it. I just hope that we get somebody, whoever the next person is, is going to stay longer than two years. This really puts the Blue Devils behind the eight ball. Go look at the roster and look at all the seniors who are coming off and the key pieces who were coming off.

This is a real bad time to lose a head coach. No question about it. Ben Bird at Duke, FB coverage on Twitter.

I appreciate your time. Bull City. Look, you both both city coordinators.

Right. So that is the name of the Web site, Bull City coordinators dot com. I have to become more familiar with all of the stuff that you guys do. Your podcast is going to drop tomorrow night, correct? We're going to record it tomorrow night.

I'm not sure what day we're going to get it up, but it'll be up this week. All right, Ben, I appreciate your time. I'll reach out again. I hope you do, too. Absolutely. Thanks, sir. You got it. With the lucky landslide, you can get lucky just about anywhere. This is your captain speaking. We've got clear runway and the weather's fine, but we're just going to circle up here a while and get lucky.

No, no, nothing like that. It's just these cash prizes add up quick. So I suggest you sit back, keep your tray table upright and start getting lucky. Play for free at lucky landslide dot com.

Are you feeling lucky? No purchase necessary. Void were prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See Web site for details.