With all due respect to Mary and Harold "Spike" Yoh and the alumni and students who support Duke Football, what real purpose is served by having a $22 million, state-of-the-art football training facility and spending millions more on improvements to Wallace Wade Stadium if Duke is unwilling to cough up the money necessary to attract and retain a football coach of the caliber that this institution deserves?
Football coaches at the NCAA's top-level schools are making an average of $950,000 a year, not including benefits and endorsements. Former football head coach Ted Roof's salary was about half of this figure.
High-caliber coaches attract high-caliber players. High-caliber players win games. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. Duke's last, best chance was with Steve Spurrier and Duke let him get away. After 18 years of sub-par football, isn't it time to really get serious? I don't mean lip-service serious, but pull-out-the-checkbook serious.
David Eck
Durham
Manager of Visiting Services,
Nasher Museum of Art
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