Jabrill on Eisen talking about DJ Durkin
#Browns safety @JabrillPeppers played for suspended Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin while he was Michigan's defensive coordinator in 2015 and said this about his coaching style: pic.twitter.com/wCzyN9xxjO
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) August 14, 2018
Saying how he and some other players didn't like how Durkin left, I'm guessing that's about how he had one foot out the door when we played OSU? Either way, Jabrill seemed very measured with his comments.
August 14th, 2018 at 3:32 PM ^
It also sounds like some of the stuff he is accused of doing at MD he did at Michigan. And I'm sure he did at Florida under Muschamp too. Which isn't shocking and goes back to the problems around football culture that illustrate that these things aren't due to one bad actor.
August 14th, 2018 at 3:57 PM ^
Muschamp in particular has been a vocal defender of Durkin and his style, and by all accounts Muschamp is a pretty big meathead. So I'm not all that surprised that him and Durkin share a coaching style.
August 14th, 2018 at 3:36 PM ^
Remember when we were all bummed about Durkin possibly leaving before the Ohio State game and then his game plan sucked & he left and we were all okay with it and then Don Brown came on board... yeah, fuck DJ Durkin, he's definitely not a dude!
August 14th, 2018 at 4:14 PM ^
Yes. In his time with us, Durkin seemed like a bright, ultra competitive coach and good recruiter. Even after OSU, I feared his leaving would be a big loss, but Don Brown has been such a significant upgrade those concerns seems foolish in retrospect. We definitely came out ahead in Brown for Durkin.
August 14th, 2018 at 4:24 PM ^
I still can't believe how we managed to upgrade, and severely so, after losing Durkin. Harbaugh made a brilliant hire in going after Brown. Did what he was supposed to do:
Go get the best there is, hire them, and then when they're here, just get out of the way.
August 14th, 2018 at 4:30 PM ^
Agreed... and for the record, Don Brown is not A dude but Don Brown is THE dude!
August 14th, 2018 at 5:26 PM ^
Harbaugh knew the deal to get Durkin, who wanted to be a HC... theres nothing wrong with him leaving.. the timing sucked, but this was what was accepted, to get him to coach here... am glad we have Brown.
August 14th, 2018 at 6:19 PM ^
....but also the way. The defensiveness "gameplan" he had for THEEEEEEE ohio game was a joke - have our players run to the part of the field they were not going to be at. One of the worst, if not the worst, defensive efforts I have ever seen by us. Fuck mr. crabcakes!!!
August 14th, 2018 at 7:20 PM ^
Pending this season, it might be time to do the same thing on the offensive side of the ball: "Go get the best there is, hire them, and then when they're here, just get out of the way."
August 14th, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^
I always had nuetral feelings toward Durkin. I always thought his defenses were a product of inheriting from Mattison, plus he had Mattison on staff. It was really 75% (or more) Mattison's defense IMO.
I have way more respect for the coaching job of Don Brown than Durkin. What Don Brown did at shitty BC with shit players against amazing offenses trumps anything Durkin did anywhere. There also seems to be great chemistry/respect between Brown and Mattison.
August 14th, 2018 at 3:55 PM ^
I think Durkin took Mattison's defense to another level, but I agree that he didn't do anything special as far as defensive coaching goes. Brown is definitely a big upgrade as far as defensive coaching goes. Where Durkin is missed the most is in recruiting.
August 14th, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
Yeah there is a lot of Durkin revisionist history. Yeah he obviously mentally checked out prior to the osu game and that left a bad taste in people’s mouths but he had an aggressive top 10 defense that won Michigan games early in the year when the offense couldn’t generate anything.
August 14th, 2018 at 5:59 PM ^
I don't think people have disputed that he had a good season overall (we shut out three opponents!), but it feels like he mailed it in against OSU and that's the final memory he left here.
August 14th, 2018 at 7:33 PM ^
What brought the defense to the next level is that he inherited a group that would see 7 guys drafted in the first 4 rounds of the 2017 NFL as they become upperclassmen. Plus, Willie Henry. He stepped into as good a situation as possible thanks to the recruiting of Hoke and Mattison in 2012 and 2013. He seems like just a guy as a coach.
But I agree with you that his recruiting seems to be missed. The M class of 2016 was absurd in retrospect and a good chunk of that has to be credited to him. Somewhere between 7 and 9 starters on this years defense, which should be around a top 5 unit, were in that signle class: Gary, Long, Hill, Bush Jr., Hudson, Metellus, Dwumfour and give or take a Kemp, Gil, Uche or Hawkins on the two deep. That's an incredible hit rate. I will admit the 2017 class was similarly pretty stacked so maybe those two classes just made it tough in 2018 to get guys to come. Remains to be seen whether the defensive recruiting has indeed taken a long term hit after a bit of down 2018.
August 14th, 2018 at 7:59 PM ^
I don't think it's just that. We remained a top 10 D last year despite returning only one starter. Plus there is the matter of him fielding elite defenses at Boston College of all places.
August 15th, 2018 at 12:52 AM ^
Uhhh, what? I was talking about Durkin and the situation he stepped into. As bad as the team was in 2014, the defense was ranked 13th in S&P and everyone returned as upperclassmen plus a healthy Peppers became available for Durkin in 2015. He inherited a really, REALLY good unit, injected some energy into it such that they pitched a couple very impressive shutouts early on but then was largely solved by the end of the year (IU, OSU).
You sound like you're talking about Don Brown who took the same players Durkin had in 2015 (minus Willie Henry but plus a healthy Glasgow) and made them a historically good defense in 2016, significantly better than they were in 2015.
Don Brown is incredible and no one is disputing that. Best in CFB probably.
I'm saying that I don't think Durkin has ever really coached beyond his defensive talent level. Maryland was 45th in S&P+ in 2015 but dropped to 79th in 2016 and 85th last year on defense. Those are very bad defenses and he should feel bad. His defensive coaching is thoroughly mediocre, at best.
August 14th, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^
I honestly would never have pictured Durkin to be a "bully," as Peppers said, or as the allegations would leave us to believe. He almost comes off the opposite to me. Maybe it's his goofy grin.
I think there's a good chance that he still gets fired. Whether it's OSU or Maryland or both, programs need to start taking responsibility from the top down to change the actual culture and lead by example for the rest of the NCAA. As long we have this mindset that it's not a culture problem, or the head coach didn't know, yadda yadda, nothing will change.
It would be nice for a B10 university to show some real character in response to these various scandals. You can't take back what's happened, but you can at least make a genuine attempt to reform. Or not. And we can continue to watch college football as an institution slowly disintegrate.
August 14th, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^
I can't imagine he's retained. He was responsible, even if indirectly, for a player dying while entrusted to his program. As you said, the people at the top can and should be accountable for the culture of their programs and the actions of their reports when those actions are systemic and enabled.
August 14th, 2018 at 3:57 PM ^
I was reading that some of his current staff and the people in his camp were reaching out to former players to get them to Tweet or speak words of support for D.J and all they got was crickets. Not one player was willing to speak out on his behalf. That speaks volumes about the type of person he was to them. Not saying he can't change, but if you can't get 1 former player to say a nice thing about you, wow.
August 15th, 2018 at 3:08 PM ^
That's not true, there was an article where plenty of players and former players defended him (although, in some cases it might have been better for Durkin if they had not).
August 14th, 2018 at 3:59 PM ^
We can expand the dictionary entry:
Durkin (v.) /dɜːkɪn/
1. To blow off one's duties as assistant coach when other professional opportunities arise.
It's no wonder their defense stunk; the DC Durkined the gameplan while he was interviewing at Central Florida.
2. To bully one's players to the extreme in the pursuit of "toughness."
The free agent didn't want to re-sign with the team because the coach Durkined his players all the time.
August 14th, 2018 at 7:16 PM ^
That iteration of The Game will forever be known as The Durkining
August 14th, 2018 at 4:00 PM ^
It sounds like his shock comes from thinking that he wouldn't continue to be a bully as a head coach, not that he wasn't a bully as a DC. Hopefully Harbaugh did not allow things to go as far as they are alleged to have gone at Maryland.
August 14th, 2018 at 4:21 PM ^
Dude checked out before the game and then killed a kid—fuck him.
August 14th, 2018 at 9:13 PM ^
Was he even part of the practices? I don’t think he was even there, I could be wrong though...
August 15th, 2018 at 6:32 AM ^
He was there according to thethe University Maryland.
August 14th, 2018 at 4:25 PM ^
That sure as hell wasnt a ringing endorsement
August 14th, 2018 at 4:31 PM ^
Given that the school has owned the situation, and given that the training staff was summarily canned, I see no scenario in which Durkin is retained. A player died. Through negligence. No way the school wants Durkin around as a symbol of its tragedy.
August 14th, 2018 at 5:03 PM ^
I would not be surprised if he laid a fucking egg on Michigan vs his old scumbag buddy Urban knowing he was already out the door.
August 14th, 2018 at 5:19 PM ^
Pretty scathing comments from Jabrill
August 14th, 2018 at 9:12 PM ^
Personally I never liked Durkin and his smile. Lol I mean dude always looked like he was smiling.
Peppers - He did Durkin no favors in that interview ouch!!!!
August 14th, 2018 at 10:57 PM ^
Maryland President gave statement (Jamie Morris played the clip on MZone, heard while driving home): School accepts full "legal and moral responsibility." Amazing way to handle. (Take notes, MSU, OSU, and PSU).
No freaking way Durkin can survive this.
August 15th, 2018 at 2:53 AM ^
Jabrill is a poor mans Hudson. #overrated
August 15th, 2018 at 8:01 AM ^
What shocks me is that the University waited several months to take action or issue any kind of statement involving a player death.They wasted no time once ESPN started talking about it. Had there been no article I bet the strength coach would still be working there.
August 15th, 2018 at 8:52 AM ^
I still blame Durkin for losing that game.
August 15th, 2018 at 8:22 PM ^
Story is unlikely to go away. I expect reporters will be talking to lots of former players at Michigan and Florida about his style.... would find it possible (if not likely) that unflattering anecdotes about his time at Michigan make the news. Harbaugh’s no comment may work for now but will become untenable if something ugly comes out.