They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and in the case of the Duke football program, that’s especially true. When you’ve won a total of 11 games in the last three years (for comparison’s sake, four teams from the SEC won 11 games last year alone) it’s never a bad thing when you’re in the news.
Well on Monday morning, Duke football was in the news, for the unexpected of reasons: A young man by the name of Hud Mellencamp will be attempting to walk on to their football team. And if the last name didn’t tell you everything you need to know about the story, well, it should’ve. Hud is the son of famed singer John Mellencamp.
The news was first reported by CBS’s Bruce Feldman on Twitter, who added an interesting little nugget at the end of his tweet:
John Mellencamp’s son is walking onto Duke football team as a DB. Hud Mellencamp, a Golden Gloves boxer, didn’t play HS football.
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) June 4, 2012
No, we’re not talking about the part where the younger Mellencamp didn’t play football in high school, although that’s certainly an interesting nugget. That nugget may also cause the internet to blow up after about 290,000 people make the same, “Apparently you don’t have to have any football experience to actually play at Duke” jokes. To which I say, bravo my friends. You’re all hysterical. Each and every one of you.
No, the interesting part is that Hud was an amateur Gold Gloves champion. The Mellencamp’s are based out of Bloomington, IN, and some quick Google “research” yields that the younger Mellencamp won the 132 lb., 14-year-old division in 2009, over someone named Cody Bennett (no word on whether or not Bennett plans on walking on to Wake Forest’s football team).
All joking aside though, if the video above shows one thing, it’s that Mellencamp will certainly bring some toughness to his walk-on tryout in Durham this summer.
Whether he’ll make the team? Well that’s another story.
But hey, it’s the beginning of June, and we’re talking about Duke football. That alone might be the Blue Devils biggest win of 2012.
For all his articles, opinions and insights into college football, please follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.
