I don’t think it was so much that he couldn’t compete/win the job as the Duke QB – he just didn’t WANT to do both.I can’t even begin to imagine how much time/effort it takes just to play ONE D-I sport at the highest level, let alone two, and at a place like Duke  with legit academic considerations (or ND/BC/Cuse, where he also had offers to play both sports).  His father was quoted as saying, when he signed, that he wanted above all to play for Coach K, and win a NC.  Most guys who sign with Duke say similar things, and I imagine it’d be really hard to do put all you  have into that effort while trying to be a 2-sport athlete AND a student. 

There are lots of kids who probably wouldn’t care much about the “student” side of the “student-athlete” equation (including some at Duke/ND/BC/Syracuse), but I’ll bet the balance of the kids do care – and that’s in part why they attend these schools (and not FSU, UF, etc.).Also, being the starting QB and a bball PG is probably different than being, say, a TE or DE and a reserve bball player (ala Reggie Love, Julius Peppers)., interms of the time required to be invested in both sports.  I can’t imagine that you can skip the spring FB practices to play in the NCAAT if you’re the QB, and to be the QB on a team with bowl hopes, you’d have to miss the first half of the bball season!  Ron Curry tried it, but his results were fairly mixed – he was mediocre at both, and wound up as a mediocre WR in the NFL.