Good idea to have a plan of action and brief yourself on it, though I would suggest that you do it mentally rather than voice it out aloud if you have passengers to avoid causing any alarm. Something like "If I have an engine failure on/after takeoff, with sufficient runway ahead I will land on the runway, other wise I will lower the nose to maintain speed and land straight ahead/left or right to avoid obstacles". The actaul brief should be tailored to the departure runway and any special considerations that may arise.
Never ever taught any student to brief what speed to raise nose wheel or a take off safety speed (what ever that means in a single). What ever happened to setting a nose attitude for the climb on departure.
I have seen the results of a pilot being taught to raise the nose at a particular speed, the aircraft use up nearly all of a grass runway with a soft surface before the pilot aborted the takeoff. The pilot waited for the "correct" speed to raise the nose, and never got to that speed, yet the aircraft could take off quite safely as was demonstrated when the pilot eventually used the correct technique for those conditions.
I fear to much empasis is put on things like fancy take off briefs and not enough emphasis on teaching pilots how to adjust to the conditions(airmanship in other words).
So the short answer is, No I don't think he is in the minority.