here's one vote for "John Beilein's head in a Futurama jar"
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The natives in College Park have gotten very restless after a 2-10 season, marked by things like losing a game in which they had four td leads. Indeed, John Feinstein is calling for his firing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/randy-edsall-should-be-sto...
Whoever came up with the butt ugly uniforms and helmets should be fired as well.
They just fired the ACC coach of the year. You would think with how that worked out they might be just a little more patient on pulling the trigger again in such totally retarded fashion.
I have yet to meet a Maryland fan that thought that was a good idea. Then again, I have yet to meet a Maryland fan that actually cares about football more than basketball. So there is that.
they're not even that good at basketball. They COULD be the east coast football powerhouse, in the vaccuum that is the ACC/Big East.
I don't get it.
But they suck at basketball too... They had a couple good years at the beginning of the decade and that's it.
Ummm from 2000-2010 md had the the 3rd most wins in the acc behind unc and duke, tied for the acc regular season crown with duke two years ago and won the acc tourny in 06, they have been on and off the last 4 or so years and are rough this year because after gary retired they only had 7 scholarship players but to cap it off md has a great history and is in the second tier of basketball schools behind the blue bloods.
"Bobby Ross on line two", right? I thought not.
"He doesn’t get it."
Zook is now available! Although, he's probably calling Urban right now.
Really. One and done. Who would want to replace a guy that was given all of one year on the job?
...that if they just had to cut seven varsity sports (doing some supplementary reading now), they won't be going after the Ouija Playcalling Chart of Ron Zook. Firing Friedgen was a daft move, beyond Glenn Mason-ish in my estimation. It seems like Maryland thought anyone would take the job, and sadly, anyone did, Edsall's record at UConn aside.
From a fiscal perspective, I see his point. From a winning football games perspective, I don't know how they are going to get a better coach for cheaper after firing the previous coach after a year.
Wikipedia lists the entire period from 1987-2000 in their football history as simply "The Dark Years". They hired a Maryland alumnus who came in, won 60% of his games, won an ACC title, had four top25 finishes in 10 years, and went 5-2 in bowl games (they had been to one bowl game in the previous 14 years). Then they fired him after a 9-4 season during which he was named the conference coach of the year.
To bitch and moan about any coach after one year, especially one with a pretty solid track record is silly. For them to have the fucking audacity to complain about whoever they got to replace Friedgen is ridiculous.
Had they waited 4 days, they could have had RR. They hired Edsall on Sunday; RR was available that Wednesday. RR would be frickin perfect for Maryland -- the Capital region remembered him fondly from WVU days (which gets some attention here in DC area, albeit its not UVa or VT); RR obviously recruited the area; Md is in a conference with 2 schools in Florida, and RR loves to recruit Florida; Md is a decent place to be, near DC; and the ACC defenses are pathetic. RR would have KILLED here. Oh well.
Md is toxic. Built out the stadium, now can't pay for it. Their hoops team has had horrible recruiting lately (allegedly, Gary Williams wouldn't play the AAU game, so he couldn't get the actual good recruits), and has about an Indiana-level rebuilding job to do. NO ONE in DC cares about Md football, so how they turn it around now is completely anyone's guess.
Firing a 9-4 coach that was the ACC coach of the year was ludicrous. Firing a guy after one year on the job is even more ludicrous.
I couldn't understand why he went there in the first place. OK, UConn's not the greatest place, but he could have been their Bo Schembechler.
Too many coaches believe the hype that "big time" college coaches are now "stars" and want to be treated that way. Sticking around in one place and building up a lot of tradition and greating a legacy may not interest them. On the other hand... maybe they have good reason to jump when they can. As someone on the far side of 50 years of age, I may have a different perspective than someone who is young and just starting out on their career.
It is actually understandable why many would jump for the cash and try to make a huge payday deal when they can. Look at Brady Hoke's own history. He went from being an aspiring Secret Service agent (when Ronald Reagan was shot) to grad assistant and then a coach at a small school, a bigger school and even bigger school before ultimately landing his dream job here.
How many other grad assistants were in this same situation with Michigan ties who didn't have his pathway here? There are only 100 some D1 HC jobs. It is easier to get a neurosurgery job, at least in terms of sheer number of possible openings.
How many fellow coaches has he seen who ended up at the end out of coaching and having dragged their families around the coaching world hoping to hook up with the guy who could get him to his next job and the next rung up? Guys like Rich Rod, Brady and others know what they are getting into and so do their spouses. I do feel a lot of sympathy for the kids (like Rich Rod's kids who were hauled out in front of another press conference last week).
It is not an easy life. Guys like him, Rich Rod, and all of the others deserve some recognition for their sheer determination. Not everyone ends up as well as Coach Borges and Mattison who did this journey and at some point must have had HC ambitions as well. They made peace with their dreams and professional lives and I think accept that they'll be lifelong assistants. But I'm sure when they sit down and talk over the past and look at the old staff photos from all of their stops they'll have a list of many guys who also were hooked on football but who didn't have the breaks, luck and skill they had and so ended up with not much to show for all of their years in football.
So Edsall may have made a bad choice in some ways and it may be the end of his career as a football HC, but for his family and their financial security it may have been a great decision.
Is the Maryland gig that much higher-paying than UConn? I assume he was making pretty good money by the end of his tenure in Storrs.
Firing coach Fridge was the first fuckup
The second fuckup was Randy Edsall going from UConn to Maryland. Congrats Edsall, you went from a place where you coached 11 years and a bcs bowl to 2-10.
John Feinstein is maybe one step below Peter King in the blowhard category. They aren't firing the guy after one year. Anything to blabber on and get more attention - stick to some actual reporting instead of running around demanding people be fired.
Oh, God. I think King is far better than Feinstein. He may have a Favre fetish, but he has actual sources and occasionally reports stuff. Feinstein just vomits moral outrage upon anything and everything in his immediate radius.
I am not sure Feinstein learned anything about reporting at Duke. You are so right about moral vomit, the problem is it his Feinstein's moral vomit which so far from reality it's not even funny.
What people forget about firing the Fridge is that he'd've been gone the year before (he went 2-10) if not for the size of his buyout. It dropped the next year, and they fired him - possibly taking note of what happened to UVA in 2007 (Groh's 9-4 season bought him time which he used to go 8-16 and lose to William & Mary) and ditched Friedgen. Truthfully, Maryland did not have 9-4 talent last year - they had a lot of breaks. Which was just like UVA in 2007.
Maryland is scrooged now, though. As the article notes, they're in the middle of a huge financial crisis. They just announced the cutting of seven sports. Seven! Their baseball program (not that it's any good) missed the chopping block by inches. That's how bad it is. And unlike Rich Rod, Edsall has no track record of beating the big boys. He built the program from the ground up at UConn, but it's not like UConn has been competing on the big stage and has had this peanut-butter-jelly-time offense like WVU did under RR. So he doesn't have a following that can say "give him time to build his system." And the missteps he's been making are worse than RR's - alienating the local HS coaches (at places like DeMatha no less), implying that the cupboard was bare when he got there (hard to do when you inherit a 9-4 team), imposing strict rules on the team.....it goes on. Bet you anything Maryland is slammed with transfers this offseason.
This is like the RR hiring, except it's not. Edsall is going to burn down that program, and the next guy will probably have to start almost from scratch. UVA and Tech have been raiding Maryland's home recruiting grounds for every ounce of talent that doesn't go national. Three years from now, James Franklin will leave Vanderbilt and head back to DC, you watch - the only thing to keep that from happening will be if that particular bridge is burned worse than I think it is.
Not just UVA and Tech but Penn State too. Maryland could easily be a BCS power if they could just build a damn fence around their state and grab a couple of prospects from DC. That being said, I've attended the University and I have no idea what they sell to recruits on campus lifestyle other than the proximity to DC and Baltimore (ugh). They have the Under Armour money coming in, so maybe that'll help with facilities.
MaizeandBlueWahoo, you're exactly right.
UMD is indeed in a bad position in sports, in their athletics budget, and in facilities -- and as a graduate of their vaunted (I kid) social sciences program, I can tell you exactly why it got to be so.
The real cause behind all of this, if you peak behind the curtains, is Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank. Forgive me for a second for going on a diatribe about the state I was born and raised in (consider Michigan my second home) but MARYLAND IS AS CORRUPT A DEMOCRAT MACHINE STATE AS IT GETS. AND CONNECTIONS MATTER.
Money talks and Kevin Plank is big business for UMD. He is the guy they point to as an "entreprenuer" and valued alum, he is the guy they beg when they need a new addition to the business school (which is actually a good eduation...), he is the guy that politicians hail as bringing major jobs to the state (BS). KEVIN PLANK MADE KEVIN ANDERSON the new AD last year and in so doing, ensured Friedgen wouldn't be around.
Now, say what you will about the "Fridge" and yes, he had lost his luster -- but the bottom line is you don't remove a guy who goes 9-4 in FOOTBALL at UMD. You may think he's over-payed and you may not renew his contract, but you don't get rid of him. But, Kevin Plank had other ideas and thus, so did Kevin Anderson. They wanted a "splash" hire -- a sexy hire... so they settled on, um, Randy Edsall.
Now the cupboard is bare and will be bare for some time. I listen to the post-game call-ins on local radio here in Terpville and it is hilarious. One side are people, like me, who see this train wreck and the other side are people saying "wait until next year or 2013." 2013? Are you kidding me? It is over by then... next year is a lost cause with probably 12-15 transfers. 2013 is a lost cause as well. They need to get out and they need to get out fast.
This is a team that got SLAUGHTERED by Temple University this season. I don't mean Michigan-Umass, where the game is close, too close. I mean SLAUGHTERED as in, not competitive at halftime.
MD was blown out by double digits in 5 or 6 straight games. An absolutely disgraceful season after a great start against the University of Miami.
I'm all for giving people all the time they need to adjust, but Edsall bombed so badly his first year that the muggles here in the DC area are already calling for his head, and cursing Kevin Anderson.
It was a huge mistake to discard both Gary Williams and Ralph Friedgen.
