Maryland 2 pm press conference
Maryland has announce that they will hold a press conference at 2:00 pm this afternoon. This obviously is suggesting that Durkin is done.
I expect Ohio State to release a statement concurrent with this press conference that Urban Meyer has been retained.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:19 PM ^
Greg Schiani to MD.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
Is this Greg Schiano's mustachioed yet good identical twin brother?
August 14th, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^
I almost choked on my lunch hahahaha
August 14th, 2018 at 4:29 PM ^
That would be GERG Schiano
August 14th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
I heard OSU is interested in hiring him as their new WR coach
August 14th, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^
Slightly OT but I am surprised I haven’t seen more said in the media about OSU having to name Day as the interim because Johnson, Schiano, and Wilson all have skeletons in their closets already.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
These guys are doing this fast and efficiently, unlike OSU, which just seems to be durkin-off...
August 14th, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
Logged in to say if I could upvote this I would.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
Meyer is not getting fired, whether we like that or not. OSU football wins are above ethics and morals.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:38 PM ^
Maybe I'm the odd man out here but isnt the death of a player just slightly worse than an assistant coach who was probably physically abusive to his ex-wife?
To me the Durkin situation, if the reports are true, is as black and white as a situation can get. The OSU situation, again IMO, is quite a bit murkier.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:43 PM ^
Get rid of probably and quite a bit and and it’s perfect imho.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
I put the "probably" there on purpose though cause we dont know. FWIW i've drafted and deleted twice a thread I was going to create asking that very question - "what if Zach Smith is telling the truth" because my story was basically Zach Smith's story in my first marrage.
My ex-wife was an alcoholic who drank to the point of passing out almost nightly. And no matter what I did I couldnt stop her from abusing booze. And, just like Zach Smith, I had an affair my ex found out about and she lost her mind. There was one night when she was screaming in my face, hitting my chest and refusing to let me leave our house so I had to pick her up by the arms and move her out of the way. Had she taken pictures of her arms I'm sure they would've been red like Courtney Smith's were in that pic but I never put a hand on her other than to move her so I could leave. My ex never called 911 (other than to say she was going to kill herself which she never actually tried to do) but she did call my partners, our kids and all my co-workers to let them know what she thought about me and why. And, like Zach Smith, she made no secret of the fact that she wanted to destroy me personally and professionally for the infidelity.
Living with an alcoholic is pure hell. I was wrong in what I did but when I read his account of what their marrage was like and when I read Courtney's own mother's account it's REAL hard for me to not flash back to 2005-2006 and think "damn...i've been there myself" so there's a big part of me that will reserve final judgement on what really happened until all the facts are in.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:04 PM ^
Heavy stuff man. I'm going through something similar with a woman I'm seeing right now. I have friends and relatives who are/were alcoholics - some dead, some recovering. I had no idea what it's like to be around someone who is alcoholic on a regular basis. It seems like a horrible way to live but she's gone and is going through a ton of stuff. I'm not making excuses but you are correct in that if they want booze they will find a way to get it. She's gets more emotional when she drinks - not that it makes it ok but there is a certain amount of helplessness that I can't help but feel. But I do worry that at some point her drinking will impair her memory of some things.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^
Did you send her texts seeming to confirm that the abuse had occurred?
August 14th, 2018 at 1:17 PM ^
Nope. But in that text she's accusing him of a lot of things including infidelity and he responds "I know". Do we know what he's acknowledging?
Look - I'm not here to defend him. I'm just saying my situation was very similar (even to the point of me getting pulled over for drunk driving during it and having the charge reduced) and I absolutely KNOW that if Brett McMurphy had been an advocate for my ex-wife I would've been crucified in the court of public opinion.
And for the record.....my DUI got reduced cause I only blew .03 but according to the arresting officer I didnt do the field sobriety test right. Sorry officer - I will NEVER be able to recite the alphabet backwards.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^
Its hard for me to believe that if you did not physically harm someone you would respond to that text with anything other than a denial.
Edit: I should mention that I sympathize with your situation. I know people who've been on either side of these type of things.
It just feels like this is probably true given the amount of evidence over an extended period of time. Not to mention Zach Smith's general demeanor doesn't suggest this would be all that surprising. But who knows, maybe it could all be false.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:48 PM ^
And that's why I'm firmly on the fence here - we dont know what happened and we dont know what's true or false.
Texting is funny cause you lose the vocal inflection so you cant really tell if the "I know" response is a quiet acknowledgement of guilt or yelling at the top of the lungs in response to something you've heard 100 times before.
And by no means do I think he's a victim or innocent party just like I wasnt.
August 14th, 2018 at 8:43 PM ^
One thing we do know is that Urban lied at Big Ten Media day, and that looks like he's covering something up. What, I don't know.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:54 PM ^
“I know” was a response to everything in the text, if it wasn’t true he would have said I didn’t cheat, I didn’t do this/that, etc...come on man
August 14th, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^
Damn...Cheers to you for sharing....I hope you find yourself in a better relationship now. Sucks to deal with that.
But you haven't been arrested for it? I don't think your employer lied on your behalf.
Fact of the matter is Meyer lied and tried covering it up. If he would have put him on leave until it was properly investigated, we wouldn't be having this conversation now.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
Much, much, MUCH better thank you very much. Celebrating my 9th wedding anniversary this coming new year's eve with her.
August 14th, 2018 at 8:37 PM ^
great story. and others may forget this but i remember you sharing also about how your wife (possibly the greatest stick figure in history) was an incredible blessing to you during your recovery from cancer.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:26 PM ^
Thanks, I'm sure that was hard to share. Alcoholism is really scary and has probably affected most of us or our loved ones in one way or another. For this whole episode though, I make fun of some OSU fans for living in another world and don't want to be a hypocrite. So out of fairness, I've tried to approach it from the devil's advocate perspective of what if these allegations were totally false. And I still think Meyer and/or OSU handled it horribly under those circumstances. Sure, there's a scenario where the facts were investigated and Smith kept his job because the allegations weren't found to have merit. But the cloud of secrecy around everything plus the instant hook they gave him this year when the information came out just doesn't suggest a thorough handling of a very serious allegation in 2015, especially given that they were already on notice about him for 2009. At a public school, wouldn't the paper trail be huge? And if these allegations were found to be wrong including by the police, why not have more transparency when it happened?
August 14th, 2018 at 1:37 PM ^
I back peddled a little in my judgement when I heard Courtney's mother's comments. Again, we don't know why they are estranged, but still. Plus the that fact that Courtney reiterated on several occasions that she will take both her husband and Meyer down gave me reason to pause. I am more in the camp of we'll have to wait and see, than I previously was for the very reasons you mentioned above.
August 14th, 2018 at 2:15 PM ^
Damn.
Sorry to hear you went through this. I hope she eventually got herself together, but I know from experience there are only so many times you can hear "I'm going to kill myself" before you care less about whether they do than you do about not hearing it ever again.
August 14th, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^
Great share, mGrowOld! Thank you for opening up about that.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^
Not necessarily. I'm guessing player deaths have happened even in totally clean programs. They can also result from negligence by the coaching and/or medical staff -- as we saw with the Shane Morris debacle, although thankfully without a tragic ending. The OSU situation, on the other hand, possibly involves coaches who deliberately looked the other way, and perhaps even tried to discourage a victim of domestic violence from taking any action.
Short answer -- the actual facts matter, in both cases (and in all such cases). Until we know the facts, hard to say which situation will prove to be "worse."
August 14th, 2018 at 1:34 PM ^
Not touching on your further posts (glad things are in a better place for you, though) but you're absolutely right.
The Zach Smith issue seems quite serious. But there's a lot of "who knew what when" going on and questions regarding difficult issues that we don't have the answers to yet.
Durkin, whether he was the one driving the culture or not, whether the culture was truly likely to harm a player or not, is the head of a football program whose actions (and, crucially, inaction) led to the death of a player.
There are some things you do not get a do-over for. Even if it is revealed later that Durkin's football policies aren't notably worse than those in place at, say, OSU or Michigan or Alabama or USC, you get the axe. It's his program, and someone lost their lives in it. It is as serious as it gets.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^
False equivalency. Let’s not diminish sustained wife abuse enabling. Of course a dead player is horrendous—plenty of abused people end up dead as a result, too, especially when people cover up for their buddies, “allegedly.”
August 14th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^
Notre Dame does not agree.
August 14th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
Oh come on now. You are way too rational and objective to be a Michigan (or any) fan.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^
He is most definitely getting fired. I really don't understand how people think he won't be.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
Prepare to be disappointed. He’s not going anywhere.
August 14th, 2018 at 3:09 PM ^
Not so fast my friend...
August 14th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
Durkin is gone. I was in the area when the story broke and also know a few Maryland alumni. The people I talked to about the situation are disgusted with the staff and how poorly it reflects on the University. This is a much different situation than at OSU, PSU, or MSU in terms of the importance of football in the school's culture. Two interesting things to watch are how long it takes for Durkin to get another coaching job after this scandal and who MD picks for interim coach. I figure Durkin will sit the season out and take a DC job next season at a middle tier P5 program. As for interim coach it will be difficult to pick someone that is not tainted by the scandal.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^
They already named Canada as acting HC.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
Canada was an easy choice because he was the newest hire. But you're right, it's not quite like OSU and Day. Every coach was on staff when Jordan McNair died.
There are some former head coaches who are available and might be plausible interim candidates. I suggest they look at John L Smith. He did that when Petrino got fired and has Big Ten experience. Plus he won't win enough games where they feel any pressure to retain him.
Unfortunately, the list I could make who were fired for disqualifying issues is longer than those who weren't.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
This was supervised by the conditioning staff during summer allowance, so you cannot hold all the coaches (especially newly hired ones) culpable for the errors of those put in charge by the HC in offseason.
August 14th, 2018 at 2:05 PM ^
Not nearly as culpable, but players complained that the same mistreatment had returned by the time of ESPN's reports. The investigations will continue after Durkin's dismissal.
If it was me making the decision, I'd feel a lot more comfortable putting someone from the outside in charge. In some ways it's less disruptive. Let Canada and the other assistants all do the jobs they were hired to do.
Canada has never been a HC and this is not a great time for a rookie. It would be easier if there was just a personal issue with Durkin, but the interim is going to tasked with changing the culture of the program. He may even have to fire more people. That's got to be easier for an outsider.
August 14th, 2018 at 3:14 PM ^
If they want to change the culture of the program they should simply hire John Engler as head coach. That will lead to instant change, as he has proven at MSU.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
Durkin will not be picked up for at least three years....
August 14th, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^
Brady Hoke will get another head-coaching job before DJ Durkin does.
August 14th, 2018 at 1:07 PM ^
The problem with Canada is that he was hired in January well before spring practice started. The University may already know from the internal investigation that he was not complicit in the McNair's death, but given that he was the OC it seems a little unlikely he had no involvement in conditioning for an OL in spring practice. If Maryland wants a clean break from the scandal they may be better off clearing the decks of the whole staff or at least place someone in the head coaching role that was not on the staff at the time of McNair's death.
August 14th, 2018 at 2:52 PM ^
He’s not gone yet!
August 14th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
he gone
August 14th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
OSU's press conference will be 4:30 on Friday. The time of the week when cowards announce something to get the least amount of press - just like the timing of Urban's tweet acknowledging his lies...
August 14th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
If he's canned due to a player's death, he won't land a job above "Last Chance U" level. Guy'll be called D.J. Merkin in prison.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^
If it would have been a student filming practice who died, Durkin could still have gotten a job at Notre Dame.
August 14th, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^
OSU just announced they will report on Meyer exactly 5 minutes after the next large meteor strikes Earth.