oakapple

January 2nd, 2011 at 2:14 PM ^

Maryland is an upgrade over UConn. Neither one is a football powerhouse, but there is a much longer tradition at Maryland than at UConn, and the ACC is a better conference than the Big East (though that ain’t sayin’ much).

But his path to a conference title in the Big East is much easier. Maryland has won the ACC title just once in the last twenty years. Florida State, Miami, and Virginia Tech all have much more recent traditions of fielding elite teams (even if Miami is down right now).

Ignoring the money (since we have no idea how much is involved), he could probably make a bigger splashy by remaining in the Big East, and then parlaying it into a much larger job than just a mid-level ACC team.

michiganian

January 2nd, 2011 at 2:11 PM ^

That's a shame... I'm from Maryland and a Rich Rod transfer to the University of Maryland would give me a legitimate excuse to root for them.

 

Purely speculative, but could this point to the potential situation that the Terps reached out to Rich Rod and he was disinterested in joining them (ahead of Edsall)? If so, wouldn't that presumably mean that Rich Rod plans on going somewhere that's better in his mind (for instance, Clemson)?

oakapple

January 2nd, 2011 at 4:32 PM ^

Maryland isn’t a national power, but it has a much longer and more prestigious football tradition than UConn. Heck, even Bear Bryant coached there, albeit only for one season. A move from the 6th-best to the 5th-best AQ conference is also an upgrade, even if only a small one.

However, he’ll face much steeper road to the conference championship than he did at UConn.

I Miss Bursley

January 2nd, 2011 at 2:47 PM ^

The Maryland job has got to be a lot more money, right? The AD there is intent on making the program nationally relevant and I can imagine they're willing to shell out a lot more than you would initially expect. I'm still not entirely sure why he's so popular right now but I know I'm in the minority on that so I'm probably missing something.

mackbru

January 2nd, 2011 at 3:06 PM ^

I'd love to see RR at Pitt. The WVU angle would turn the rivalry into a bloodbath. I just wonder whether RR would be willing to further enrage his home state.

Otherwise, maybe Washington State for RR? (Sets up a potential Rose Bowl revenge-clash for both him and the team.) There aren't many other openings. Unless Clemson ditches their guy. That would be an appropriate fit for RR, in every way.

mgoblue0970

January 2nd, 2011 at 3:34 PM ^

I think some schools, Clemson for example, are waiting to see what Michigan does before they pull the trigger.  The RR expirement didn't work here but he'll land somewhere quickly I would guess.

As an aside, with all the names being tossed around in here, Randy Shannon is still unemployed, no?

ixcuincle

January 2nd, 2011 at 8:26 PM ^

Maryland is a little bit of an upgrade. Both conferences aren't that good at football though (except for Virginia Tech ;) ) 

Maryland has problems with their football program (the club seats were empty and the game wasn't even sold out for the big MD - FSU game) and I don't know that Edsall would change that or make Maryland sensational good to compete with Virginia Tech's stranglehold on the ACC. However its' not that bad a hire 

 

 

Don

January 2nd, 2011 at 10:44 PM ^

and it sounds like Edsall didn't handle things well. Not sure if it's ever easy for a coach to tell kids he's recruited that he's leaving them for another institution, but from what the article says he didn't tell the entire team himself.

silverslugger

January 3rd, 2011 at 12:35 AM ^

Edsall did not directly tell the team he was leaving. He left that up to Jordan Todman, from what I've been told and read

Also offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, running backs coach Terry Richardson and special teams coordinator Lyndon Johnson are going with Edsall to Maryland.