In Ralph Friedgen’s first year as Head Coach of the University of Maryland, Friedgen inherited a program which had only one winning season, and no bowl appearances since 1990. Friedgen would help lead the Terps to a 10-2 overall mark, including 7-1 in the ACC during that 2001 season. Maryland went to the Orange Bowl, and finished the year ranked 10th in the Coaches Poll, and 11th in the AP.

In Randy Edsall’s first year as Head Coach of the University of Maryland, Edsall inherited a program which was 9-4 the year prior, including 5-3 in the ACC. The Terps were coming off a Military Bowl victory, been ranked in the Top 25 by both the Coaches, and AP; and were returning the ACC’s Rookie of the Year at QB. Maryland heads into their last two games of this year (today at Wake Forest, at NCST next week) at 2-8 overall, and 1-5 in the ACC.

Due to that side-by-side comparison, the palatable angst among Maryland fans continues to grow with every subsequent loss. The natives are growing restless. The Terps fans who supported Friedgen, and did not want him to be dismissed are grumbling. The Terps fans who wanted Maryland to honor their ‘Head Coach in waiting’ pledge to James Franklin (now the HC at Vanderbilt) are grumbling. The Terps fans who wanted Mike Leach hired as Friedgen’s replacement are now saying they were right. The Terps fans (like myself) who wanted Maryland to pursue Brian Billick (though Billick told me personally he was not interested in Coaching in College) continue to wonder, what if?

Each of those points of views are irrelevant. What matters is that Coach Edsall was hired, is the Coach of the present, and that not supporting him will only hurt the program. The ‘Fire Edsall’ chants which were audible enough to wind-up being mention in Peter King’s (SI) Monday Morning Quarterback piece was poor. This is not to say that this 2011 season has been anything less than a disappointment though. This is also not to say that Coach Edsall and his staff do not deserve their share of the blame. My point is that it is ridiculously early to be shoveling dirt on Edsall’s coaching career at Maryland.

For those that want to bury Edsall now, I do not see that as realistic. When the hire was made, Athletic Director Kevin Anderson spoke about Edsall being a hire capable of taking Maryland from ‘Good to Great.’ This was Anderson’s first major hire, and you have to believe Anderson is going to give Edsall every opportunity to succeed.

In my eyes, every opportunity includes going through 4 or 5 recruiting cycles and being able to Coach at-least one team of players that were brought to College Park by Edsall and his staff alone. Edsall’s detractors do not want to hear that, but Edsall received a 5 year contract. Maryland is a destination which Edsall himself has called a dream job. Even if Edsall decided he was willing to step-down, does anyone really believe that Maryland is in a position to buy out his contract and hire another quality name? The financial difficulties of the Maryland Athletic Department (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/a-closer-look-into-the-finances-of-marylands-athletic-department/2011/07/20/gIQAvsHmQI_story.html) have been well documented. Obviously Football and Basketball are the revenue driving sports for the entire Department. There is a school of thought that exists with some, that if it appears things are not going to go well with Edsall, better to take the hit now – and get in another Coach that could maximize the potential revenue from Football. Again, I just do not see that as plausible.

The decision to hire Edsall was made. Whether you wanted him hired or not, he did not get this job by accident. Taking UConn from I-AA status to the Fiesta Bowl in just over a decade is plenty impressive. It is not as if Edsall does not have plenty of his own supporters either. Last January we spoke with ESPN’s Tom Luginbill who when asked if the Terps made the right decisions to jettison Friedgen and choose Edsall over Leach stated, “Time will tell. Friedgen won a lot of games at a school that had not won many prior to his arrival. I know Leach would have been the sexy hire, but what you get with Edsall is a guy that has won under adverse conditions, has won with limited resources and proven he can build a  program over the long haul. There are obviously challenges at Maryland, but Edsall has dealt with that before. I don’t know if I agree with terminating a guy that was coach of the year in the ACC, but if the move needed to be made I believe they brought in a winner in Edsall.”

Brandon Pertner from Phil Steele Publications echoed Luginbill’s comments saying, “Not sure if I was in favor in the move to fire him (Friedgen) after a solid career and a nice season. Edsell who won BE COY honors LY after a 12 year stint at U Conn, took the Huskies to 4 straight bowls and LY to their first ever BCS game. While Leach himself had a great run at Texas Tech, it’s hard to argue with the success that Edsall had at Conn and clearly he comes with less baggage.”

Tom Dinehart (who was with Yahoo/Rivals, and has since moved on to the Big Ten Network) said to us, “If anything, the arrival of Randy Edsall and has staff has raised my expectations for the Terps. I think Edsall is one of the top coaches in the nation and one of the most underrated coaches in the nation. He has built a terrific staff, and is excited about this fresh challenge.”

Steven Lassan from Athlon Sports replied, “The coaching change didn’t have much of an impact on where Athlon ranked the Terrapins for 2011. Randy Edsall did a great job at Connecticut and should be a good hire for Maryland. There’s always a transition period whenever a new coach takes over, but considering what Edsall did at Connecticut with arguably less talent, he should be able to pickup where Ralph Friedgen left off last season and continue to right around the top 25-30 mark.”

The closest comments we found to a dissenting opinion on the hire were from Steve Megaree of Yahoo / Rivals.com. Megaree said to us during the Spring, “I have to assume the decision to fire Friedgen was based as much on dollars and cents as wins and losses. If it were purely a football decision, it would have made much more sense to fire Friedgen after the Terps went 2-10 in 2009, not after he had just been named ACC Coach of the Year. That said, if this decision was indeed made to put more fans in the stands, Randy Edsall is a puzzling choice. Edsall’s a very good coach. Heck, he just led Connecticut to a BCS bid. But I thought Friedgen was a very good coach as well. If you’re going to take the dramatic step of firing an alum who was just named ACC Coach of the Year, you need to make a splash in selecting his replacement. For all the baggage he brought to the table, Mike Leach also brought the promise of a wide-open offense that would get people talking about Maryland football again. I frankly don’t know if Leach is a better coach than Edsall. But I do know he would have caused more of a stir.”

While I am not burying Edsall, I am not pleased with what we have seen and heard this year. Often in sports, when you are bringing in a new Head Coach (or Mgr.) you are doing so coming off of a poor season. Based on that, the fan-bases of those new Coaches typically are understanding that a building process is going to take place, and that immediate positive results might not happen. As we illustrated in the opening, that is not what Edsall inherited here at Maryland. Maryland has facilities better than anything he had at Connecticut. There was also a fair amount of talent returning. Even without his own personnel in place, I think most would have expected a more competitive Terps team than they have shown to be. At the minimum, Terps fans do not want to hear Edsall comparing this situation to his early days Connecticut and building that program from the ground-up.

To be fair to Edsall, he has had plenty of adversity to deal with. He was surprised by the negative academic status of many Terrapins. Edsall did the right thing by self-reporting the secondary violations under Friedgen, which resulted in the Terps having less practice time per week this year. Edsall ran off a number of players that he did not believe were fitting into the program he wants to run. He lost some players who left on their own. During this season the Terps have been crippled with injuries, forcing 19 Freshman into the 2 deep.

That adversity understood, what hurt the Terrapins the most is the regression of O’Brien. While the young QB bears part of the responsibility for his lack of results, Edsall and Offensive Coordinator Gary Crowton also need to share the blame for O’Brien’s lack of development. Instead of trying to get O’Brien to fit the offense they would like to run, maybe they should have spent more time evaluating what O’Brien excelled at last year; and incorporating that into their offense.

Part of the rationale for letting go of Friedgen was to fill up the seats and suites at Byrd. The losing from this season is not going to help sales going into next year. All the good will which existed for the opener against Miami, were gone by the time Maryland lost to Boston College at home. There is a general apathy from most of the fan-base, which will not change until the Terps can be a consistent winner over a period of several years.  Starting next season there will be pressure on Edsall to produce the results necessary to sell more tickets, and be more profitable. It is one thing for a team decimated by injuries to lack the personnel to finish off games against athletically strong opponents like West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Florida State. It is another thing to get literally run out of your own building against a Boston College.

To me, what Maryland needs to be figuring out is how to best support him during the remainder of his contract. If there is any money available to be investing into the program, it should go towards Asst. Coaches, and facilities (ESPN’s Lou Holtz said in the opener against Miami, that Maryland had impressive facilities, comparable or better than what he had at South Carolina.)

We know that Defensive Coordinator Todd Bradford has had to deal with the brunt of the Maryland injuries this year. We agree that any discussion of Bradford’s performance has to start with discussion of those injuries. Still, I think the highlight performance for Maryland’s defense this year was at Georgia Tech. Against that triple-option offense with 6 starters out, the Terps were ‘competitive.’ Beyond that, it has been tough to watch. Under Don Brown, the Terps had the mindset of bringing pressure and attacking. What is Bradford’s focus? Yes, Maryland has lost Tate, Robinson, and Ross for the season. Yes, Maryland has also had to play numerous games without Drakeford, Hartsfield, Monroe, Anderson etc. You still have to do more with the personnel you have.

If it is a priority of the University of Maryland leadership to sell out their luxury boxes at Byrd, give Edsall the dollars necessary to improve his Coaching staff this off-season. Edsall should have his checkbook out, and try and obtain some of the best defensive position coaches he can find. Even if you can not lure such coaches from schools like LSU, or Alabama; you have to be able to improve the current staff with additions from somewhere.

You could also reach out to the pro ranks. The Ravens Secondary Coach is Teryl Austin, who was the Defensive Coordinator for the University of Florida last year. Austin probably did not have the opportunity to stay at Florida, with the Gator’s new regime. If he went back to College, he might be looking for a program bigger than Maryland. Still, that should not keep Maryland from pursuing a guy who in the last two years has led an SEC Defense, and been exposed to the defensive excellence of the Ravens.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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