The University of Maryland Needs to Get Out of PR Mode And Do What Is Right

No matter what the outcome of the investigation into Jordan McNair's death comes out to be, one thing is for certain.  It will not end well for the University of Maryland.  The ESPN article that came out on Friday, describing an alleged culture of bullying and intimidation by the coaching staff within the Maryland Football Program that may have contributed to McNair's death, ensures that The University has already lost in the arena of public opinion.  What needs to come from officials at the University of Maryland now are steps to do right by the McNair family.  Placing DJ Durkin on administrative leave is a start, but President Wallace Loh sending out emails to the fan base with a bunch of PC quotes does nothing.  Here are excerpts from his email to the Maryland Community:

"I [Wallace Loh] am profoundly disturbed by the media reports yesterday about verbally abusive and intimidating conduct by Maryland football coaches and staff towards our student athletes on the team"

"Our responsibility as teachers is to inspire and enable students to perform at their best and expand the boundaries of their potential, in the classroom and/or on the athletic field.  Humiliating and demeaning a student is not only bad teaching and coaching, it is an abuse of the authority of a teacher and a coach."

"The University of Maryland is committed to a football program that is safe and humane, and where our student-athletes are successful in their academic and athletic endeavors.  This commitment will be carried out with accountability, fairness, and transparency."

While these words are nice, all of them ring hollow in the face of the allegations put out by the ESPN article and the fact that the McNair family lost their son under the watch of this commitment to a "safe and humane" football program.  What needs to happen is what is stated at the end of the last quote, and it needs to happen now rather than a month from now.  That is accountability and transparency.

The University already lost the chance to come out and be accountable, and understandably so.  In these cases it is hard to be open due to the fear of lawsuits, but what is right in this situation is to be penitent.  The University has to anticipate that lawsuits are coming, and more than likely they will lose if any part of the ESPN article is accurate.  Wallace Loh's words of commitment to safety and responsibility smack of a futile effort to try and paint the values of the University as contrary to what is coming out about the football program in order to mitigate the impact of inevitable litigation.  In the court of public opinion, however, those values will be one and the same for the near future, and Loh would do well to be accountable in the form of contrition.  

The University should have come out and said something to the effect of "We failed in our commitment to Jordan McNair and his family in providing a safe and secure environment, and the University's ongoing investigation will be looking into the specifics of how that failure manifested itself".  This would have shown remorse for the loss of Jordan McNair and accountability in the form of a collective dereliction of duty without giving any specific culpability until the investigation is completed.  It is not too late for Loh and the University to show accountability through contrition, but it should be done now rather than waiting until a report comes out that could force the University into situations where they have to publicly espouse sorrow and remorse.  By that point, an act of contrition would seem like a disingenuous tactic to save face.  Being accountable now would go a long way with the fan base, and with the people who are most important in this case; Jordan McNair's family.

Loh's remarks also talk about commitment to transparency, but really the only people that they need to be transparent with are the McNair's.  The public is owed nothing in this situation other than a more contrite message of accountability and a statement that the University is working with the McNair's in this investigation.  To be transparent, Loh could come out and say "We are working with the McNair's in this situation because to us this is not about winning a lawsuit.  This is about doing right by a family who lost their son".  This would be transparent without admitting guilt.  It would show that the University places their students and their families above their bottom line.  They could communicate this publicly, while any specific information can be shared privately with the family.  Again, this kind of transparency flies in the face of trying to be discrete in order to head off possible litigation, but the University needs to be worried about doing what is right rather than following protocol in order to mitigate the possible perils that lie ahead.

The litigation is coming.  If there is a shred of truth to the ESPN report, the University of Maryland is more than likely going to come out on the losing end, and possibly in a criminal manner if the allegation that McNair suffered a seizure an hour before the EMT's were called is true.  What the University needs to be worried about now is trying to come out of this with moral character rather than trying to win PR battles.  They need to show true remorse through admitting some form of institutional failure now, rather than spouting off carefully worded PR statements.  They need to show that they truly care about the McNair family, and the passing of their son, by working with them throughout this process, rather than conducting a unilateral investigation in order to save the most jobs possible for all those who could be implicated in a possible case of negligence.  The University of Maryland needs to do what is right in this case, and that may not be what keeps the most money flowing into the University.  But Jordan McNair's death should be about morals, not money.  

A Tale of Two Quarterback Cities

It seems amazing that the Redskins and Terps find themselves at quarterbacking crossroads so early in the season.  One team is poised to become one of the premier teams in their sport, and the other is one injury away from possibly having to start its' second linebacker at quarterback in five years.  It is the best of times for one team and the possible beginnings of the worst for another, but 15 years ago the current situation would seem ludicrous to Skins and Terps fans who were witnessing a reversal of fortune for either team at the quarterback position.  It is always good to look back on history to put the present into context, so before the Redskins and Terps embark on a season defining weekend lets take a trip down memory lane to the 2002 season for both teams to see just how far they have come in 15 years.

The 2002 season was being pegged as a renaissance year for both teams, even though there were major uncertainties surrounding the quarterback position. The Terps stunned everyone the previous year by winning their first ACC Championship since 1985 under newly hired head coach Ralph Friedgen.  Expectations were high for the Terps' 2002 season despite the fact that they would be starting Junior quarterback Scott McBrien.  McBrien was a Dematha alumnus who had transferred to Maryland from West Virginia and had yet to take a snap for the Terps, but he was being entrusted to continue the momentum from the previous year.  While the Terps built their momentum the Redskins manufactured it.

The 2001 season saw Marty Schottenheimer salvage an 8-8 season from an 0-5 start, and for his troubles he was let go along with starting quarterbacks Tony Banks and Jeff George.  Enter Steve Spurrier and cue the pandemonium.  Dan Snyder hired the Ole Ball Coach for the 2002 season and the sky was the limit.  Redskins fans were expecting it to be Florida Gators North and in a way it was.  Spurrier filled his quarterbacking void with two of his old pals from Gainesville in Shane Mattews and Danny Wuerffel. The Redskins also used the last pick in the first round of the Draft that year to select Patrick Ramsey.  It looked like Spurrier had all the firepower he needed to run his Fun and Gun offense and take the Redskins to new heights.

Despite the optimism being espoused within both fan bases for their quarterbacking situation, the outcome of the 2002 season was very different for both teams.  It was evident from the beginning of the season that Shane Matthews was not the answer at quarterback, and he was benched after only three games in favor of Wuerffel.  Wuerffel got hurt the next game, and then it was Patrick Ramsey's turn.  Spurrier would go through this full rotation one more time in the last ten games of the season, and it was evident that the Redskins had nothing close to a franchise quarterback or a competent NFL coach.  The Redskins ended the season 7-9, and the 2002 season would be a precursor for the Redskins quarterbacking situation over the next decade and a half that was rife with uncertainty, inconsistency, and lackluster performance.  The 2002 season for the Redskins was the beginning of an arduous time for Redskins fans, and The Terps' 2002 season started out just as bad.

McBrien and the Terps were shutout in the opening game of the season against Notre Dame on

national television, and things didn't improve two weeks later when Florida State came to Byrd Stadium and the Terps could only muster ten points.  A lowly 1-2 start after a Conference Championship season was leaving the natives a bit restless, but McBrien would prove his worth.  The Terps would reel off eight straight wins that included wins over a Phillip Rivers led NC State team on homecoming weekend and a 30-12 victory at Clemson.  McBrien would cap off the season with a brilliant 30-3 drubbing of Tennessee in the Peach Bowl, and he led Maryland to its second straight 10 win season.  McBrien would do the same his senior year, leading the Terps to a 10-3 record that culminated with the Terps embarrassing their hated rival West Virginia 41-7 in the Gator Bowl.  McBrien was named Gator Bowl MVP, and while he would graduate after the 2003 season things seemed to be looking up for the Terps.  The Terps had won 31 games in three years, and with McBrien's performance and Fridge's offense it seemed as if the Terps were poised to lure quarterbacks to College Park that could recreate McBrien's success.  It was anything but that, and now we see a reversal of fortune for both teams.

  Kirk Cousins is set to make his 36th straight start for the Redskins on Monday Night, and many are speculating that a win over the Chiefs could vault the Redskins into Super Bowl contending status for the first time in 25 years.  If Cousins can make it through this season unscathed, he will be the first Redskins quarterback to start every game in three consecutive seasons since Joe Theismann between 1981-1984, and it is possible he could see some of the same success that Theismann's teams had in that time period.  Compare that to the Terps, who have seen two of their starting quarterbacks end their season with ACL tears in the first three weeks, and their replacement looked less that adequate last week.  This is a far cry from 2002-2003 where Scott McBrien started all 27 games in that two year span.  Since that time, the Terps have had only one quarterback (Sam Hollenbach in 2006) start every game in a season without being injured or replaced.  The game against Minnesota will be a litmus test for the Terps as they will see if they can keep their aspirations high with either Max Bortenschlager or Caleb Henderson under center, or if they will need to temper their expectations in light of another injury riddled season at the quarterback position.  Both teams have come a long way in 15 years, and it seems that despite injuries and contract disputes, each team has found viable starting quarterbacks that can lead them to new heights for the future.  This weekend, however, will show Terps and Skins fans if they can start to get excited about the present.

Meet The Candidates for Maryland's Head Football Coaching Position

This weekend's loss at Iowa officially allowed Maryland fans to classify this season as a dumpster fire.  It took our leading receiver three catches to amass 18 yards, our leading rusher was our quarterback, and it took another Will Likely special teams return to make the score look more respectable than it really was.  This was the latest installment of an offense that ranks 110th in the nation in average yards per game, 113th in passing yards per game, and dead last in turnover margin and interceptions thrown.  These numbers should have the Kevins (Anderson and Plank) looking to hire a coach who is going to give a shot in the arm to the side of the ball that puts the proverbial butts in the seats.  So here is a review of the candidates SweetDCSports believes the Kevins are looking at to skipper The USS Turtle Tears out of troubled waters in 2016 starting with the current steward of the throne.

Mike Locksley

I'm sure the Kevins are having a long and hard discussion about whether or not to hire Locksley as their head coach.  And why not?  He has brought top level talent from the DC area to every school he has coached, and he revitalized the perception that Maryland cannot recruit when he was rehired in 2011 and promptly landed top level recruits like Stefon Diggs.  The problem has been in talent development, especially at the quarterback position.  Under Locksley's tenure the Terps ran Danny O'Brien out of town a year after he was named the ACC Freshman of the Year.  C.J. Brown was a dual threat helped out by a slew of medical redshirts and Stefon Diggs not leaving after his sophomore season.  And now it falls to the Locksley recruited Perry Hills who has thrown 10 interceptions in 5 games this season.  There has not been a lot of growth from the quarterbacks position under a guy whose title is offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, and Shane Cockerille's move from QB to fullback should give the Kevins pause about what they can expect from Dwayne Haskins if Locksley is allowed to continue as head coach.  In my mind they should be looking elsewhere, but Locksley will be a strong candidate until the end due to his ability to recruit and his ties to the DC area.

With that out of the way, here are the head coaches who the Kevins should be desperately seeking:

Matt Rhule (Temple)

I must admit that I was unaware of Temple's rapid rise to college football relevance until this past weekend.  Now, everyone knows Matt Rhule's name as he is on the short list for every coaching job East of the Mississippi regardless of whether that position is vacant or not.  The Kevins should be taking a long hard look at this guy because he possesses a lot of qualities they desire.  First, he is a reported hands on recruiter with a pension for details.  He was able to land the second best recruiting class in the AAC after winning only two games his first season.  Second, he is a noted players coach who has had experience at all levels of football.  He is active in social media, and he was the offensive line coach for the Giants before taking the Temple position in 2012.  Finally, he is a young coach who played in the Big 10, he has Under Armour ties (Temple is sponsored by Under Armour), he has placed Temple in the Top 25, and he came within two minutes of defeating a Top 10 Notre Dame team.  The negatives are there.  Temple's offensive yardage per game is worse than Maryland's.  Temple plays in a weaker conference, which could account for their defense being ranked 28th in the country.  And we recently saw the Temple Project Part 1 starring Al Golden come to an inglorious end in Miami.  Despite these shortcomings, Rhule should be getting daily calls from the Kevins about coming to College Park.

Matt Campbell (Toledo)

The second youngest FBS coach at 35 years old, Campbell has done an amazing job at Toledo in only a short period of time.  He is 33-13 in his three plus seasons at Toledo, and the Rockets are 7-0 this season on the backs of a relatively balanced team that is ranked 24th in total offense and 51st in total defense.  Some may point to Campbell's emphasis on discipline and manners as being a younger version of Randy Edsall, but the Kevins should at least throw a line in Campbell's direction.  Campbell is described as a relentless competitor who is straightforward in his personal approach with players and who knows the type of players he wants to recruit for each position.  Campbell developed his notion of an offensive system after studying Urban Meyer's spread offense as a graduate assistant at Bowling Green.  Maybe his old offensive coordinator at Bowling Green, Greg Studrawa, could convince him to finally leave the state of Ohio seeing is how Studrawa is the current offensive line coach at Maryland.  The Kevins should use that leverage, along with Toledo being outfitted by Under Armour, to gauge Campbell's interest in coming further east but buyer beware.  Campbell has vehemently expressed his desire to build the Toledo program further, and he has no coaching experience outside of the state of Ohio or outside of any conference bigger than the MAC.  He was turned off by his experience as a freshman at Pitt, so while his success in the MAC is tantalizing he may not be ready for the rigors of what the Kevins are expecting the new head coach to bring to Maryland.  Campbell is still an intriguing candidate and he should be worth a look.

Justin Fuente (Memphis)
Fuente may be more of a longshot for Maryland, but he definitely has the highest pedigree of the three.  The mastermind behind TCU's air raid offense and Andy Dalton's rise to stardom, he parlayed his success as TCU's offensive coordinator into a head coaching position for a 2-10 Memphis team.  Fuente has since turned Memphis into an 8-0 team that finds itself ranked 13th in the College Football Playoff Ranking and 6th in total offense in the country.  What is more impressive than these results is the way Fuente was able to accomplish these feats at a school that was a college football backwater located at the confluence of Big 10, Big 12, and SEC recruiting grounds.  Fuente weathered the storm in his first two seasons as the Tigers won only seven games while he tried to bring in the right personnel to run his air raid scheme.  His patience and determination paid off with a 10-3 record last season and a flawless campaign so far this season.  Some will point to the luck involved in Memphis's success this season as their star QB was mostly overlooked coming out of high school.  Others will say that Fuente's recruitment of Paxton Lynch is a sign of his ability to know what type of players will fit his offense.  Whatever it is, the Kevins will need to drive a hard bargain as South Carolina and Miami sound like more suitable places for a coach from Big 12 country that has not had any football experience north of Kentucky.  Fuente has also has seen what happens to coaches who like to run spread offenses in the Big 10 (see Rich Rodriguez at Michigan).  But Maryland's new Cole Field House renovations coupled with some financial convincing and Maryland being below the Mason-Dixon Line may get Fuente to give Maryland a second look. 

Honorable mention goes to Bowling Green's Dino Babers.  Maryland got a first hand look at what Babers can do as they were on the business end of Bowling Green's spread offense this season.  Babers is on the older side at 54, but if all else fails it may not be a huge loss to take a flyer on an older guy who is a prodigy of Art Briles.  And yes, if Chip Kelly can be got we should not blink at the opportunity to get him.  But looking at the three candidates listed above, I think Rhule would be the number one option even over Chip Kelly.  A seasoned veteran from Pennsylvania who is a players coach and has a passion to win and recruit.  My vote is for Rhule if we can get him.

The University of Under Armour Needs a New Coach

Randy Edsall just didn't cut it.  He didn't cut it from the moment he was announced as the head coach in 2011 and everyone had to Google his name to figure out who he was.  Instead of Mike Leach locking players in cramped spaces and running ridiculous offensive spread sets that would turn Byrd Stadium into a track meet facility; we got Randy Edsall.  Edsall was a tepid choice at best, especially when the recently hired Kevin Anderson canned a beloved alumnus to hire a guy whose persona and football style catered to a demographic that was old enough to remember D-Day.  Leach was the choice that moved the needle, but in 2011 Anderson was more concerned with image rather than ticket sales and not thinking about who paid the bills around the University of Maryland's Athletic Department.  With Edsall looking to be on the outs as early as next week, Kevin Plank will be reminding Mr. Anderson that he has a large emotional and financial stake in the hiring of the new coach based on what Under Armour has done for the University of Maryland.

The New York Times puts all of this in perspective in one great article written in August of this year.  Kevin Plank, whether implicitly or explicitly, want Maryland to be Oregon East.  He wants to make his alma mater the athletic Mecca that will attract athletes and innovators in the field of athletics to College Park for decades to come.  He wants Lord Baltimore's coat of arms to be worn around the country so that The University of Maryland will be synonymous with winning in a cool way.  He wants this so long as all of this comes with an Under Armour logo on the side.  He has proven this by putting up $25 million "gift" for the new Cole Field House renovations that will create the premier athletic research and training facility in the country.  The article also states that Under Armour extended their contract with Maryland that pays the University $33 million in cash and apparel, and Plank has been noted to test new apparel out with the Maryland football team.  And then there is this beautiful nugget from the article that explains it all:

Mr. Plank’s influence at Maryland does not extend to the hiring and firing of coaches, according to Maryland and Under Armour officials. But he is not a passive check-writing machine. Mr. Anderson said his interview process, which culminated with his hiring as the athletic director in 2010, included an interview with Mr. Plank.  

This is a nice way of saying that Kevin Plank works behind the scenes.  It is the old adage, "If I'm not in the room to see Kevin Plank or Under Armour involved in the hiring of coaches/development of the athletic budget/recruitment of athletes, then it never really happened, right?"  This is not to say that it actually happens.  I have no proof of that.  But suffice to say that Plank and Under Armour's financial influence within the University of Maryland's Athletic Department has grown exponentially since Edsall's hiring in 2011, and they are expecting returns on their investments that Edsall was not meeting.  Forget the reports that state the players were tuning him out and look to the more important fact that attendance has been going down this year to the tune of 13% lower than last year.  Kevin Plank cannot have another ho-hum pick at head coach and luckily there is one right up I-95.

Chip Kelly.  Everyone says it is crazy, but Kevin Plank should be loading up dump trucks full of money to send to Chip Kelly's house right now.  His hiring would set College Park on fire, and it is not too far fetched to think he may come given a Godfather like package.  His position in Philly is tenuous at best and his reputation was made in the college ranks.  He would not have to move far, and he would be set in a fertile recruiting area with the full backing of the University, Kevin Plank, and Under Armour.  Kelly could also have the chance to prove himself against the likes of fellow spread offense aficionado Urban Meyer and resident Big 10 Golden Boy Jim Harbaugh.  There are downsides to Kelly coming here, and it may cost a pretty penny for him to leave the Eagles, but 2011 showed that the safe hire gets you safe results and Kevin Plank is not shelling out $33 million per year to go 7-6.  It has to be Chip Kelly, if for no other reason than he will electrify the boosters and fan base in a way Randy Edsall never did. Edsall was hired for the University of Maryland's image. Chip Kelly will be hired for one thing and one thing only.  To win for the University of Under Armour.