Statefan
Banned
Posts: 3,511
Joined: May 2018
I Root For: .
Location:
|
RE: Durkin fired, Evans reinstated, Loh will retire (2nd update)
(11-01-2018 08:46 AM)XLance Wrote: (11-01-2018 07:58 AM)TerpsNPhoenix Wrote: (11-01-2018 07:08 AM)XLance Wrote: (11-01-2018 06:57 AM)TerpsNPhoenix Wrote: So 12 hours later... Oh crap Maryland is a complete dumpster fire. No one is happy. Durkin is now gone, Loh will be gone but Evans still has a job (for now). Maryland has been blasted more than Tennessee and their coaching search (rightfully so IMO). Twitter is completely insane. Not that I expected it to be full of measured responses and rational thought but HOLY S**T. I don't know if the anger has been their simmering or what but I've seen a bunch of "the move the B1G was a bad idea/we should go back to the ACC". I don't think it will happen but there are way more takes like that than I expected. So, everybody just kill Maryland. I'm not to the point of giving up yet but I'm getting there.
Poll finds 40 percent of Maryland fans wish Terps were still in ACC
https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/big-te...-still-acc
Yes, one of the questions asked by pollsters was, "Would you rather Maryland was in the ACC or the Big Ten?"
Forty percent of respondents preferred the ACC, 35 percent preferred the Big Ten and 25 percent were "not sure."
Yeah, I think that was back in 2016. I'd like to see one as of today. Results would be...interesting. The Washington Post is landing uppercut after uppercut on Maryland right now. Story earlier about the move to the B1G, Maryland's culture and the death of Jordan McNair. Now a new story about an altercation between 2 players. "The attorney for the McNair family, Billy Murphy, alleged that the altercation involved one player who supported Durkin and another rumored to be “a whistleblower.” Murphy said the “pro-Durkin” player was the instigator."
COMPLETE DUMPSTER FIRE
Lamenting the loss of the ACC from the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/co...a6005cbb25
You can’t draw a line directly from Jordan McNair’s death to Maryland’s decision to leave the ACC for the Big Ten. But they’re not wholly unrelated either. Both are relevant in discussing Maryland’s identity, athletically and otherwise. They matter in considering the conditions at the May workout during which McNair collapsed. And they matter in considering how to move beyond it all.
Work with me here. Considering Maryland is about to open its 100th season of men’s basketball, it’s not terribly long ago that the Terrapins were clearly defined, at least in sports. That identity: Gary Williams walking onto the court in a spotlight, thrusting his fist to the crowd, a hitch in his step and a scowl on his face. God love him, he was Maryland at its underdog and renegade best. That identity: Ralph Friedgen, gathered with his team in a corner of Byrd Stadium, belting out the Maryland “Victory Song” in concert with the student section — a student section that, back then, actually showed up and actually cared.
Loh, along with former athletic director Kevin Anderson, pushed Maryland away from that solid, steady base by yanking the school from the ACC to the Big Ten. This was a money grab, nothing short of it, a move that shoved to the side generations of tradition and history because Jim Delany, the Big Ten commissioner/con-artist, promised more cash. Never mind that the idea of driving through Beltway traffic to see Purdue on a Tuesday night in January was, nebulously, not as attractive as enduring the same commute to see, say, N.C. State. The money mattered, and Loh went for it.
That move put Durkin competing not against Wake Forest and Duke and Virginia and Pittsburgh but instead against Michigan and Ohio State and Penn State. That matters. The environment and the identity shifted. And because of the negligence of Damon Evans — then an administrator overseeing football while apparently shutting his eyes, now incomprehensibly the athletic director — Durkin was allowed to build his big-time program in his big-time division of the Terrapins’ big-time conference however he saw fit. If that meant fostering an environment that routinely humiliated and embarrassed players, well, then, fine. No one was there to tell him to stop.
Bold text is to re-enforce GTS's comments.
MD's situation is older than Wallace Loh. This is part of a struggle that has been ongoing since Jim Tatum was at MD and public debate about what was bigger, football or the university, wracked MD. As long as James was the ACC Commission (he of MD), everything was fine. In fact his replacement at MD, was the father of UNC's AD, Bill Cobey. One nice happy family. But the burning issue at MD from 1970 onward was the loss of graduate programs that were sent to Baltimore and what that meant for the future alumni base. By the time Len Bias died, Brit Kirwan was in place to take over MD, he did and the in the wake of Bias' death, Lefty was fired, the AD was fired, and MD refused to support Bobby Ross.
The new academic administrators produced Bob Wade. He of the massive NCAA probation.
Time goes by, Kirwan becomes Chancellor at Ohio State and professes his love of Ohio State and all things Big 10. When Kirwan came back to the State of MD as system President, one of his goals was to move MD into the Big 10 - a full decade before the issue blew up. When Loh was hired at UMCP, Kirwan was System President.
Loh is an Iowa and Michigan man. In fact he undegraded at Grinell the same place as Mary Sue Coleman, former Chancellor at Michigan. Kirwan had wanted to move MD for years, Loh was the man to do it and money was the covering reason.
Money in the athletic department had been an issues in the wake of Bias' death. Byrd Stadium was neglected, then UMCP had to compete with the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Ravens for entertainment dollars. All the time, the Title IX compliance at MD had to be exemplary, not because a woman was AD, but because MD was a stones throw from DC. Now, MD the athletic program had some legitimate issues with UNC and Duke. Not the least of which was how basketball players stayed eligible at UNC and how Duke can avoid nearly all scrutiny. Getting along with NC State had always been important, but that ended in 2010 when Sweaty Gary interfered in out basketball coach search.
The fiscal blunder of the Big 10 will only get worse as MD attempts to compete against the wealth created by 100K seat football stadiums in Columbus, State College, Ann Arbor. MD left a situation where it's long term and current football history was second only to FSU in the ACC and they were then on a rough par with Clemson. Now they are 5th in their own DIVISON. That will always lead to sub optimal coaching hires even with the best AD in place. With a sub optimal AD in place they can sink to the 9th level of Hell.
MD has to fix it's political and administrative problems before they can fix any athletic problems and keep athletic problems fixed.
Moreover, even if MD's boosters and ptb wanted to come back to the ACC, to do that means the System President and UMCP Chancellor have to be people that the other ACC Presidents and Chancellors trust. Put another way, they have to have a blessing from the Baptists in Winston-Salem. In addition to that VT and UVa have to be specifically okay with it.
(This post was last modified: 11-01-2018 11:37 AM by Statefan.)
|
|
/
Durkin fired, Evans reinstated, Loh will retire (2nd update)
