University of Maryland Football allegations

[MChambers]

ESPN is reporting that Durkin has been fired. The Board has had a chance of heart.

*Can’t get the linky thing to work

Because the Maryland governor told them to reconsider!

[Tripping William]

Because the Maryland governor told them to reconsider!

Profiles in Courage, Alaskan-style, right there.

[cato]

Because the Maryland governor told them to reconsider!

Looks like they forgot there were bigger fish in their pond.

[MChambers]

ESPN is reporting that Durkin has been fired. The Board has had a chance of heart.

*Can’t get the linky thing to work

Apparently it was the outgoing prez, not the board.

[Pghdukie]

The proverbial vote of confidence! At noon your rehired and 5pm your fired.

[willowglen]

Apparently it was the outgoing prez, not the board.

Maryland is a dysfunctional school. It is not unlike its major city in the State, Baltimore, one of these least competently run governments in the nation.

My history with the school is long but patchy. I was heavily recruited there, but saw no compelling reason to go notwithstanding their record of success in my sport. My Duke coach had close ties to Maryland, so we competed in College Park often. I was always surprised that a school in a wealthy state 10 miles from the Capitoll did not have the stature of a Michigan or UVa, and that their endowment is among the lowest of any flagships in the nation. Tenured profs from the 80’s - politically liberal - used to complain to me that their departments were never funded for excellence because all of the money went to the patronage pit known as Baltimore.

Maryland’s mishandling of the situation with the football team is both awful and not surprising. They hired incompetents, ended up needlessly killing a player, and the botched communications and decisionmaking in an epic way, just as Baltimore did with Freddie Gray.

Note how Maryland got into the Big 10. Their athletic department spent money like drunken sailors, and plunged into the Big 10 out of sheer financial desperation. A Baltimore type move.

Look, not all is negative. The adminstration is finding out the hard way that one of the consequences of having the third highest SAT scores in terms of admission in the Big 10 (although given the prevalance of the ACT’s at Univ of Illinois, Illinois may be more competitive), is that the students won’t sit compliantly and watch the foolishness without speaking up - and that athletics must be done in a way consistent with the academic mission - like Duke does (there is a reason why hundreds of national level athletes with high grades and scores choose Duke - not because it is perfect - but rather because there is an ethic to do school and sports the right way). And the lacrosse and women’s bball team seem to be doing well even under a rotten administration. But in the end this fiasco is not surprising - par for the course.

I am not sure what Maryland does with football at this point. They have to play football and be passably competitive to stay in the Big 10, but recruiting will be brutal. And going forward relying on 2 star kids from PG county will cause performances that will make the 2018 Rutgers team look good. They need a President who is both an a academic superstar and yet can adminster athletics competitively and well. That list is very small.

[JasonEvans]

President Wallace D. Loh will step down in June of next year... and I bet he will have a new job by July. He comes out of this smelling like a rose. A man of moral integrity who told the board to do the right thing and then, when they didn't, he said, "I won't work for you any longer and, before I go, I will do the right thing for you." I mean, he's on the short list of most admirable people in all of academia right now.

[sagegrouse]

President Wallace D. Loh will step down in June of next year... and I bet he will have a new job by July. He comes out of this smelling like a rose. A man of moral integrity who told the board to do the right thing and then, when they didn't, he said, "I won't work for you any longer and, before I go, I will do the right thing for you." I mean, he's on the short list of most admirable people in all of academia right now.

Jason, he is 73. I would not be surprised if he stays at UMd another year, which was his planned retirement date

[BigWayne]

It didn't take long for the reinstatement of Durkin to revive the "toxic culture" of the UMD football team.

Wonder if news of this beating got to UMD president Loh before he fired Durkin.
Before I saw this article, I was thinking the terps might pull together under the interim coach and keep their decent season going. Now, I think it all falls apart as they break down into factions.

[Reilly]

It didn't take long for the reinstatement of Durkin to revive the "toxic culture" of the UMD football team.

Wonder if news of this beating got to UMD president Loh before he fired Durkin.
Before I saw this article, I was thinking the terps might pull together under the interim coach and keep their decent season going. Now, I think it all falls apart as they break down into factions.

The attorney quoted is former Duke FB player Malcolm Ruff.

https://www.murphyfalcon.com/our-team/malcolm-p-ruff/

Helped Duke beat GT for its first ACC win in forever in 2003.

[devildeac]

This is the same Wallace Loh who spoke out about the cheats in this article:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/t...410-story.html

Of course he was wrong about the final result () but, at least the man appears quite bold and honorable.

[Devil2]

Because the Maryland governor told them to reconsider!

MY understanding from various readings is that technically the Board of Regents does not have the power to fire employees at one of the campuses. Apparently the campuses are operationally independent. Loh most of then decided to fire Durkin himself as president of UM College Park

[PackMan97]

Word is that he will not be fired for cause, which means getting a buyout for the contract not honored.

My guess is the lawyer for Jordan McNair will take a look at the buyout Durkin is getting and will add a zero or three to the end and present that as the offer to settle, "or else".

[BigWayne]

It didn't take long for the reinstatement of Durkin to revive the "toxic culture" of the UMD football team.

Wonder if news of this beating got to UMD president Loh before he fired Durkin.
Before I saw this article, I was thinking the terps might pull together under the interim coach and keep their decent season going. Now, I think it all falls apart as they break down into factions.

Update to this is it appears to be the starting punter beating up the back up punter, who was being held by other players so he couldn't fight back. Wonder who will be punting against Mich State this weekend.

[mwharrington]

Did you catch the last three paragraphs of that Baltimore Sun article? The lawyer's name shoud be familiar to long-time Duke football fans.


When he spoke to The Sun on Wednesday evening at his lawyer’s offices, Barber’s arm was in a sling and his head was bandaged.

Malcolm P. Ruff, a lawyer at the firm of Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, which is representing Barber, said his client was targeted over his whistle-blowing.

“This young man had the courage to stand up,” Ruff said. “He became a target.”

[BigWayne]

In the latest update, despite the board of regents recommendations supporting them along with Coach Durkin, the trainers involved with the non-treatment of McNair have been let go. I guess those board recommendations don't count for much since the chairman resigned.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I was shocked to see a headline today that Mike Tomlin’s son just committed to play for Maryland. He seems too smart to send his son into that disaster area.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

I was shocked to see a headline today that Mike Tomlin’s son just committed to play for Maryland. He seems too smart to send his son into that disaster area.

Wow, that's odd to be sure. How highly recruited was he?

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Wow, that's odd to be sure. How highly recruited was he?

Looks like he is a three star recruit. Given the chaos at Maryland I don't know why anyone would sign up for that, particularly not right now. He goes to arguably the best academic private school in Pittsburgh - I do not know anything about their football program.

http://www.espn.com/college-football...land-terrapins

[CameronBornAndBred]

Looks like he is a three star recruit. Given the chaos at Maryland I don't know why anyone would sign up for that, particularly not right now. He goes to arguably the best academic private school in Pittsburgh - I do not know anything about their football program.

http://www.espn.com/college-football...land-terrapins

His offer sheet included Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale. The lone ACC school was Pitt. Obviously academics matter to him. One thing about choosing UMD, it does give him the chance to be in a bigger program and still get to enjoy life away from home. It appears those options may have been limited.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospec...o-tomlin-78843