The University of Maryland has just concluded a press conference on the immediate future of the Terrapins football program, and one major storyline can be immediately sewn up: Effective this coming January 2, head coach Ralph Friedgen's contract will be bought out, to the tune of a cool $2 million, so that a new coach can be brought in. New athletic director Kevin Anderson, who assumed the post shortly after the beginning of the 2010 college football season, spoke at some length about the decision. Some highlights from his remarks (not included: a truly sinister leer at ESPN's Heather Dinich):
• Right off the bat, he's asked about the persistent rumors that Mike Leach will be brought in. He neatly skirted the topic in his opening remarks by dismissing all weekend chatter as rumor and innuendo, but Anderson does cop to Leach being a candidate. He wants a new coach in place before the dead recruiting period ends in January.
• Anderson characterizes the process they're about to undertake as a national search that will involve one of those cushy outside search firms. Neither he nor his staff (which, of course, does not include such personnel as University trustee and Leach pal Kevin Plank) have contacted any candidate.
• Friedgen's ouster became an inevitability, according to Anderson, with the departure of James Franklin to Vanderbilt. (Very interesting to note here that Anderson does not say Franklin, despite being the designated coach in waiting, would necessarily have been afforded the head coaching position had he not left.)
• Regarding Friedgen's buyout and the mutual-or-not nature of the decision: SB Nation DC caught this exchange, in which the process appears to have been both amicable and not:
Ralph Friedgen To Receive Buyout; Mike Leach A Replacement Candidate
Anderson said the decision to part ways was a mutual one with Friedgen initially. As of last Wednesday, they were set to meet and discuss how to part ways amicably. But that meeting never materialized, explaining why the buyout happened this way.
“He told me and he looked me in the eye and said he understood. That was Wednesday. Friday, we’d determine what kind of exit strategy we’d have. Somewhere between Wed and Fri, that never materialized. I can’t tell you what happened, but I gather he had a change of heart.”
• Asked if on-field performance factored into his decision, Anderson insists, awkwardly, that it did. Asked whether coaches might be reluctant to join up with a program where a winning record and clean dealings with the NCAA don’t necessarily lead to job security, Anderson hems and haws for a bit, then says he doesn’t think it will negatively impact the search. Regretfully, no one asks how it feels to fire the reigning ACC Coach Of The Year.
University president Wallace Loh takes the mic at this point, and lays the whole situation at Franklin’s feet: Had he not left, and taken assistants, then the department wouldn’t be faced with the dilemma of hiring assistants to join on in the last year of a coach’s contract. He professes to be “very grateful for the years of service and dedication of Coach Friedgen.”
And that’s a wrap for the Friedgen era at Maryland, save for next week’s Military Bowl. Please collect your side bet winnings at the door.
For more Maryland athletics news and discussion, visit SB Nation DC and Testudo Times.
