DJ Durkin and Damon Evans will retain jobs at Maryland, source says


Wow. I'm very surprised. It will be really interesting to see how recruiting goes there. Not once chance I'd send my kid to him.
 


Yeah watching the President's presser now. Looks like he will step down at the end of the year. One would wonder if he said either Durkin or me?
 

Yeah watching the President's presser now. Looks like he will step down at the end of the year. One would wonder if he said either Durkin or me?

Based on the story the school made it very clear that he would be fired if he didn't reinstate Durkin so think it was a him or me thing and the president lost out so he is retiring.
 


Based on the story the school made it very clear that he would be fired if he didn't reinstate Durkin so think it was a him or me thing and the president lost out so he is retiring.

I guess that is best for the school but man I'd be tempted to say "So do it, you have to fire me in favor of the football coach.... let's see how that goes over..."
 

I saw someplace that powerful boosters who don't want Durkin fired are exerting enormous pressure.

So, it makes sense that school president Wallace Loh is stepping down with possible differences with their BOR. Money talks.
 

This is disappointing and I'm a fan of college athletics.
This is a very well respected research University and to me it looks like they are sacrificing that in order to win at football. This is assuming that Wallace Loh was doing well in other areas of his role.
 




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Go Gophers!!
 

At least one crazy (and dishonest) parent and a handful of disgruntled players makes for a good sensationalistic story but wasn’t convincing to the regents. The “abuses” could be found at any number of programs past, present, future.
 

At least one crazy (and dishonest) parent and a handful of disgruntled players makes for a good sensationalistic story but wasn’t convincing to the regents. The “abuses” could be found at any number of programs past, present, future.

If it was a complete crock from the get go why does the strength coach quit the day the story breaks?

I assume that when you say "abuses" you arnt including McNair's death as one of the abuses, right?

Lastly, if the strength coach was fulfilling the culture Durkin wanted would that fall under Durkin's purview?
 

Well anyone playing below 4 games this year could transfer out at this point. I would suggest it.
 



This will get uglier. What parent will agree to have their son go to a school that sends a message that his life isn't valued so much.
 

This will get uglier. What parent will agree to have their son go to a school that sends a message that his life isn't valued so much.

Easiest negative recruiting pitch in the country right now.

"oh, you're considering Maryland? Great school, nice area, B1G football! But...you know...a kid died and the coach is still the coach and there are 20 insane stories of the culture he instituted and promoted...but have fun if you go there. Hope you don't die"
 

And to top it off Matt Canada seemed to be doing a solid job as the interim. Can Durkin, keep the president and Canada.
 

Is it possible that the University's attorneys didn't think they could fire Durkin with cause? That's an expensive buyout.
 

Is it possible that the University's attorneys didn't think they could fire Durkin with cause? That's an expensive buyout.

I mean dead kid.... animal dismemberment videos... recording players puking to embarrass them.

Shouldn't matter what it costs.
 


Money matters more than lives, huh? Seems the regents are taking notes from the guys down the road in DC.
 

I wonder if the Big Ten has any recourse to levy sanctions on Maryland or Durkin. I highly doubt they will do anything (for multiple reasons), but I sure would like to see them take action.
 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...421b02-dc5b-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html

The following two statements cannot coexist, but they perfectly outline the chaos at the University of Maryland, which ought to be ashamed of itself: The father of Jordan McNair, who died under the oversight of the so-called leaders who were embarrassingly reinstated Tuesday, said on national television in August that DJ Durkin “shouldn’t be able to work with anybody else’s kid.” And James T. Brady, the chairman of the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents, said Tuesday: “We will forever — forever — be guided by the memory of Jordan McNair.”

They’re hiding behind their tributes to the dead offensive lineman now, making hollow promises to create a better path forward by “honoring” his legacy. It’s disgusting. Real guidance wouldn’t parse whether the culture of the Terrapins football program was “toxic” or not. (News flash: To any reasonable person who read the regents-ordered report, it was, whether that report labeled it as such or not.) No, real guidance would have been deeming this entire operation unacceptable months ago, acting with urgency and compassion for those who were wronged, and cleansing itself of the people who created an appalling environment in the first place.
 

At least one crazy (and dishonest) parent and a handful of disgruntled players makes for a good sensationalistic story but wasn’t convincing to the regents. The “abuses” could be found at any number of programs past, present, future.

Ya, imagine a parent whose son died under those conditions become "crazed." If only they could look at things as objectively as some asshole on a football forum. And please do spell out how exactly a head football coach who is responsible for his program--you know, deciding who he hires and setting the tone as how his players are treated--is not at fault.
 

Disappointing... really makes college football look bad. They blame everyone except the guy in charge.
 

The players may not have liked Durkin much regardless, but the walk out also may be tied to the bonds formed with Matt Canada and the success they have had without Durkin.

I think back to when the MSU-Mankato coach, who had won big previously being fired for taking innocent pictures of his own young children, was reinstated when common sense prevailed. (the Blue Earth Co. Attorney made the EOAA look good in comparison) The players walked out initially, mainly because they had performed well and won a title as a very united team and rallied around the interim coach the previous year. The players came back and they MSU is still a DII powerhouse under Haffner (?). The interim coach got a good gig somewhere, but I am not sure if he is doing well or not.

The stakes are a little higher here, but who knows how much the players really hate Durkin, plus it is possible they are just angry that their teammate died and sometimes the captain needs to go down with the ship, even if he was not directly at fault.

The cynic in me thinks that Durkin was showing signs of building a powerhouse at Maryland, with huge recruiting wins, and wins on the field, and the boosters / Regents want to keep that going at any cost. We will see if Durkin can keep the recruiting wave rolling with all the bad press that will fuel negative recruiting.

I am shocked they kept him as HC.
 
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I am shocked. It does not make sense to retain the coach. The revelations of his culture should be cause to fire him even if nobody died. Is it really more costly to fire him than keep him in the long run? It's easy to say but if I'm the AD and they say you fire him and you are fired too...I would stand my ground. Do the right thing.
Interesting to see if a boycott by the players is coming....
 

It’s fascinating to read the reactions here. It’s clear to those that, you know, read the reports/summaries and are familiar with the situation that DJ was unfairly scapegoated for the likely preventable death of Jordan but it was still likely he’d be sacrificed to the knee jerk media and casual news consumers. So this is surprising news from that perspective but it’s probably the “fair” thing to do. The media, being stubborn, will not admit their initial reports were overblown sensationalism disproven by the investigations. They will double down.

The Maryland training staff, their medical supervisors, their admin supervisors (and perhaps their original training/verification programs) ought to be investigated by their respective boards. Their are still some interesting questions surrounding all this. Their careers are over or at least severely curtailed for the time being. The university will pay for not having competent training/ medical staff. Ironically, Maryland will likely be the safest and most overly protective environment in America going forward. Rick Court was a character but I’m not sure much of that screaming and yelling rises to the abuse level. Eye of the beholder I suppose.

This media storm will be all but forgotten by all but the most diehard negative nelly’s in a few weeks barring a player revolt which hasn’t materialized yet.






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Ya, imagine a parent whose son died under those conditions become "crazed." If only they could look at things as objectively as some asshole on a football forum. And please do spell out how exactly a head football coach who is responsible for his program--you know, deciding who he hires and setting the tone as how his players are treated--is not at fault.


I’m talking about the Daniels politician mother going on and on to the media about paraphrasing here - nobody talking to her - and the commission rebuking her stating they contacted her via her lawyer and she never responded. Things are never as black and white as you want them to be.

If you were half as smart as you think you’d know DJ doesn’t hire or run the training staff that were responsible for McNair’s heat injury complications. The university does.
 

Reading the Post’s story it’s amazing to me that the AD and Durkin keep their jobs. I had no clue it was the same AD that was fired at Georgia for a possible DUI. Maybe Norwood should be back in college athletics if that guy got another job. I can’t imagine recruiting will be good over the next few years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Big Ten has had a solid run of PR "wins".

Indiana coach abuse.
Michigan St. Nasser, etc.
Penn St. - Child abuse.
Maryland player death.
Ohio St. Domestic abuse cover up.
Minnesota Sexual assault.
Iowa training hospitalizations.

Am I missing any?
 




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