Success has ruined Maryland sports. It took a decade, but it’s now clear that there’s a downside to the men’s basketball team winning a national title and the football team appearing in multiple bowl games. And that downside has caused a campus-wide meltdown that recently resulted in a death sentence for eight other teams.
The swimmers, divers, gymnasts, tennis players and runners — athletes who actually graduate — can blame overambitious acts for the loss of their teams. They can point to the ill-planned Byrd Stadium expansion that cost millions of dollars. They can cite the basketball team’s 2002 national title for the loss of key assistant coaches vital to recruiting, so much so that this year’s team needs walk-ons just to have a bench.
Who knew the price of victory was absolute defeat?
Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow left last year before the stadium’s red ink finally spilled onto pink slips. Football coach Ralph Friedgen was forced out after he failed to maintain his early success. University president Dan Mote retired after approving the large-scale bid by Yow and Friedgen to make Maryland a top-25 regular by adding suites to an antiquated stadium. Imagine if officials had approved Friedgen’s plan for another 25,000 seats?
To be fair, the expansion decision came before the football team’s sudden tailspin and before the economy tanked. However, the debt on those unused luxury suites has crippled the athletic program, forcing those eight non-revenue teams to be cut. That is, unless those teams can raise eight years’ worth of funding by June. Uh, good luck with that.
Friedgen was supposedly let go with a year remaining on his contract to keep Maryland’s falling attendance from bottoming out this season. A fresh face like Randy Edsall was supposed to increase revenue, which might have saved those eight teams.
Instead, Edsall has been a disaster, turning last year’s 9-4 bowl team into one that’s lucky it is not winless. Maryland sources say perhaps a dozen upperclassmen are expected to transfer in the coming months. Quarterback Danny O’Brien, the 2010 ACC rookie of the year who spent this season largely chained to Edsall’s doghouse before breaking his arm, is expected to depart.
It may take several years and another coach before Maryland’s football program recovers.
Meanwhile, the basketball team might suffer through its worst season since 1992-93. The tickets already have been sold, and Terrapins fans are more tolerable of incoming coach Mark Turgeon struggling for a season. Still, Maryland is a basketball school, so this hurts the campus psyche.
The question is why retiring coach Gary Williams left the roster so vulnerable? When Jordan Williams surprisingly departed for the NBA two seasons early, the Terps were left with no one underneath. Maryland has only eight scholarship players instead of 10 to 12.
Williams never overcame the loss of his top recruiters to head coaching jobs elsewhere following the title. And he didn’t want to bow to AAU coaches. Williams ran a clean program, but somehow the cost is now born by Turgeon.
Fear the Turtle? Testudo may be the next victim.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or email [email protected].
