Also, Coxson becomes eighth player to depart since end of season The stays at Maryland were brief for freshman wide receiver Adrian Coxson and offensive coordinator Gary Crowton.
On Wednesday the school announced the departure of Coxson, while a team source confirmed a report that Crowton was out after one season under coach Randy Edsall.
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The moves continue the rapid transformation of the Maryland football program since Edsall took over in January. Coxson is the eighth player to depart since the end of the season, which closed with eight straight defeats and a 2-10 record.
Crowton is the first Edsall assistant to go. He came to Maryland from LSU, signing a three-year contract for $500,000 a season. He told the Denver Post last week that he was interested in the head coaching vacancy at Colorado State.
Crowton’s up-tempo, no-huddle offense opened to raves in a 32-24 opening-game victory over Miami, and the scheme appeared suited to the talents of sophomore quarterback Danny O’Brien.
But the Maryland offense unraveled in succeeding weeks, and O’Brien was in and out of the lineup in favor of sophomore C.J. Brown. O’Brien won his job back before breaking a bone in his upper arm in a November loss to Notre Dame.
There was no evidence of friction between Crowton and Edsall, who favored a conservative pro set in his 12 seasons at Connecticut.
Crowton’s departure leaves an opening that Edsall may attempt to fill with an assistant with a strong reputation for recruiting the Baltimore and Washington areas. Former Maryland assistant Mike Locksley was the top recruiter on the staff of former coaches Ralph Friedgen and Ron Vanderlinden and continued to recruit the area successfully as an assistant at Illinois. Locksley was recently fired after three seasons as coach at New Mexico.
Another potential candidate could be Penn State assistant Larry Johnson, a former high school coach in Maryland who has delivered many local high school standouts to the Nittany Lions. Johnson has been a special teams and defensive coach, however, throughout his tenure at Penn State.
With the player exodus from College Park, Edsall needs a recruiting class with quality and quantity. He has lined up 17 commitments from the high school class of 2012. Scout.?com ranks Maryland’s group 59th in the nation. Duke and Wake Forest are the only ACC schools that rank lower.
Establishing strong ties locally is critical to the success of Edsall. Of the eight players who have departed since the end of the year, three are from the Washington suburbs and three are from the Baltimore area, including Coxson, a four-star recruit coming out of Baltimore’s City College High.
Coxson originally signed with Florida but left in the 2010 preseason. He flashed potential this season, catching four passes for 90 yards and a touchdown.
