The Academic Situation

[JohnD]

Edsall and some assistants met with the media today, I suppose as a run-up to spring practice. On one of the previous threads someone mentioned the academics situation being a lot worse than what we know. Apparently Edsall hinted at that today.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/d1scourse/2011/mar/4/edsall-a-little-bit-shocked-by-terps-academics/

That's also a reason, but not the only reason, that DB Jeremiah Wilson is now RB Jeremiah Wilson and QB Devin Burns is now WR Devin Burns. There's only three RBs on scholarship right now, and apparently one of them is teetering academically. Ronnie Tyler struggled with grades last year, and actually missed the bowl game because of it. Same thing for Quentin McCree.

I continue to gain confidence in Randy Edsall.

[Birds of B'more]

I'd heard that as many as 20-25 players are either currently ineligible or very close to becoming ineligible. It begs the question, are UM's academic requirements too challenging for a lot of these kids, or did Friedgen and his staff get too lax in making sure kids went to class and stayed on top of their studies? Based on what I've seen and heard, UM has a very good academic support infrastructure in place for student-athletes. So it would seem the university and athletic department are doing their part to help.

I remember when Fridge first got to UM he was pretty tough on kids who missed class. You had to run up and down all of the steps at Byrd Stadium every time you skipped a class or study hall. I think he stopped doing that at some point. Not sure why though.

[OregonBird]

I don't know how you feel about this but I'm just going to say it. It's pretty hard to become ineligible. At each level of my education I've found that if you went to class, did the work, and showed some willingness to participate, you would pass. If you wanted to excel, you did more.

I played baseball in college did the Fri/Sat/Sun conference game schedule, if an away series, you traveled on Thursday. That's 4 days away from campus on an away series. Then for us since our away games were up north, 50% of the time in March/early April you'd have to stay and play on Mon b/c Sunday's game got rained out. Add in one mid week non conference game. When we couldn't get to class, profs knew and a support system was in place. Heck, just read the damn syllabus, do the work, turn it in. It's really not hard at all. I had 21 credits, played ball, and was an RA during one of my spring semesters and still made the Deans list.

Unfortunately there are plenty of athletes who don't want to go to class b/c they'd rather play video games, etc. On the road, there are plenty of guys who don't want to do work in their room or hit study hall. Its on the players but sometimes the coach has to crack the whip.

[backwardsk]

Edsall and some assistants met with the media today, I suppose as a run-up to spring practice. On one of the previous threads someone mentioned the academics situation being a lot worse than what we know. Apparently Edsall hinted at that today.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/d1scourse/2011/mar/4/edsall-a-little-bit-shocked-by-terps-academics/

That's also a reason, but not the only reason, that DB Jeremiah Wilson is now RB Jeremiah Wilson and QB Devin Burns is now WR Devin Burns. There's only three RBs on scholarship right now, and apparently one of them is teetering academically. Ronnie Tyler struggled with grades last year, and actually missed the bowl game because of it. Same thing for Quentin McCree.

I continue to gain confidence in Randy Edsall.

I don't know anything about Maryland football. But this kid went to my high school. He was a better running back than DB. Now, it was a AA school so the competition wasn't as good as other recruits.

[olehippi]

It sounds like the football team is going to lose 3 scholarships, and maybe more. I think Edsall and Kevin Anderson, the new Maryland AD, will try to head off any decision by the NCAA by arguing that a new regime is in place now, and should be allowed to correct the problems before sanctions are imposed. Will be interesting to see if that strategy works?

[Catch 8]

These fellas are all professional athletes.