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Friedgen Could Care Less About Maryland


BaltimoreTerp

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http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/30/ralph-friedgen-i-could-care-less-about-maryland-right-now/

The original WNST audio is linked by CFT (although I of course encourage everyone to avoid clicking that link), but the transcript of the relevant comments is posted.

All I can do is ask a question: Can anyone blame him for his feelings?

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This is the crux of the article, IMO:

But, Friedgen did orchestrate a six-win regular season turnaround from 2009 to ’10 and was still replaced with former UConn coach Randy Edsall, who — and this is nothing against Edsall as a coach — doesn’t necessarily solve the “breath of fresh air” dilemma Maryland was trying to fix when they fired Friedgen.

I don't pretend to know much about MD football, but Fridge had just come off a solid season, won ACC CoY and was a big personality (pun intended) for MD. I don't really know why a change would have even been needed, but if so, it sounds like they did a really crappy job of doing it, and insulting a coach who had taken the school to the best run of football in decades. Then they hired a guy in Edsall, who may be a good coach, but like the article says, didn't really bring an immediate philosophy to inspire fans or the players (so far).

So I understand Fridge's anger over being fired.

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"I could care less about Maryland, I've burned my diploma. I'm flying a Georgia Tech flag right now," Friedgen told the station. (Friedgen served two stints as an offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech.)

"That's hurtful. I don't want to hear that, Coach. I'm a Maryland alum," Clark said.

Friedgen replied, "Well, they talk about Maryland pride. They didn't show me a whole lot of Maryland pride, either getting the job or getting fired."

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7039655/maryland-terrapins-former-coach-ralph-friedgen-says-burned-diploma

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He sounds pretty bitter about a University that made him a millionaire. According to one player I know well, most of his players didn't like him, they were not good in the academic department, and the weak schedule had more to do with his 9-4 record last year then his coaching ability after years of mediocrity. On top of it all he couldn't get people excited about his program and wasted way too many years on sub-par QBs before finally getting DOB. I'm sorry, but he's looking awfully petty in this interview.

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I don't know Esdall, but from what I have seen and heard I do not like him. He calls out a player who intercepted a pass and scored for almost costing his team the game? Really? He should have kneeled at the one and we could have ran out the clock. Really? A fluke snap couldn't turn the ball over and cost your team the game in the same manner as a missed or botched extra point? You couldn't make an adjustment to stop a Temple RB from making you look like they were the varsity team and you were the JV team? Then you throw Fridge under the bus saying something about previous culture's being tough to break? Really? Edsall needs to take some responsibilty because at the end of the day being ACC CoY didn't save Fridge's job so what does a 3 win seasons in 2011 do for Maryland in terms of recruiting? Is his personality that much better than Ralph's and does that translate into additional luxury box sales? News flash to Maryland, when you fire a coach make sure that you actually get an upgrade in terms of charachter and ability!

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I don't know Esdall, but from what I have seen and heard I do not like him. He calls out a player who intercepted a pass and scored for almost costing his team the game? Really? He should have kneeled at the one and we could have ran out the clock. Really? A fluke snap couldn't turn the ball over and cost your team the game in the same manner as a missed or botched extra point? You couldn't make an adjustment to stop a Temple RB from making you look like they were the varsity team and you were the JV team? Then you throw Fridge under the bus saying something about previous culture's being tough to break? Really? Edsall needs to take some responsibilty because at the end of the day being ACC CoY didn't save Fridge's job so what does a 3 win seasons in 2011 do for Maryland in terms of recruiting? Is his personality that much better than Ralph's and does that translate into additional luxury box sales? News flash to Maryland, when you fire a coach make sure that you actually get an upgrade in terms of charachter and ability!

After last week debacle and some of his comments, he's lost some luster with me as well.

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I don't know Esdall, but from what I have seen and heard I do not like him. He calls out a player who intercepted a pass and scored for almost costing his team the game? Really? He should have kneeled at the one and we could have ran out the clock. Really? A fluke snap couldn't turn the ball over and cost your team the game in the same manner as a missed or botched extra point? You couldn't make an adjustment to stop a Temple RB from making you look like they were the varsity team and you were the JV team? Then you throw Fridge under the bus saying something about previous culture's being tough to break? Really? Edsall needs to take some responsibilty because at the end of the day being ACC CoY didn't save Fridge's job so what does a 3 win seasons in 2011 do for Maryland in terms of recruiting? Is his personality that much better than Ralph's and does that translate into additional luxury box sales? News flash to Maryland, when you fire a coach make sure that you actually get an upgrade in terms of charachter and ability!

I'm still up in the air on Edsall. But the first bolded part didn't happen at all. The second bolded part didn't really happen either. And the third bolded part did happen, sort of.

“I obviously have to do a better job of letting them know what they’re going to get into. We’ll address it and get better.”
"This is a process we’re in. It’s a process. It wasn’t going to get changed overnight."
“There’s no rebuilding here,” Edsall said Tuesday. “You never heard that word come out of my mouth, and you never will.
  • Edsall has lost three scholarships because he inherited a team of poor team academic performance.
  • Edsall and the Maryland Athletic Department went with a self-imposed penalty of 2.5 hours fewer than the max of practice time as a response to previous minor NCAA violations of too much mandatory practice time under Friedgen.
  • Edsall, who is apparently a strict and structured disciplinarian concerning expectations outside of practice time is following Friedgen who apparently was not. He's in the process of making those changes for better or for worse.

I'm not making judgements on which is the right approach. But I don't think there's anything wrong with Edsall saying that the process of change will take time. I think it was a minor mistake to say it right after they got their butt kicked; that can come across as an excuse. But that quote has been cherry-picked out of a post-game presser where most of what he said was on point.

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It seems it's always been an unwritten rule that you don't talk bad about a previous coaching regime, even when you've inherited a less than ideal situation (and if it wasn't less than ideal, there probably wouldn't have been a need to replace the previous guy anyway). Something about a cliche of walking a mile in another man's shoes....

Whether it was his intent to do that, or whether it was just a little bit of frustration that slipped out, Edsall crossed the line and did so at a bad time. Overblown or not, he might have to repair some bridges for that. Of course, winning some games should suffice perfectly. But if Edsall and the Terps can't pull that off, the grumbling at College Park could get louder and louder.

And I see Tony's point about Friedgen....he didn't exactly take the high road either in his first public comments since being fired. Of course Fridge wasn't one of those guys that filtered his thoughts much....you usually knew exactly what was on his mind. It was an endearing quality most of the time, a refreshing change from the ordinary PC coachspeak. But if things weren't going well, it could also make a bad situation seem worse.

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I understand Ralph taking it personal. Anybody would take it personal, especially coming off the year he just had. That said, you can;t deny the academic situation was horrible and the program had become stale despite last years record. The biggest problem is I'm not so sure Edsall changes any of it except for maybe the academics.

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He sounds pretty bitter about a University that made him a millionaire. According to one player I know well, most of his players didn't like him, they were not good in the academic department, and the weak schedule had more to do with his 9-4 record last year then his coaching ability after years of mediocrity. On top of it all he couldn't get people excited about his program and wasted way too many years on sub-par QBs before finally getting DOB. I'm sorry, but he's looking awfully petty in this interview.

This.

MD football was not a relevant team. The academic situation was horrid. The recruiting was poor. How can anyone be surprised the school went in another direction? You don't get a job for having pride in the team, or else BTerp would be coaching Terp basketball. Stop whining and get over it.

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