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Todd-O

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Then can you' date=' or Tony, or anyone else here speculate as to why Vanderlinden has not held a HC position, or even been considered for one AFAIK, since he was fired from UMd back in 2000? Seems to me that if college ADs felt as you do, and looked at the situation and came to the conclusion that he "never got the chance he deserved" then someone out there would have been calling him. I know he went to Penn St as a LBs coach right after MD, but he seemed to fall off the face of the earth pretty quickly.

Now I'm not saying this as a defense of Friedgen. Count me among those who think it's time for the Terps to cut ties with him. But I don't think it was a mistake at all to cut Vanderlinden loose either. While he certainly brought in some better players than Duffner did before him, by no means do I think he was a very good HC.[/quote']

How did he fall off the Earth? He's still a LB coach at one of the top football programs in the country, and (I believe) that he's instrumental in their recruiting. He brought in guys like Lamont and EJ. Those guys - combined with the lucky transfer of McBrien - were the studs that Fridge won with. None of Fridge's recruiting classes have brought in anywhere near that level of talent, and he's never displayed anywhere near that level of success since.

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I don't mean to put words in his mouth...but Tony has NEVER disrespected GW as an in-game coach, and he's never insinuated that he was a lazy coach. He's purely talking about his recruiting. Judging by the results since his NC, I can't argue with him. Things seem to be turning around now, as he has a nice class this year. Hopefully he learned from whatever the reasons were for years of bad recruiting and has corrected things. If classes like this are going to become a regular occurrence, I could be convinced to change my tune on GW.

I don't put words in anyone's mouth either...I just go by what I read. And I just happen to think his poor recruiting had to do with other reasons that I explained, not laziness.

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How did he fall off the Earth? He's still a LB coach at one of the top football programs in the country, and (I believe) that he's instrumental in their recruiting. He brought in guys like Lamont and EJ. Those guys - combined with the lucky transfer of McBrien - were the studs that Fridge won with. None of Fridge's recruiting classes have brought in anywhere near that level of talent, and he's never displayed anywhere near that level of success since.

OK, then Vanderlinden's still at PSU. I didn't bother to check to see if he was still there. I had always heard about Larry Johnson, Sr's recruiting work at PSU, but that's probably because MD is his territory. Still doesn't answer my original question of why Vanderlinden hasn't been offered any head coaching positions since UMd. Sounds like he's just one of those guys that is a great assistant/coordinator, but just doesn't have the various skill sets needed to be a successful head coach. Nothing wrong with that, but if true then it would seem MD was justified in letting him go.

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I don't put words in anyone's mouth either...I just go by what I read. And I just happen to think his poor recruiting had to do with other Excuses that I explained' date=' not laziness.[/quote']

Fixed that one for you. :D

You either have a reading comprehension problem or just didn't read my posts thoroughly because not once did I say Williams was a lazy coach outside of the recruiting aspects. I've heard all the excuses, they just don't fly. The people I respect step up and take responsibility for their actions. Williams is the first in line to accept the good things he's done, but clearly does not take responsibility for the bad. This is my major problem with him.

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Fixed that one for you. :D

You either have a reading comprehension problem or just didn't read my posts thoroughly because not once did I say Williams was a lazy coach outside of the recruiting aspects. I've heard all the excuses, they just don't fly. The people I respect step up and take responsibility for their actions. Williams is the first in line to accept the good things he's done, but clearly does not take responsibility for the bad. This is my major problem with him.

And he's saying he wasn't lazy in recruiting either, so I think he did read what you were saying.

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Fixed that one for you. :D

You either have a reading comprehension problem or just didn't read my posts thoroughly because not once did I say Williams was a lazy coach outside of the recruiting aspects. I've heard all the excuses, they just don't fly. The people I respect step up and take responsibility for their actions. Williams is the first in line to accept the good things he's done, but clearly does not take responsibility for the bad. This is my major problem with him.

He's not exactly in a position where its feasible for him to say he's messed up though.

Admitting that the kids he's recruited aren't of the top talent level they should be doesn't really send a great message to the kids on your squad. He's not in a vacuum, he can't say to the Washington Post that he has struggled with recruiting and has been stuck with second-rate talent and then turn around to his team and say I've got faith in you now lets go out and play great.

It'd be like if a parent has a kid that he knows isn't all that smart, he can't tell people in front of the kid that his kid isn't as smart as he should be, and then go try and get the kid to do well in school. You've always gotta be supportive and confident in the talent that you've got, and going around and "apologizing" or whatever you want him to do for recruiting poorly is just about the worst possible way to get his team to do better.

Last season there were tons of articles about the poor recruiting and lack of talent. Instead of saying "yeah I've made mistakes" Gary instead said "I think my guys are talented and have complete faith in their abilities". Then the team went out and put forth an "us against the world, let's show them how talented we are" late regular season and ACC tournament performance and made the NCAA tournament.

Gary may feel that it is his fault that the team didn't get the upper echelon talent in the 5 years following the championship, but you'll never hear him admit that the players on his team aren't ACC caliber players. And he absolutely never should admit that.

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Tony you should pick another college to adopt. You are not well informed on the goings on at UMCP, IMO. Yow is a problem, it has been written about in many places. She is a me person and can't stand the fact that the revenue sports are lead by people she can't take the credit for. She has been an obstacle for both Gary and Fridge, check it out. As to Fridges recruiting and the vastly superior alledged recruiting that happened just prior to Fridge getting to Maryland, I think you would be well served to look at the NFL draft records to prove to yourself that the talent level at MD is just about the same as it has been for 20 years. THe problem is the OL and QBs have not developed for quite some time. Last years OL was suppose to be dominate and failed to live up to that expectations. The QBs have not developed even though Turner was every bit the recruit that most of the successful MD QBs have been. Portis was a much better recruit than MD has had at QB in the last 20 years. Fridge is not putting it together and might pay the price for it. It does have alot to do with recruiting but not in the way you probably think. Maryland HS football is substandard. To be successfull with mainly locale guys you better get them all and that still will only be good enough sometimes. This leads to the problem of a lack of depth of talent to really be at a consistant power. MD is not a real player in the football states that matter and this is a real weakness. Also the level of programs in the ACC has really risen with expansion. Honestly the 4 additions where all better programs than any others in the conference. Both are problems that the AD and HC need to address but have not done at this point.

BTW one of the things that has really hurt Maryland was the hiring of Larry Johnson, Sr by PSU. Coach Johnson is a guy that if you have never meet you just can't understand how good he his and MD, DC and Northern VA is his home turf and he is winning the battle for most of the players that matter in those areas. HS coaches love him and give him access, players love and trust him. Maybe Fridge should have hired him when he was out of coaching and living in the state a while back. But I guess then we would have a legit coach in waiting.

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THe problem is the OL and QBs have not developed for quite some time. Last years OL was suppose to be dominate and failed to live up to that expectations. The QBs have not developed even though Turner was every bit the recruit that most of the successful MD QBs have been. Portis was a much better recruit than MD has had at QB in the last 20 years. Fridge is not putting it together and might pay the price for it.

How come? When he was OC at GT, he got O performance that was off the charts, and GT has recruiting problems too. His teams scored a bunch and you never knew what they hell they were gonna do next. Is it because he's not the OC and the guy who is can't do it like Fridge did it? Or is it something else?

ps: I've always been dubious about super-fat guys recruiting well. When it comes time to close the deal, what kind of impression does it make on Mom and Dad when the guy in charge comes to sit on their couch looking like he weighs 400 lbs? This might sound like a dumb thing to say, but I'm serious.

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How come? When he was OC at GT, he got O performance that was off the charts, and GT has recruiting problems too. His teams scored a bunch and you never knew what they hell they were gonna do next. Is it because he's not the OC and the guy who is can't do it like Fridge did it? Or is it something else?

ps: I've always been dubious about super-fat guys recruiting well. When it comes time to close the deal, what kind of impression does it make on Mom and Dad when the guy in charge comes to sit on their couch looking like he weighs 400 lbs? This might sound like a dumb thing to say, but I'm serious.

The fatness is not the problem IMO. I think alot of it is MD is not a dream program for anyone other than guys that grew up there and the coaches are not selling it well enough to urban kids that might find the location attractive. As to why the players have not developed that is the big question that is very unclear. I will say almost any coach will tell you that the two most important coaches on any team are the O-line coach and the D-back coach. Well the o-line coach is not getting it done, IMO. Last year for example was a group that should have been able to carry a team every week, but they were terribly dissapointing alot of the time. We have recruited some kids that should have developed based on the tools they brought to the program but it simply has not happened. As to the past I really don't now the differenence but it is certainly there. What is lacking IMO is the develepment of the mid level prospect into a productive player. Really the Blue chippers have done OK and the draft shows that.

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How come? When he was OC at GT, he got O performance that was off the charts, and GT has recruiting problems too. His teams scored a bunch and you never knew what they hell they were gonna do next. Is it because he's not the OC and the guy who is can't do it like Fridge did it? Or is it something else?

ps: I've always been dubious about super-fat guys recruiting well. When it comes time to close the deal, what kind of impression does it make on Mom and Dad when the guy in charge comes to sit on their couch looking like he weighs 400 lbs? This might sound like a dumb thing to say, but I'm serious.

I agree with you here. First impressions make a big deal to some (many?) people. I also think that this was part of the reason for prematurely naming a "coach in waiting". When you see a guy weighing 400+ lbs, you have to worry about his health. And, in the recruiting game, I'd imagine that guys want to know what kind of continuity they can expect. Can they expect Fridge to still be coaching in 4 years? Will his health let him? So they tag his replacement to show that - no matter what - there will be continuity.

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I agree with you here. First impressions make a big deal to some (many?) people. I also think that this was part of the reason for prematurely naming a "coach in waiting". When you see a guy weighing 400+ lbs, you have to worry about his health. And, in the recruiting game, I'd imagine that guys want to know what kind of continuity they can expect. Can they expect Fridge to still be coaching in 4 years? Will his health let him? So they tag his replacement to show that - no matter what - there will be continuity.

Having gone thru the recruiting process albeit a long time ago, I think you are overstating continuity as a concern of the players. I know I wanted to go where the coaches believed in me, I felt they were going to give me a fair shot and that we would win. One of the problems that I feel MD faces is it is not the easiest school to get into and it really has an attraction to Urban kids because of the location. The Urban kids that are great students don't see it has a great college and the average students with some background history can't get in. The AD has a history of not being supportive for making a case to get a kid in. Also the football team does not have a facility comparable to Comcast to walk the recruits through on a visit.

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Tony you should pick another college to adopt. You are not well informed on the goings on at UMCP, IMO. Yow is a problem, it has been written about in many places. She is a me person and can't stand the fact that the revenue sports are lead by people she can't take the credit for. She has been an obstacle for both Gary and Fridge, check it out. As to Fridges recruiting and the vastly superior alledged recruiting that happened just prior to Fridge getting to Maryland, I think you would be well served to look at the NFL draft records to prove to yourself that the talent level at MD is just about the same as it has been for 20 years. THe problem is the OL and QBs have not developed for quite some time. Last years OL was suppose to be dominate and failed to live up to that expectations. The QBs have not developed even though Turner was every bit the recruit that most of the successful MD QBs have been. Portis was a much better recruit than MD has had at QB in the last 20 years. Fridge is not putting it together and might pay the price for it. It does have alot to do with recruiting but not in the way you probably think. Maryland HS football is substandard. To be successfull with mainly locale guys you better get them all and that still will only be good enough sometimes. This leads to the problem of a lack of depth of talent to really be at a consistant power. MD is not a real player in the football states that matter and this is a real weakness. Also the level of programs in the ACC has really risen with expansion. Honestly the 4 additions where all better programs than any others in the conference. Both are problems that the AD and HC need to address but have not done at this point.

BTW one of the things that has really hurt Maryland was the hiring of Larry Johnson, Sr by PSU. Coach Johnson is a guy that if you have never meet you just can't understand how good he his and MD, DC and Northern VA is his home turf and he is winning the battle for most of the players that matter in those areas. HS coaches love him and give him access, players love and trust him. Maybe Fridge should have hired him when he was out of coaching and living in the state a while back. But I guess then we would have a legit coach in waiting.

Wow, so I don't agree with you on Williams and Fridge and I'm supposed to find another program? Interesting. I'll debate with others who can do without the attitude of arrogance.

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Wow, so I don't agree with you on Williams and Fridge and I'm supposed to find another program? Interesting. I'll debate with others who can do without the attitude of arrogance.

Well following the programs appear to provide so much to your life I thought I was doing you a favor. I stand by my comments. Where am I wrong?

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