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Anderson Backs off his committment to Fridge in 2011


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This is an interesting thought. Would Locksley even consider leaving a head coach gig at arguably the worst football program in D1 for a top assistant job at a middle of the pack ACC school?

I know Locksley has been given another year at UNM by his AD but I have to think that he's in an impossible situation b/c that program is sooooooo bad that they an improvement for that team would be to simply be able to keep from getting blown out every game, let alone actually win one. I think he's gone after next year.

Maybe Locksley could actually see an improving MD program as a springboard to better opportunities if he'd be willing to make a 2-3 year investment working for Leach. Either that or he sees Leach leaving in 4-5 years for a better job in which case he steps into the HC role.

I don't know. On one hand, Locksley wasn't playing with a full deck of cards at NM....they were under scholarship reductions the past couple years as the result of violations under the previous coach. But Locksley hasn't helped himself by being charged with sexual harassment and assaulting an assistant coach during his tenure. And even considering the sanctions, a 2-22 record is just awful. I don't know what UNM's financial situation is, but I have to imagine the only reason he is still there is because they couldn't afford to fire and replace him. But I have to think that if he were to walk away from there now to take a job as an assistant that it would be a career-killer for Locksley. No matter what success he might have at MD, he might never get another head coaching opportunity. If he's OK with that and truly likes the lure of returning home, then I suppose he might accept. But I think his best bet is to make the most of his current situation and try to win as many games at NM as he can this season.

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You make some valid points, but who was going to be interested in going to RFK to see East Carolina?

Not many, but the fact that Maryland got stuck in this bowl after finishing ahead of many other ACC teams is a factor in this decision. The bowl committees looked at the interest in Maryland football and didn't think sending them further then 20 miles from home was a good business decision.

What it looks like is that last month Anderson said Fridge had earned his chance to return... and yesterday was not ready for the press conference.

I don't disagree with you but when you are about to fire a coach these things never are real clean. I think once Franklin's payout was gone Anderson called Friedgen to a pow wow yesterday and Ralph called in "sick."

Friedgen got wind of what was going on because Anderson was talking to top contributors to get a barometer on whether to do this or not. Then when asked the direct question Anderson was not going to lie. Again you are correct that maybe it could have been handled better but I'm not sure what he could have said except a flat out lie.

It is fine for Anderson to decide to make his stamp on the program and make the change... but everyone should have been on the same page yesterday.

Ralph wasn't on board and I don't blame him, but he also shouldn't have gone to the press and demanded an extension.

I do agree Leach will bring some juice to the program... and might sell some more suites... that is a good thing since that broke athletic program will be paying for him and Fridge next year.

Leach is close to Maryland alumni Kevin Plank. If I had a little say in hiring the next coach at Maryland and I was a billionaire I would expect I might have to make a hefty contribution to make all this happen. It won't be called a "ralph buyout" check, but don't be surprised if he throws in a couple million to make the grass greener at Byrd Stadium.

BTW though, with the players Maryland had returning for next year (starting with O'Brien) the expectations would have been higher with Fridge at the helm as well. More tickets and interest in the program would have happened either way.

Yes there would be more interest, but not the kind they need to make money. Ralph is considered a very lousy recruiter among people who give the bigger money to Maryland football. Franklin was considered the expert here, but they didn't want him to be the next head coach. Also after talking to alumni they didn't want to commit $6-8 million to extent Ralph at 6 years old. The perception is that he isn't going to work any harder on the recruiting trail. By not extending him you send a message to recruits his time is short. Maryland has football commitments but no one signs a letter of intent until February. With Franklin gone everyone was afraid many of their better recruits were going to bolt. This will give a new staff over 30 days to convince the ones they want to keep and go after others they may want that may have committed to other schools. Yes there would have been more interest in next season but this is a much bigger picture decision.

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I don't know. On one hand' date=' Locksley wasn't playing with a full deck of cards at NM....they were under scholarship reductions the past couple years as the result of violations under the previous coach. But Locksley hasn't helped himself by being charged with sexual harassment and assaulting an assistant coach during his tenure. And even considering the sanctions, a 2-22 record is just awful. I don't know what UNM's financial situation is, but I have to imagine the only reason he is still there is because they couldn't afford to fire and replace him. But I have to think that if he were to walk away from there now to take a job as an assistant that it would be a career-killer for Locksley. No matter what success he might have at MD, he might never get another head coaching opportunity. If he's OK with that and truly likes the lure of returning home, then I suppose he might accept. But I think his best bet is to make the most of his current situation and try to win as many games at NM as he can this season.[/quote']

If Leach comes aboard as expected, does anyone have any intel on who his top assistants might be? They'll obviously be guys with Mid-Atlantic, East Coast connections and be great recruiters but does anyone have any solid guesses?

I'm sure we'll find out soon.

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Yes there would be more interest, but not the kind they need to make money. Ralph is considered a very lousy recruiter among people who give the bigger money to Maryland football. Franklin was considered the expert here, but they didn't want him to be the next head coach. Also after talking to alumni they didn't want to commit $6-8 million to extent Ralph at 6 years old. The perception is that he isn't going to work any harder on the recruiting trail. By not extending him you send a message to recruits his time is short. Maryland has football commitments but no one signs a letter of intent until February. With Franklin gone everyone was afraid many of their better recruits were going to bolt. This will give a new staff over 30 days to convince the ones they want to keep and go after others they may want that may have committed to other schools. Yes there would have been more interest in next season but this is a much bigger picture decision.

Great points. Despite the great turnaround in performance, it never felt like MD wanted to commit to Friedgen beyond 2011...and Ralph publicly asking for an extension may have been part of his own undoing. And by not giving it to him, Kevin Anderson was basically stating that Fridge was a lame-duck in 2011....combine that with the fact that Franklin is gone and recruiting would probably have taken a hit even without this current mess.

I think Friedgen's legacy at UM will ultimately be a very good one. He was by far one of the most successful head coaches in school history, and he restored interest in a program that had become moribund and irrelevant. But he may have also been a victim of his own early success. For whatever reason (and I think there are several) he just wasn't able to win enough to sustain the fan interest once he was playing with all of his own recruits. Add to that the fact that he is 63, recently had a hip-replacement, and is overweight, which I'm sure has led to concerns among many at UM about his long-term viability as a head coach in a business that tends to favor either 1) coaches with an already strong legacy, or 2) younger guys viewed as more hungry and energetic. While that may be an unfair stereotype, unfortunately I think perception is reality in this business.

And as for the future, I wouldn't put too much stock into Leach's agent saying no one at UM has contacted him. He pretty much has to say that, especially since he represents one of the current coaching staff (Don Brown). I'm absolutely certain that Kevin Anderson has a short list of candidates and has probably already had some sort of back-channels contact with some of them to gauge their interest. Whether things are far enough along that he'll be ready to announce a new HC next week (which is when he said he'd address the issue) I don't know, but I think it would be in the best interest of the football program and Kevin Anderson to have this done ASAP.

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I think Friedgen's legacy at UM will ultimately be a very good one. He was by far one of the most successful head coaches in school history, and he restored interest in a program that had become moribund and irrelevant. But he may have also been a victim of his own early success. For whatever reason (and I think there are several) he just wasn't able to win enough to sustain the fan interest once he was playing with all of his own recruits. Add to that the fact that he is 63, recently had a hip-replacement, and is overweight, which I'm sure has led to concerns among many at UM about his long-term viability as a head coach in a business that tends to favor either 1) coaches with an already strong legacy, or 2) younger guys viewed as more hungry and energetic. While that may be an unfair stereotype, unfortunately I think perception is reality in this business.

All good points. I think what will haunt his legacy is that his biggest success was with Vanderlinden's players. He never got back to that level with his recruits. That fact in the end is what did him in with the donors and the new AD.

And as for the future, I wouldn't put too much stock into Leach's agent saying no one at UM has contacted him. He pretty much has to say that, especially since he represents one of the current coaching staff (Don Brown).

I am told by several people in the know that Leach being named head coach is a done deal. The public will know for sure on Monday.

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I am told by several people in the know that Leach being named head coach is a done deal. The public will know for sure on Monday.

If that's the case, this is the flag I want to see flying during games at Byrd next season.

http://media.247sports.com/Uploads/Boards/926/5926/32932.jpg

But please Terps fans, don't break out pirate gear for the game at the Military Bowl. Just wait. It would be disrespectful to Ralph Friedgen, and would look pretty stupid as well since our opponent is named the Pirates.

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Profile of Leach from the NYT / Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball) in 2005.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/magazine/04coach.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

Things are about to get pretty interesting in College Park. Some good stuff in that article, like this:

But at the start of a game, he's unsure what's going to work. So one goal is to throw as many different things at a defense as he can, to see what it finds most disturbing. Another goal is to create as much confusion as possible for the defense while keeping things as simple as possible for the offense.

What a defense sees, when it lines up against Texas Tech, is endless variety, caused, first, by the sheer number of people racing around trying to catch a pass and then compounded by the many different routes they run. A typical football offense has three serious pass-catching threats; Texas Tech's offense has five, and it would employ more if that wasn't against the rules. Leach looks at the conventional offense - with its stocky fullback and bulky tight end seldom touching the football, used more often as blockers - and says, "You've got two positions that basically aren't doing anything." He regards receivers as raffle tickets: the more of them you have, the more likely one will hit big. Some go wide, some go deep, some come across the middle. All are fast. (When Leach recruits high-school players, he is forced to compromise on most talents, but he insists on speed.) All have been conditioned to run much more than a football player normally does. A typical N.F.L. receiver in training might run 1,500 yards of sprints a day; Texas Tech receivers run 2,500 yards. To prepare his receivers' ankles and knees for the unusual punishment of his nonstop-running offense, Leach has installed a 40-yard-long sand pit on his practice field; slogging through the sand, he says, strengthens the receivers' joints. And when they finish sprinting, they move to Leach's tennis-ball bazookas. A year of catching tiny fuzzy balls fired at their chests at 60 m.p.h. has turned many young men who got to Texas Tech with hands of stone into glue-fingered receivers.

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Things are about to get pretty interesting in College Park. Some good stuff in that article' date=' like this:[/quote']

Almost reminds me of those glorious Mark Duffner, "Run and Shoot" offenses w/John Kaleo throwing the ball every where. I also remember during my recruiting visit watching Natrone Means of UNC shredding our defense even though the Terps scored a lot of points.

It should be interesting. Fridge's emphasis on measurables (40 times, bench/squat/vertical, height, weight) and whatever Leach's emphasis on speed.

I'm not sure what to think actually. I'm not sure that I'll ever be fond of the "Air Raid" offense, I was hoping for more of a spread option, almost anything but the west coast offense. I did really want to see a physical offense and defense but it doesn't sound like we're headed in that direction. I really miss the Fridge teams of '01-'03.

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Almost reminds me of those glorious Mark Duffner, "Run and Shoot" offenses w/John Kaleo throwing the ball every where. I also remember during my recruiting visit watching Natrone Means of UNC shredding our defense even though the Terps scored a lot of points.

It should be interesting. Fridge's emphasis on measurables (40 times, bench/squat/vertical, height, weight) and whatever Leach's emphasis on speed.

I'm not sure what to think actually. I'm not sure that I'll ever be fond of the "Air Raid" offense, I was hoping for more of a spread option, almost anything but the west coast offense. I did really want to see a physical offense and defense but it doesn't sound like we're headed in that direction. I really miss the Fridge teams of '01-'03.

Note the average yards per/att of TT's leading rusher during the latter half of the Leach era.

2004 - 5.2

2005 - 5.9

2006 - 6.1

2007 - 5.2

2008 - 6.7

2009 - 5.3

While his offense is centered on the passing game, they do run the ball effectively. And while they never had a 1,000 rusher in those seasons, most of the years featured a back that got into 800-900 yard territory. And they definitely spread the defense out. The difference is that in Leach's offense the QB calls (or changes) the play at the LOS based on what the defense is showing and what has been working so far. In the option the QB makes the read after the snap. Both have been very effective at the college level. The key will be getting enough athletes and depth on defense (plus similar conditioning to what the WRs do) to slow down opponents' scoring. And one thing to keep in mind also is that Leach should be able to get more talented players at MD than he did at Texas Tech.

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Almost reminds me of those glorious Mark Duffner, "Run and Shoot" offenses w/John Kaleo throwing the ball every where. I also remember during my recruiting visit watching Natrone Means of UNC shredding our defense even though the Terps scored a lot of points.

It should be interesting. Fridge's emphasis on measurables (40 times, bench/squat/vertical, height, weight) and whatever Leach's emphasis on speed.

I'm not sure what to think actually. I'm not sure that I'll ever be fond of the "Air Raid" offense, I was hoping for more of a spread option, almost anything but the west coast offense. I did really want to see a physical offense and defense but it doesn't sound like we're headed in that direction. I really miss the Fridge teams of '01-'03.

I'm also a fan of the spread option, especially for schools that can't recruit like Alabama or Ohio State. Rich Rod won at West Virginia by running an offense that played well to the talents of the players he was able to recruit. I hope Anderson will weigh the pros and cons all of the good coaching candidates out there and not just rush into hiring Mike Leach.

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Locksley is only being mentioned because of his ability to recruit... stories on him are crazy... not a legitimate guy.

If this goes through, I have to believe the Birds of Bmore link below shows the deal with Leach was already in the works...

Very interesting...

A new hire will have to work hard to keep the existing recruits...and build his own staff.

this is an outsider POV (WVU guy)

I think Leach would be a great hire. Let him recruit his people, and give him 2-3 years and he will make that offense EXPLOSIVE.....

Locks is a GREAT OC, and a recruiter... hiring him as a head coach is a JOKE.... look @ nex mexico as a few posters have said....

I think Fridge is getting a raw freaking deal here.. and am shocked... Even tho I dont root for the terps at all, I hate seeing someone get shafted...

One issue I have with Leach is can he recruit in MD/DC/VA/NJ/NY etc.... TONS i mean TONS of talent there... of course he has plenty of connections in Texas... but he will need to get a good recruiter in as well

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this is an outsider POV (WVU guy)

I think Leach would be a great hire. Let him recruit his people, and give him 2-3 years and he will make that offense EXPLOSIVE.....

Locks is a GREAT OC, and a recruiter... hiring him as a head coach is a JOKE.... look @ nex mexico as a few posters have said....

I think Fridge is getting a raw freaking deal here.. and am shocked... Even tho I dont root for the terps at all, I hate seeing someone get shafted...

One issue I have with Leach is can he recruit in MD/DC/VA/NJ/NY etc.... TONS i mean TONS of talent there... of course he has plenty of connections in Texas... but he will need to get a good recruiter in as well

By most accounts Leach is a smart guy. I'm sure that when he puts together his staff he'll consider guys who have east coast connections.

I'm thinking he'll have a great sell to kids. Who wouldn't want to set ACC and potentially national records? The ACC hasn't really had an offense that likes to chuck it around as much as Leach does.

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And one thing to keep in mind also is that Leach should be able to get more talented players at MD than he did at Texas Tech.

I've been thinking about this all day, because I was going to post the same thing. However, I'm not 100% sure.

This region won't have quite the same competition as Texas Tech did. We'll have Penn State, West Virginia and Virginia Tech along with national recruiting schools to worry about, instead of UT, A&M, OU and Okie State, LSU, and so on.

On the other hand, there are SO MANY players in Texas. That leads to more players being available for more schools, as well as a better chance for talented players to get lost in the numbers.

Really, it could turn out to be a wash.

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