Reaction at UM is mixed

Durkin’s style draws condemnation, support from Maryland community

Len Elmore played in an era when coaches were known to be in-your-face disciplinarians, though the basketball coach he played for at Maryland in the early to mid 1970s, Lefty Driesell, was decidedly not one of them.

Yet as Elmore’s two sons were growing up, he once wrote in an article that he would never have allowed them to play for Bobby Knight, whose legendary career at Indiana came crashing down after tangible proof of abuse.

“There’s a difference between coaching hard and developing young people for life,” Elmore said Saturday, after learning Maryland football coach DJ Durkin had been placed on administrative leave by athletic director Damon Evans amid allegations of a “toxic culture” in the football program. “There’s a bright line you can't step over because hard coaching turns into abuse. That’s totally unacceptable. Coaches have to be smarter than that. You talk about wins and losses, but it’s also about personal development. That’s how they should be earning their money.”

The 40-year-old Durkin, who was going into his third season with the Terps in his first head coaching job, was earning $2.5 million annually — a salary he will lose if he winds up being fired with cause.

In a letter addressed to the Maryland community, university president Wallace D. Loh made it clear the culture of the football program will be examined along with the circumstances that led to the June 13 death of 19-year-old offensive lineman Jordan McNair, who died a little more than two weeks after falling ill following the team’s conditioning test.