Maryland coach and athletic director will stay
At modern American universities, it is not unusual that the head football coach is the most powerful, and the highest-paid, individual.
That has rarely been more clear than it was on Tuesday, when the governing board at the University of Maryland looking into the death of a football player allowed the head coach and athletic director to keep their jobs, while accepting the unexpected retirement of the school’s president, Wallace D. Loh.
The decision was an attempt to put an end to a controversy that began on May 29 when the player, Jordan McNair, a 19-yearold offensive lineman, suffered heatstroke in a hard-charging practice. He died two weeks later. McNair’s death spurred two investigations, an ESPN report that revealed a “toxic culture” of bullying and humiliating players, and a decision to put the football coach and members of his staff on administrative leave.
The announcement that the head football coach, D.J. Durkin, and the athletic director, Damon Evans, would keep their jobs immediately raised the question of whether the university was putting its quest to succeed in big-time football ahead of accountability for its players’ well-being.
At a news conference Tuesday, McNair’s father, Marty McNair, said of the decision, “I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach and somebody spit in my face.”
The head of the Board of Regents, James T. Brady, defended the program on Tuesday, but he did say that problems had festered because “too many players feared speaking out.”
That was also the conclusion of a report commissioned by the university to look into the athletic department. But, Brady said, the report found “no direct link between the administrative dysfunction” and McNair’s death.
In a statement released by the university, Durkin said he was “grateful for the opportunity to rejoin the team and very much appreciate having the support of the Board of Regents.”
“As we move forward, I am confident that our team will successfully represent the entire University in a positive way both on and off the field,” the statement added.
The board recommended that Durkin and Evans remain on staff because, Brady said, they deserved a chance to fix the department. In August, Loh said he accepted “legal and moral responsibility” for McNair’s death.
On Tuesday, Loh called Durkin a “good man” and a “good coach” who had been “unfairly blamed.”
For months, it had seemed that Durkin’s job was in jeopardy; he was put on administrative leave in August, though Evans was not.
The decision to keep Durkin underlined the importance of a top football program at a university like Maryland, which decided in 2012 to move from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big Ten, among the most competitive and highest-profile conferences in the country for football.
The move allowed the Terrapins — traditionally a basketball university — to significantly increase the amount of money it takes in from the sale of its media rights and to experience annual football showdowns with powerhouse teams like Michigan and Ohio State.
When McNair died in June, Evans was the interim athletic director; he assumed the job as the permanent athletic director later that month. Durkin, now in his third full season, is still relatively new in the job. According to the board and the report, those were factors in the decision to allow both men to keep their jobs, Brady said.
“We believe Coach Durkin has been unfairly blamed,” Brady said Tuesday, adding, “We believe he is a good man and a good coach.”
Loh deflected questions regarding his feelings about the decision to keep both men in their jobs. He declined even to name Durkin, only indirectly confirming that the coach and Evans would keep their jobs by saying that he had accepted the board’s recommendations.
The report, conducted by a commission of eight appointees — three picked by Loh, five chosen by the board — with the aid of the law firm DLA Piper, was cast as a broader look into the culture under Durkin.
It also rejected the ESPN report’s characterization of the program, which also mentioned Rick Court, the strength and conditioning coach under Durkin.
“If the culture had been ‘malicious or harmful,’ ” the report stated, citing a definition of the word “toxic,” “Mr. Durkin would not have earned the loyalty and respect of many of his student-athletes and coaches. Many players interviewed by the commission felt Mr. Durkin’s and Mr. Court’s coaching tactics reflected those of a ‘big-time football program.’ ”
But the commission did characterize Durkin as essentially in over his head. He is a first-time head coach at a program that is attempting to bolster its status and compete with the best teams in college football without the proper support.
“The Athletics Department provided little education around, or support to handle, the myriad administrative responsibilities of a head coach, tasks Mr. Durkin had not been delegated in previous jobs as a coordinator or position coach,” the board’s report stated.