Maryland fires coach after outcry
Durkin had been reinstated Tuesday after player died from heatstroke in practice
The University of Maryland fired its football coach, D.J. Durkin, the university president announced Wednesday night. The news came one day after the college had said that Durkin would be reinstated following an investigation into the death of a player last spring.
The initial decision to retain Durkin, made by the board of regents over the president’s objections, provoked a widespread outcry. The university president, Wallace Loh, said he would still retire in June, as he had announced on Tuesday, but would spend the rest of his time in office cleaning up the athletic department.
Loh said in a statement Wednesday that Durkin’s departure “is in the best interest of the university.” He said Durkin had been told of his firing Wednesday afternoon.
Durkin was put on leave in August after one of his players, Jordan McNair, suffered heatstroke at a practice in May and died two weeks later. A subsequent report by ESPN characterized Maryland’s football program as dysfunctional and having a “toxic culture.”
On Tuesday, it was announced that Durkin would stay as coach. The chair of the university’s Board of Regents, James Brady, cited a report commissioned by the university that suggested Durkin had made some errors but was not to blame for many of the program’s problems.
At the same time, Loh announced he would retire next year.
In firing Durkin on Wednesday, Loh acted without the approval of the board, which had recommended that Durkin be retained. In his statement, he referred to Durkin’s dismissal as “actions I am taking.”
Loh told the board last week that he believed Durkin should not be retained, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the president. Members of the board disagreed, and reached a compromise with Loh in which he would retire at the end of the school year, according to the person. But at a news conference on Tuesday, Loh’s lack of enthusiasm about the decision was obvious.
Durkin’s dismissal comes while he was in the third season of a five-year, $12.5 million contract he signed in December 2015. He will be owed about $5.5 million, according to buyout terms
of his contract.
Matt Canada is expected to resume the role of interim coach. Maryland is 5-3 heading into Saturday’s home game against Michigan State.
Hired after serving one season as defensive coordinator at Michigan, Durkin had a 10-15 record at Maryland. The Terrapins went 6-7 in his first season, losing to Boston College in the Quick Lane Bowl, then fell to 4-8 in 2017 while coping with injuries to three different quarterbacks.
On Wednesday morning, Loh encountered widespread campus opposition and a public relations crisis, as many viewed the decision as the university choosing to be loyal to a football coach over a longtime university president.
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, who is expected to be re-elected next week, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon expressing his displeasure with the lack of transparency around the decision and urging that it be reconsidered.
By Wednesday evening, Loh seemed to feel empowered to act. Durkin was not immediately available for comment.
Maryland terminated Durkin without cause, a university spokeswoman confirmed. Under the terms of his contract, he will be paid a buyout, most likely around $5.5 million. Durkin’s salary this year was approximately $2.5 million.
The death of McNair and the subsequent fallout came amid Maryland’s push to quickly create a strong pedigree in a sport in which it had traditionally been mediocre — a pursuit that has also led to problems at other universities.
A report released this week by Maryland’s Board of Regents concluded that Durkin and Maryland were in over their heads as they sought to become a football power with a program that had seen little success in the past.
The report did not directly link the dysfunction to the death of McNair, a 19-year-old offensive lineman. It did, however, address the aggressive tactics of Durkin’s strength coach, Rick Court. During a practice on May 29 that was supervised by Court, McNair ran a 106-degree fever, suffered heatstroke and then died two weeks later. Court resigned in August.
“Mr. Durkin was hired under high-pressure circumstances and tasked with turning a struggling football program into a Big Ten contender, with less funding and fan support than other conference programs,” said the Maryland report, which was produced by an eight-member commission appointed by Loh and the Board of Regents.
Brady, the board’s chairman, blamed the university for not sufficiently supporting Durkin, who was in his third year of head coaching, as he pushed to make Maryland a winner in the daunting Big Ten.
The athletics department, Brady said, “failed to provide Mr. Durkin with the tools, resources and guidance necessary to support and educate a first-time head coach in a major football conference.”
At Maryland this week, the response to the decision to retain Durkin prompted criticism from across the spectrum, including football players, university leaders and politicians.
In a tweet posted Tuesday night, Ellis McKennie, an offensive lineman, wrote: “Every Saturday my teammates and I have to kneel before the memorial of our fallen teammate. Yet a group of people do not have the courage to hold anyone accountable for his death. If only they could have the courage that Jordan had. It’s never the wrong time to do what’s right.”
Jonathan Allen, the undergraduate student government president, said he was appalled by the decision and said his organization’s main focus going forward would be “to get justice for Jordan.”
Allen met with Loh on Wednesday and said he had “expressed the outrage of the student body.”
“He understood my concerns and was very receptive,” Allen said of Loh.
Paul G. Pinsky, a Maryland state senator, said Wednesday: “They came to conclusions that were not logical. I thought I was in ‘Alice in Wonderland.’”
Hassan Murphy, the McNair family’s lawyer, said the decision to fire the coach “validates what we and the family believed all along — that Durkin should have never been brought back.”