UM regents miss chance to make bold statement
article published in August.
When Brady was asked who exactly could be held responsible for failing to teach the school’s multi-million-dollar head coach how to be a Big Ten head coach, he pointed to Evans, who has been put in charge of teaching himself and the rest of the dysfunctional athletic department how not to be dysfunctional anymore.
The board apparently was impressed with the way Durkin and Evans held themselves accountable for the shortcomings of the football program and the athletic department during appearances before the regents last week.
Trouble is, neither Durkin nor Evans displayed that accountability earlier in the process.
Durkin told the commission that he was not responsible for supervising Court, whose abusive treatment of players was central to the ESPN expose.
Evans took the podium at a news conference in August and introduced himself as the “new” athletic director, making it sound like he had just showed up to save the athletic department.
What seems to have happened is that Loh stood up for Evans and persuaded the regents to keep him in place and Durkin simply charmed them into overruling Loh’s desire to make his departure from the sideline permanent.
“We believe that coach Durkin has been unfairly blamed for the dysfunctioning athletic department,’’ Brady said, “and while he shares some responsibility, it is not fair to place all of it at his feet. Coach Durkin was incredibly forthright with the Board of Regents during our meeting … We believe he’s a good man and a good coach.”
Loh should get credit for stepping up in August and accepting “moral and legal” responsibility for the death of McNair, a public act of contrition that included the announcement of an earlier version of the independent commission, whose report was leaked to several media outlets last week.
Following that August news conference, the regents assumed control of the inquiry and added five members to the commission, which made a series of recommendations that Brady said would be adopted. Most notably, the athletic department will be “closely scrutinized” for several years by an independent monitoring group to make sure that it conforms to the values of the university.
“There will be no third chance for any of those involved to get this right,’’ Brady said.
That’s just fine, but it still doesn’t make a lot of sense to give the responsibility for fixing Maryland athletics to the people who are admittedly responsible for the helping to put the university in this unflattering light.
Let’s be clear. Neither Durkin nor Evans was responsible for the tragic death of McNair, but the decision by the regents to take no immediate action against anyone currently associated with the football scandal remains difficult to comprehend. Unless, of course, you follow the money. This was a moment for the board to make a bold statement that would have reverberated throughout college athletics.
Instead, the regents took the path of least painful resistance and fumbled away that opportunity.