When Good is no Longer Good Enough
The Maryland Terrapins are a fairly unique team. They are not elite, but not bad. They are just plain good. There are plenty of teams that wish they were Maryland and had a season like they did last year. Three are only a handful of teams that would not want Maryland’s season. Yet, Kevin Anderson, first year athletic director, decided that after a 9-4 season that was capped by Maryland thumping East Carolina in a blowout 51-20 game in the Military Bowl, that head Coach Ralph Friedge reign was over at Maryland. The coaching hunt did not last long, and it was expected that the Terrapins were looking for a big name Head Coach to raise the program to national relevance once again. The big rumor was that former Texas Tech Head Coach, Mike Leech was the front runner for the position. However that quickly fizzled as within two weeks the job was entrusted to Randy Edsall, who left his job at UCONN for the opportunity.
Coach Edsall was coming off a solid season, as UCONN posting an 8-5 record. Overall at UCONN he produced 70 wins and 63 losses, which included a pair of nine win seasons. Obviously nine wins will not be enough for Maryland to be satisfied, but the Terrapins are banking that Edsall will lead them to ten plus win seasons and an ACC championships with the move. They clearly felt that coach Friedge was unable to take them over the edge to national relevance, so they felt it was time for a change. It will take some time to see if Maryland made the right move, and it is certainly a move that will help define the career of Kevin Anderson.
Coach Edsall will be making some changes for Maryland. First of all, Edsall is not a micromanager. He will not be all over the assistant coaches, checking into what they are doing, and telling them what to do. Rather he is going to “Coach the Coaches”. This line of thinking was really imposed upon Edsall when he was working with Tom Coughlan. The first thing that you will notice with Edsall in charge is the coaching staff. He will make changes to the staff, bringing in talent that he feels has the chance to be new head coaches at other places. That means that the coaches will be talented, driven, and motivated. This should make an immediate and long term impact. In theory, these coaches will coach their hearts out, which will lead to players being more prepared and improving at a faster clip. Coach Edsall says he has a great staff with great chemistry and claims that will be the difference for the Terrapins this year. Instead of being a divided team, offense, defense, special teams, they are all one big unit, moving forward toward the same common goal, winning the ACC championship. That is the true definition of a team, and exactly what coach Edsall wants. Kevin Anderson rolled the dice, saying that good was not good enough. He, along with all of Maryland fans, should be waiting anxiously to see if he made the right move.
Read the in-depth football preview for Maryland
