As I said, Randy's a Dead Man Walking...if you want to discuss that please use the other thread.
Moving forward:
Coaching this season:
I do not know which interim coach will be named. If there was I would guess it would be Locksley. Please note this is a guess, whereas Edsall being gone is not. Please do not say Locksley sucks and had all this baggage at NM. We all know that and that is still present with him as OC. So he's done a lot for Maryland and there is no reason he can't get a fair shot at the job to show what he can do. I do not think he is the HC we want, but I feel we owe him a fair shot. I would say he'll have to beat PSU and get us to a bowl. That won't be easy, to really have a case. If we want to retain Locks at all, he needs to be treated fairly here. A new big time head coach could place Locks as a co-offensive coordinator like some schools do.
Everyone in college football and the NFL who is looking for head coaching job will now be put on notice that a Big Ten job is available. Remember Randy got the job because the board nixed Leach. Leach was the #1 target. That job was an ACC job and a lot of coaches inquired about coaching at an ACC job, things have drastically changed since 2010.
We have a lot of alumni from Kevin Plank, Boomer Esiason, Gary Williams, Ralph Friedgen, Scott Van Pelt who can speak to people in a non-official capacity. People know them as UMD alum and coaches can quietly get a message to our Athletic Department they’re interested. There will be a lot of this and its just not the people listed above.
Why would a top coach come to Maryland?
#1 The Big Ten Stage, we have an incredible stage for any coach who wants make his mark. The Big Ten Network and our division offers us four premiere games a year. Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State offer any coach a chance to score a nationally relevant win yearly. Wussy coaches avoid this, a man with ambition revels in the chance to play those schools who normally would duck a smart coach in scheduling. The same way Lefty made himself by going against UNC, NC State and Duke a coach who has moxy can do that here.
#2 Under Armor, everyone, and I do mean everyone knows where things are heading. Old guys wear Nike, the youngest kids wear Under Armour. Jordan Speith, Seth Curry, and Tom Brady are on fire and Nike was founded in 1964 and didn’t sign Jordan until 1984. Under Armour was founded in 1996 and appears to be farther ahead than Nike was at this time in their existence. Any coach realizes that he will be riding the wave of the future and that is a recruiting edge with the apparel and resources.
#3 New Cole Field house is a state of the art facility. It will be another unique recruiting tool. Yes the indoor practice facility is helpful, but it’s the whole temple idea and commitment to big time football.
#4 A recruiting gold mine from NY to VA. There was a time when Maryland owned those areas. Maryland killed UVA, PSU and VT. We regularly dipped into all the surrounding states. The Carolina 4 and UVA raised academic standards in the 60’s to stop Clemson and MD from winning and form that you have the rise of Syracuse and PSU. There is nothing any one coach can do to change what has happened. However, with UA, New Cole, the Big Ten, and a coach who has moxy, this can be turned around again. The only real advantage is that VT and PSU have better attendance, they do not beat Maryland in most areas.
#5 The DMV. The FBI, CIA, NASA, NSA, NOAA, Capitol Hill, Under Armour, Lockheed Martin, Capitol One, etc. The internships and connections here are vast. The area has pro teams and is a fun place to live.
Draw backs of a UMD coach job:
#1 Fickle, entitled, fair weather, apathetic and divided fan base. Maryland has a ton of fans, when we are winning we come to games. From 2004-2006 we had only one game with less than 50k fans. Ironically there were two 5-6 seasons. The reason for that attendance of course was Ralph’s first three years. A coach who can put together 1 great season and two good ones should be able to recreate this. The DMV has seven significant pro teams of which one must compete. The DMV is described as an event town. Maryland vs. Bowling Green is crap. Maryland vs. Michigan is better than the Redskins vs. Miami for many. Therefore Maryland must work to be the best show in town weekly. In the fall if the Orioles or Nats are in playoff contention or the Redskins or Ravens have good early season matchups the Terps will suffer. The loyal fans show up, but it’s the casual sports fan and the usually uninvolved Maryland fan that fills up a stadium.
#2 Stadium upgrades
We’ve made progress with alcohol sales, concessions, but our suites need to be available year round to clients to sell out and the seating in the stadium needs to be redone. In 10 years we can start some of these major improvements but likely it will be 15 years, we should be in a position to spend 200-350 million to make serious stadium upgrades. Unless UA backs this for us in a BIG way and without naming rights I do not see that happening, we need to wait until 2026 for Xfinity center naming rights to expire and 2032 for Byrd stadium rights to expire (Thank Debby Yow for spending all of that by 2013). If we have a 5 year run and Rose Bowl, then this can happen faster.
*reseat the stadium, removing benches adding chairs
*remove the upper deck on the north side
* close the west end with seats
* Add acoustic redirecting roof o west and south seats. To shield fans from rain and create louder environment
* obnoxiously giant new East scoreboard
* improved traffic patterns (these are in progress)
Now are stadium is still middle of the road in Big Ten as far as condition, Size does not change how nice it is. Many B1G fans thought our stadium was excellent. I do believe we should STAY at 50,000 seats. I do feel that there should be an ability to expand temporary seating to 65,000 for certain games, but Oregon only has 50,000 and the importance here is not packing as many as we can into MD games, but to create a DEMAND for the Maryland ticket. We want games against big time opponents to be near impossible to get for under $250. Forcing more people to get season tickets. Then using our system of ticket donation back to UMD to use those non-conference games tickets which were paid for to give to the youth of the surrounding areas, military veterans, low income families, and recent grads. We have a different set of problems than Big Ten Cow Pasture schools. Any new coach will have to have a lot of moxy and charisma to convince people to come. Engaging fans year round will be part of the job.
#3 Brutal schedule
Yes, it is one of the main reasons to come, but you also have to realize there is only so much room at the top. We have four programs who expect ten win seasons each year. Considering those four that play each they all will be average or someone is going to lose three games. We need to understand right now we are in the #4, #5, #6, #7 pecking order with PSU, Rutgers and Indiana fighting to be on top of the bottom four spots. It is almost a given MSU, UM and OSU will be fighting for the top 3 spots. I expect PSU to be fighting soon again for the top 4 spots. The coach needs to make it a 5 team race so over a 5 year period MSU, PSU, UMD, UM and OSU all finish in the top 5. If we can stay out of the bottom two we will be considered a peer and a perennial dark horse candidate. We won’t start winning conference titles off the bat, but we need to start by NOT finishing in bottom two for at least several years and make bowls. When you have THREE of the best coaches in football in your division it’s going to be hard.
#4 War Chest
Even if we are able to get the right coach, the reruits we want, andthe fans show up, and our revenue is way up we are still going to be way behind PSU, MSU, OSU and Michigan when it comes to the war chest. Under Armour is our only chance to compete here, but we cannot ask them to be a continual revenue stream. They are the augment, icing on cake, and the big weapon. Those four schools in ticket sales alone make insane money. So we will always have a little less to devote to projects. Right now it’s all about indoor facilities and gear. However, we need to construct the athletic department so that IF player stipends and cost of attendance become a recruiting advantage we have the money to compete. Right now PSU would give the largest “cost of attendance”. This is a very fluid situation, and I am unsure how it will turn out, but we need to be ready to have money available to not only fund football and basketball but Title IX means we have to fund EVERYONE. So please God, don’t ask for Tennis or Swimming and Diving back, until we can ensure a competitive future. This brings me to next point.
Moving forward:
Coaching this season:
I do not know which interim coach will be named. If there was I would guess it would be Locksley. Please note this is a guess, whereas Edsall being gone is not. Please do not say Locksley sucks and had all this baggage at NM. We all know that and that is still present with him as OC. So he's done a lot for Maryland and there is no reason he can't get a fair shot at the job to show what he can do. I do not think he is the HC we want, but I feel we owe him a fair shot. I would say he'll have to beat PSU and get us to a bowl. That won't be easy, to really have a case. If we want to retain Locks at all, he needs to be treated fairly here. A new big time head coach could place Locks as a co-offensive coordinator like some schools do.
Everyone in college football and the NFL who is looking for head coaching job will now be put on notice that a Big Ten job is available. Remember Randy got the job because the board nixed Leach. Leach was the #1 target. That job was an ACC job and a lot of coaches inquired about coaching at an ACC job, things have drastically changed since 2010.
We have a lot of alumni from Kevin Plank, Boomer Esiason, Gary Williams, Ralph Friedgen, Scott Van Pelt who can speak to people in a non-official capacity. People know them as UMD alum and coaches can quietly get a message to our Athletic Department they’re interested. There will be a lot of this and its just not the people listed above.
Why would a top coach come to Maryland?
#1 The Big Ten Stage, we have an incredible stage for any coach who wants make his mark. The Big Ten Network and our division offers us four premiere games a year. Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State offer any coach a chance to score a nationally relevant win yearly. Wussy coaches avoid this, a man with ambition revels in the chance to play those schools who normally would duck a smart coach in scheduling. The same way Lefty made himself by going against UNC, NC State and Duke a coach who has moxy can do that here.
#2 Under Armor, everyone, and I do mean everyone knows where things are heading. Old guys wear Nike, the youngest kids wear Under Armour. Jordan Speith, Seth Curry, and Tom Brady are on fire and Nike was founded in 1964 and didn’t sign Jordan until 1984. Under Armour was founded in 1996 and appears to be farther ahead than Nike was at this time in their existence. Any coach realizes that he will be riding the wave of the future and that is a recruiting edge with the apparel and resources.
#3 New Cole Field house is a state of the art facility. It will be another unique recruiting tool. Yes the indoor practice facility is helpful, but it’s the whole temple idea and commitment to big time football.
#4 A recruiting gold mine from NY to VA. There was a time when Maryland owned those areas. Maryland killed UVA, PSU and VT. We regularly dipped into all the surrounding states. The Carolina 4 and UVA raised academic standards in the 60’s to stop Clemson and MD from winning and form that you have the rise of Syracuse and PSU. There is nothing any one coach can do to change what has happened. However, with UA, New Cole, the Big Ten, and a coach who has moxy, this can be turned around again. The only real advantage is that VT and PSU have better attendance, they do not beat Maryland in most areas.
#5 The DMV. The FBI, CIA, NASA, NSA, NOAA, Capitol Hill, Under Armour, Lockheed Martin, Capitol One, etc. The internships and connections here are vast. The area has pro teams and is a fun place to live.
Draw backs of a UMD coach job:
#1 Fickle, entitled, fair weather, apathetic and divided fan base. Maryland has a ton of fans, when we are winning we come to games. From 2004-2006 we had only one game with less than 50k fans. Ironically there were two 5-6 seasons. The reason for that attendance of course was Ralph’s first three years. A coach who can put together 1 great season and two good ones should be able to recreate this. The DMV has seven significant pro teams of which one must compete. The DMV is described as an event town. Maryland vs. Bowling Green is crap. Maryland vs. Michigan is better than the Redskins vs. Miami for many. Therefore Maryland must work to be the best show in town weekly. In the fall if the Orioles or Nats are in playoff contention or the Redskins or Ravens have good early season matchups the Terps will suffer. The loyal fans show up, but it’s the casual sports fan and the usually uninvolved Maryland fan that fills up a stadium.
#2 Stadium upgrades
We’ve made progress with alcohol sales, concessions, but our suites need to be available year round to clients to sell out and the seating in the stadium needs to be redone. In 10 years we can start some of these major improvements but likely it will be 15 years, we should be in a position to spend 200-350 million to make serious stadium upgrades. Unless UA backs this for us in a BIG way and without naming rights I do not see that happening, we need to wait until 2026 for Xfinity center naming rights to expire and 2032 for Byrd stadium rights to expire (Thank Debby Yow for spending all of that by 2013). If we have a 5 year run and Rose Bowl, then this can happen faster.
*reseat the stadium, removing benches adding chairs
*remove the upper deck on the north side
* close the west end with seats
* Add acoustic redirecting roof o west and south seats. To shield fans from rain and create louder environment
* obnoxiously giant new East scoreboard
* improved traffic patterns (these are in progress)
Now are stadium is still middle of the road in Big Ten as far as condition, Size does not change how nice it is. Many B1G fans thought our stadium was excellent. I do believe we should STAY at 50,000 seats. I do feel that there should be an ability to expand temporary seating to 65,000 for certain games, but Oregon only has 50,000 and the importance here is not packing as many as we can into MD games, but to create a DEMAND for the Maryland ticket. We want games against big time opponents to be near impossible to get for under $250. Forcing more people to get season tickets. Then using our system of ticket donation back to UMD to use those non-conference games tickets which were paid for to give to the youth of the surrounding areas, military veterans, low income families, and recent grads. We have a different set of problems than Big Ten Cow Pasture schools. Any new coach will have to have a lot of moxy and charisma to convince people to come. Engaging fans year round will be part of the job.
#3 Brutal schedule
Yes, it is one of the main reasons to come, but you also have to realize there is only so much room at the top. We have four programs who expect ten win seasons each year. Considering those four that play each they all will be average or someone is going to lose three games. We need to understand right now we are in the #4, #5, #6, #7 pecking order with PSU, Rutgers and Indiana fighting to be on top of the bottom four spots. It is almost a given MSU, UM and OSU will be fighting for the top 3 spots. I expect PSU to be fighting soon again for the top 4 spots. The coach needs to make it a 5 team race so over a 5 year period MSU, PSU, UMD, UM and OSU all finish in the top 5. If we can stay out of the bottom two we will be considered a peer and a perennial dark horse candidate. We won’t start winning conference titles off the bat, but we need to start by NOT finishing in bottom two for at least several years and make bowls. When you have THREE of the best coaches in football in your division it’s going to be hard.
#4 War Chest
Even if we are able to get the right coach, the reruits we want, andthe fans show up, and our revenue is way up we are still going to be way behind PSU, MSU, OSU and Michigan when it comes to the war chest. Under Armour is our only chance to compete here, but we cannot ask them to be a continual revenue stream. They are the augment, icing on cake, and the big weapon. Those four schools in ticket sales alone make insane money. So we will always have a little less to devote to projects. Right now it’s all about indoor facilities and gear. However, we need to construct the athletic department so that IF player stipends and cost of attendance become a recruiting advantage we have the money to compete. Right now PSU would give the largest “cost of attendance”. This is a very fluid situation, and I am unsure how it will turn out, but we need to be ready to have money available to not only fund football and basketball but Title IX means we have to fund EVERYONE. So please God, don’t ask for Tennis or Swimming and Diving back, until we can ensure a competitive future. This brings me to next point.
