Starring Maryland Athletics Director Kevin Anderson
Congratulations, Mr. Anderson. Brilliant performance. Your announcement on November 18, declaring that soon-to-be-former Head Coach Ralph Friedgen would continue to coach in 2011, was incredibly realistic. Seriously. I totally bought it. To find out that really wasn’t what you had in mind all along, that it was just an act, blows my mind. It was a truly inspired performance. You could give the Terps’ special teams guys a lesson on trick plays. But I guess it’s a little easier to pull off such Oscar-worthy performances when you have Kevin Plank’s Under Armour money backing you up, huh?
You just fired the ACC Coach of the Year, who coached the ACC Rookie of the Year. The team went from 2-10 in 2009 to 8-4 in 2010….and you want “to go in a different direction?” What direction might that be, exactly? Because I’m not entirely sure I want to follow.
I hate to say it, but you’re pushing me way closer to missing Debbie Yow than I’m entirely comfortable with. Do you see what you’re doing to me, Maryland?? At least Yow was tactful enough to keep the standard “We won’t make any decisions until after the season” line in her back pocket.
The Terps can hire Mike Leach, and he can be successful (he better be successful), and it’s not going to make me any happier about the way this went down. It’s complete and utter b.s. and it’s extremely disappointing. It’s not going to make me any more likely to support Maryland athletics. It might make a little more likely to buy a bowl ticket, just to see Friedgen’s last game, but I’ve got a real bad taste in my mouth about the way Maryland handled this. If you don’t want Friedgen anymore, fine. DON’T say you do then. Good for him for refusing to retire.
And if Kevin Plank is behind this, like some local media is suggesting, shame on him. Listen up, Kev: You might’ve engineered new gear for athletes but that doesn’t make you an athletic director so step off. Stick with what you know. Actually, don’t. I wore your Cold Gear leggings under other pants to the Ravens game yesterday and they were less warm than wearing 2 pairs of Target leggings. Maybe if you butted out of Maryland’s athletic department and focused on UnderArmour, your overpriced apparel would actually work as advertised.
