PonyFans.com

Nice Hire!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5981463

I don't know the backstory. Why do you fire a guy who had a great season and coach of the year?

They forced out Friedgen for THIS? Yet another guy who can't take Maryland over the hump?

If I were a Turtle fan I'd be pissed

Why can't he get Maryland over the hump? He didn't do too bad with UConn right? What am I missing? Also, not sure about finances, but is Maryland really a much better job than UConn? They're building a program in a conference they can succeed in. I'd think Maryland would be a tougher job.

Not when the Under Armour guys steps in to make it the Oregon of the East....

Mountain Mustang wrote:Why can't he get Maryland over the hump? He didn't do too bad with UConn right?

He took UConn to a BCS bowl solely by playing in what was undoubtedly the worst AQ conference since the beginning of the BCS system. His UConn teams have only finished above .500 on their BE portion of the schedule twice (2007 - 9-4, 5-2; 2010 - 8-5, 5-2). The truth was that this year's team wasn't any better than the one that went 3-4 in the BE last year...the BE was just that much weaker.

Bottom line: He took UConn to the point that they are a comparable program to MD (and got them there in 2007) but has never been able to improve upon that mark.

gallop wrote:I don't know the backstory. Why do you fire a guy who had a great season and coach of the year?

Because they thought they would hire Mike Leach

Leach is still available though, so what am I missing? Is Leach really equal to kryptonite because of his end at Tech? Seems like someone would've offered him by now.

Mountain Mustang wrote:Leach is still available though, so what am I missing? Is Leach really equal to kryptonite because of his end at Tech? Seems like someone would've offered him by now.

He's been known to not interview well in the past, or he might be wanting more $$$$ than MD is willing to shell out

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-foo ... 4736.story

It seems to be an issue that many SMU fans can relate to -- athletic admissions requirements:

"What could be at issue are pending stricter guidelines for admission at UConn. The details of how things would change but sources say Edsall hasn't exactly been shy about them, either and that he's been quite vocal around the athletic department.

Edsall is respected for his focus on academics and the tighter guidelines would hurt in terms of bringing in players.

Rose Bowl champ Texas Christian University is joining the Big East in 2012. The Huskies would need their up their efforts to compete.

The program struggles to bring in talented players because academics guidelines already. Some have landed at other Big East schools.

Edsall did not fly back with the team after the Fiesta Bowl loss."

Maryland is looking to take a step for the big time and they feel Edsall can get them there. Friedgen was a steady coach and brought Maryland some success between the down years, but Terp fans want more. They have to push Ralph to the side to get it, however.

I find this hiring fairly perplexing. Edsall started the UConn program when they moved up 8 years ago and has had reasonable success. Obviously, UConn had to give him permission to interview at MD and no one in the media caught on. I would have thought that UConn would have made a great effort to do anything to match anything MD offered after he interviewed. Seems this deal went down without UConn matching or making any attempt to keep him. In my opinion, this is not a step up for Edsall. MD has the lowest budget for football in the ACC and really has no history of football success. They have been competitive under Friedgen for the past 10 years with no real history of a football tradition prior to Friedgen's recent success. Edsall has not had any significant recruiting successes with top recruits and moves to a program that historically recruits in the MD, VA, PA and NJ area where there are excellent recruits; however, the over all numbers are limited. Because of the limited numbers of high quality recruits who are also the targets of VA, VA Tech, Rutgers, Pitt, Penn State, UConn, Boston U, Syracuse, U of Buffalo, with huge incursion from Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa and Notre Dame it is very difficult to recruit the region without major recruiting efforts particularly in Florida. For Edsall to succeed he will need to recruit the region much better than he did at UConn and make in roads in Florida where he has little track record. He will be an excellent face for MD, but I really doubt that he can exceed the results achieved by Friedgen who was a MD grad and absolutely dedicated to the MD program. Tough to do better than a 2 time ACC coach of the year including this year and 7 bowl games in his 10 year tenure at MD.

What is there 2 maybe 3 Division 1A recruits in Conneticut-he made a great move. I think its pretty amazing he built that program at all in a barren recruiting wasteland

yes UConn played in a bcs game, but they weren't even ranked! His final record there was 74-70...

on another note, why are all these coaches so chickensh!t when they leave? why can't they act like they care about the team they're leaving and at least address the team in person? i don't blame these guys for leaving, but i can't stand the way most of them do it nowadays...

CalallenStang wrote:

Mountain Mustang wrote:Leach is still available though, so what am I missing? Is Leach really equal to kryptonite because of his end at Tech? Seems like someone would've offered him by now.

He's been known to not interview well in the past, or he might be wanting more $$$$ than MD is willing to shell out

and didn't they offer June upwards of $3.5m? any report on how much they are paying Edsall?