Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen will be asked to take a buyout and retire, a source familiar with the program said tonight.
The decision by first-year athletic director Kevin Anderson effectively ends Friedgen's tenure in College Park after 10 seasons at his alma mater and completes one of the program's most tumultuous days.
According to the source, Friedgen was asked to step aside Friday hours after offensive coordinator and head coach-in-waiting James Franklin accepted the head coaching position at Vanderbilt.
Friedgen, who was named the ACC's coach of the year late last month, led Maryland to an 8-4 season after a 2-10 nosedive in 2009 nearly cost him his job. He is 74-50 in 10 seasons with the Terps, and ranks third in program history in coaching victories behind Curley Byrd (122) and Jerry Claiborne (77).
The Terps will play in their seventh bowl game in the last decade on Dec. 29 when they meet East Carolina (6-6) in the Military Bowl. in Washington, D.C.
It is uncertain who will coach Maryland in that game. The source said Franklin invited defensive coordinator Don Brown, running backs coach John Donovan and wide receivers coach Lee Hull to join him at Vanderbilt.
Friedgen has one year remaining on the contract he signed in 2004, with a salary of about $2 million. His ouster comes almost exactly a month after Anderson announced Friedgen would remain at Maryland in 2011 to fulfill his deal.
But apparently, Franklin's presence was assumed to be part of the equation. Franklin, who was named the program's coach in waiting in February 2009, was guaranteed $1 million if he remained at Maryland and did not take over the Terps in 2012.
With Franklin no longer willing to wait that long, it was clear Maryland faced a gap in recruiting. Friedgen, with only a year left on his deal, was in a difficult position to fill that void -- particularly in terms of securing a new ace recruiter to replace Franklin without having the ability to offer job security in return.
Still, the most conventional possibility was to offer Friedgen an extension. But when Anderson was directly asked if Friedgen would return in 2011 in an afternoon teleconference with beat writers -- one Friedgen did not participate in, a team spokesman said, because of illness -- the athletic director deferred his answer to next week.
"I will sit down and everybody will understand where we're going and how we're moving forward with the program," Anderson said. "At this point in time, I'm not going to answer that question."
Within hours, the course of events seemed to answer the question for Anderson.
So rather than outlast Franklin by months or years, Friedgen appears to have stayed mere hours before a decision was made to make a change.
Anderson, who was hired in September to replace Debbie Yow, was asked if Franklin's departure created more flexibility going forward.
"Here's how I look at it," Anderson said. "We proved this year we're very competitive in the ACC. We were a couple victories away from competing for the conference championship. My expectation for this program is continue to grow and for us to continue to compete at that high level and be a national presence in football. One of the things I'm looking at is to make sure we put the best possible staff together so we can move ahead and be consistently good if not great in the years to come."
It appears the best possible staff in the years to come, in Anderson's estimation, does not include Friedgen.
For more from Stevens, visit the Mid-Atlantic colleges sports blog D1scourse.com.
December 17 2010 Last updated at 08:25 PM ET
Maryland Moving Ralph Friedgen Out
By Patrick Stevens
College Football Writer
Read More: Maryland Coaching James+Franklin, kevin+anderson, Ralph+Friedgen, ralph+friedgen+buyout, ralph+friedgen+fired, ralph+friedgen+out, ralph+friedgen+retirement, ralph+friedgen+return
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from what I hear in Maryland, the university is tired of having its' image tarnished by a grossly overweight Friedgen. Also, he is considering a civil rights violation lawsuit due to infringing his Right to be obese.
He probably will win that suit.
No the real reason is Fridgen hasn't recruited a decent team since he got to Maryland. He won big early with players recruited before his tenure. Now if only Maryland will go get a class coach who can recruit. It's embarassing that Maryland can't recruit in any sport. A second rate athletic program ...ever since the 50s....no wonder Byrd Stadium or whatever its latest name is ..is almost 60 years old.
Thanks MR H. I going to rhrottle my nephew's A$$ for giving me the bad information.
Military Bowl...what the H-LL is the military bowl???
as bad as going to Boise.....
all you can do is Laugh....but Maryland's proud they somehow got 7300 to pony up to go all the way to RFK....atleast they are saving on transportation and hotel.....let's hope the stadium doesn't fall down during the game....btw....do Maryland home games get 7300 paying customers???
lets get this right, no violation, winning seasons in the ACC I know lets fire Ralph... all he's done is work hard and win... reality check MD you're NOT FSU, PSU, UWV, sorry but you made your bones with a round ball indoors live with it
I've heard of FSU and PSU, but who is UWV??
Anderson, you say "we are very competitive in the ACC..." and "...were a couple of victories away from competing for the conference championship..." and you expect to "...continue to compete at that high level..." So you fire the ACC Coach of the Year and let the headcoach in waiting go to another university possibly taking the defensive coach, running backs and receivers coaches with him. You surely must know of numerous future hall of fame-caliber coaches that are just salivating at the possibility of coming to Maryland. Brilliant! Where's Debbie when we need her?
DOn't worry, Debbie is in Raleigh scheduling Morgan State...trying to get the Wolfpack up to Maryland's caliber....lmfao
Its called moving a Fridge - guy is fridging huge
Looks like the "Head Coach in Waiting" isn't working out very well to retain coaching staff, not Maryland, not Texas.
you got be kidding ---Coach of the year & this is what he gets! the Coach in waiting program is bad program-----give Ralph a 2yr extension------We have the nucleus of really good team w/O Brien------
Don't know where Maryland will find a better coach, because you can't have Bud. Keep being Virginia Tech's bee otch! lol
About time!
I guess we will see if anyone will have any reason to fear the turtle in the near future.Probably not.
Another example of an idiot AD with no plan in place to replace the coach he is forcing out. What a dope. Friedgen may not be much to look at, but he has taken that program to 7 bowls in ten years, and is 4-2 so far in said bowls. Prior to big boy taking over, Maryland hadnt had a winning season in 10 years. Be careful what you ask for Maryland. Unless your AD has a rabbit up his sleave you could be going backwards.
They can hire SHANNON!!!!!
I have a few comments regarding this mess.
First, he did take the teams HE COACHED to Bowl Games in 7 of his 10 seasons as the head coach. We are talking Maryland. not an Elite level program, so 7 Bowls in 10 seasons is impressive.
Second, yes he did have his best seasons with players from the previous coach, HOWEVER the previous coaches players had not even made a BOWL GAME, let alone a BCS Game. Maryland's last Bowl Game before they won the ACC Title in 2001 was the 1990 Independance Bowl.
Third, the AD is making himself and the entire program look stupid by forcing the resignation of the ACC Coach of the Year a month after saying he would be back for the 2011 season. It's one thing if the results aren't there, but Maryland had their best season in 4 years and this was after a terrible year the previous year. If the program is in decline I can understand the issue, but this program has seen it's best seasons since the late 1970's-early 1980's.
I think the AD needs to do more to market his Athletic Departmnt rather than worry about one more season with a decet coach on the sideline. The Maryland athletic department isn't overall that good, and it all comes from the AD position.
I completely agree with the comments from other posters about being careful what ou ask for. Michigan was a similar situatin before RichRod took over (although Lloyd Carr wasn't forced out) and that has turnoed out great for Michigan fans.
On a side note now Michigan fans are bashing the AD for not making an announcement on RichRod's future until he evlautes the season. I suspect the AD is making sure he has the ducks lined up in a row before letting RichRod go.
As a Terp alum, I am very upset. Who is this new AD? Ralph was leaving in one year. After only winning 2 games, one game away from playing for the ACC title. ACC Coach of the Year. Could you embarass him more? Shame on you. Alumni must have no clout at UM because this AD is not listening to us.
You guys are all IDIOTS. Maryland was pathetic in football before Ralph Friedgen and will be after him. 74 wins in 10 years at Maryland is amazing. But oh well guess they'll be competing for bottom rights with Duke and Virginia from now on.
In Maryland, if you want to go to a round ball game, you pull into a parking lot conveniently placed around the arena. For the football game you park near the round ball arena, and then search for the football stadium, and good luck on your mission. If you don't get lost in the maze of buildings; you come upon an 60-year old stadium (with an upper deck on it in the last few years added)that is never NEVER more than 1/2 filled, almost as if there were too few people sitting below.
There are maybe 4 parking spots in the area outside this old relic of a Top School's stadium. The Terps should be filling up a 60,000+ stadium every week and known as one of the top teams in the NCAA. In a recent game against NC State, they had about 30,00 in attendance, and at least 20,000 were Wolfpack fans. And the roads leading to this old antique are so congested and confusing to out-of-towners, that it's like hunting for a Macy's in backwoods Kentucky.(Shows real zeal on behalf of NC St fans.)
Now, why would anyone think that their coaching problems would be handled any better for their football program? If going to a bowl game with a 6-6 record against a 7-5 team is any achievement;I have some ocean front property to sell you in Arizona. Cause, why would any good athelete want to play football in this atmosphere; even if you have a pretty good coach, and will probably not get a better one, unless some drastic changes are made?