Maryland Deserves Better

[u/CharmCityCrab]

I feel like our athletic department isn't committed to building a winning football program.

Sure, the thing that sticks out right now is that Mike Locksley shouldn't be the head coach. Fair enough.

However, even when and if we fire him, there are still a lot of other things that need to change- things that have been done wrong here for many decades.

Here's what I feel needs to (and won't) happen:

1. Pay top dollar for a big name head coach. This is step one to demonstrating to the sleeping giant fan base in Baltimore and Washington that the university is truly getting serious about football and whatever happens next isn't more of the same. 8 figure a year contract or go home.
2. Immediately break ground on facilities improvement to bring us up to at least the Big Ten average.
3. Increase NiL money
4. Lower academic standards for athletes to the lowest permissable by our conference.

I almost feel like we're all enabling them to never do any of it and be mostly bottom dwellers with the odd year here and there where maybe we get into the lowest possible tier of bowl games.

It can be tough for sports fans who value rooting for the same teams they grew up rooting for, perhaps due to local ties or family loyalties, over poor performance. Few want to be sunny weather fans.

But what do we do when over decades a team or a college keeps showing that they won't ever invest enough money to even take a crack at it?

There's no other FBS football school in the state of Maryland.

[u/espnrocksalot]

No. 2 is already completed. They have one of the top facilities in the whole country

[u/Newtype_Zer0 → u/espnrocksalot]

True but the stadium itself is old and is in much need of a renovation.

[u/deptofnahmsayns]

Look I’m completely disconnected from any behind the scenes stuff but I doubt anyone is giving money until the school regains their trust.

No “top dollar” coach is coming here with how Locks has openly complained by how hamstrung he is financially.

The program is only going to get better by hitting on a G6 coach or P4 assistant. If they can find someone who can win games because they are a good coach then maybe the financial support will come.

[u/YankeePride11 → u/deptofnahmsayns]

Too be fair Locks has sucked at every single school hes been at. Hes been with us for nearly a decade and hes sucked almost every year. Nobody likes him and even he knows hes terrible. So Mike Locksley isnt getting any money because hes Mike Locksley not for any other reason.

[u/jthorpe92 → u/[deleted]]

His biggest claim to fame was Tua and his brother. Saying he had “multiple players drafted” is disingenuous and missing the point. He has no perks. Recruiting an occasional five star at MD doesn’t mean shit and those were more Nick Sabans players than his.

[u/TraditionalBottle884 → u/deptofnahmsayns]

I wouldn't give much credence to his complaints, he's looking for a scapegoat to blame his terrible performance on.

[u/VastNebula283]

It’s pretty simple. If you’re a student. Stop going to the games entirely until they give you a product that’s worth cheering for. Alumni need to stop supporting the athletic department entirely... As someone who grew up watching Fridge and Gary it’s an embarrassment where we are now. Locks greatest achievement in College park is losing 30 lbs on GLP1

[u/MoCo1992]

Please fire Locksley tomorrow.

Please

[u/changeout]

This athletics program isn’t committed to winning at basketball either. I was a diehard fan of bball for about 30 years from the mid-90s on. I didn’t watch a single game last year. It is all pathetic and depressing.

[u/Significant-Wrap-779 → u/changeout]

last year was outlandish circumstances, have you seen the team buzz built this year? We have deep tournament run written all over us

[u/changeout → u/Significant-Wrap-779]

Are you serious? Where is the “buzz”? Can you share anything where I can read or see that? I would love a deep tournament run.

[u/Significant-Wrap-779 → u/changeout]

i mean here’s the roster https://umterps.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster A top 10 recruit in Baba Oladotun at SF, Pharrell Payne at C returning after a strong start that was cut short last year, Andre mills at G returning after a strong season. Notable transfers include Bulijan, a forward from NM, DJ Wagner, a guard from arkansas, and Boswell, a guard from tennessee.

[u/changeout → u/Significant-Wrap-779]

I mean ESPN has them finishing 11th in the Big 10 with a ceiling of the second round. I recognize that they might make a deep run but that seems like a huge long shot.

[u/changeout → u/Significant-Wrap-779]

I hope you’re right. But buzz means people are talking about them. The roster isn’t buzz.

[u/Significant-Wrap-779 → u/changeout]

just wanted to come back here to say Pharrell Payne just made first team preseason all big ten, and Andy Katz named md a final 4 dark horse. I’m not wrong, just early, people still need to come around after the tragic events of last season 😅

[u/changeout → u/Significant-Wrap-779]

I genuinely hope you are right.

[u/gsimp83]

Fire brent

[u/TraditionalBottle884]

We already have solid facilities, yeah we need more NIL and booster support, ideally a new coach brings better energy that fixes those problems.

[u/ronmex7]

Be Maryland

"We need football to generate more money."

destabilize football

hire a coach who immediately loses ten games

enter a dramatically harder football conference

do so while financially strapped

discover you're behind the conference in facilities

try to build everything afterward

In my mind, firing Fridge wasn't technically indefensible, but you did have James Franklin waiting in the wings. And then even last year your AD could have made moves to work something out behind the scenes.

[u/AM_Bokke]

Do you give to NIL funds?

If not, you can start now. The universities don’t contribute to NIL. The fans do.

[u/Examinator2 → u/AM_Bokke]

LOL. Fuck no.

[u/scubaterp71]

As a lifetime alumni member and former Terrapin Club member I'm not even sure how the school sponsoring essentially pro sports teams (football/basketball) advances the school's mission at this point. UChicago dropped big time sports in the 40's and it worked out well for them.

[u/CharmCityCrab → u/scubaterp71]

I've always kind of assumed that big time athletics drive engagement with alumni, while simultaneously expanding the potential donor pool from just people who care about higher education and have a specific attachment to the college to people who care about sports in general who currently or formerly lived in or around the state of Maryland.

There are also prospective students to whom major sports are a major plus.  And every televised game is in a sense an advertisement for the college.

When I was young, the only reason I considered going to Maryland was because of the athletics.  High school age kids can be like that sometimes.

People might be surprised at how irrelevant the University of Maryland becomes to the people of the state of Maryland if it's no longer sort of our defacto favorite basketball/football school.  My interest would move towards whatever school in the state of Maryland that was trying to build towards a similar power conference D1 program in both sports (Hopefully someone would try, the state would start to feel diminished without a top tier college athletics university).

[u/scubaterp71 → u/CharmCityCrab]

Good points. I loved going to the games but just seems times have changed and the school/donors aren't willing to spend like Ohio State . Take the money and throw into academics and a lot the pride remains when school becomes truly elite.

[u/Longjumping-Eye3428]

"There's no other FBS football school in the state of Maryland."

Navy is FBS.

[u/CharmCityCrab → u/Longjumping-Eye3428]

Fair enough.  Forgot about them. 

I guess I think of Navy as sort of different from typical major college football- both because they aren't typically as good as the power conference teams, and because the Navy is sort of a unique institution that feels less about Maryland and more about the armed forces.  Nothing wrong with that, but that's probably why it is a bit hard for me to identify with personally as a fan.  Just a very different animal than a state school in a power conference that very directly represents the state/region.

It's true they are FBS, though.

I guess in a hypothetical where Maryland drops it's D1 athletics, what I might be hoping for is for Towson to attempt to build towards being FBS in football and to step up conferences gradually in basketball.  I'm not sure how realistic that outcome would be, they'd have to suddenly generate lots of big boosters to fund that, but schools do sometimes make that leap.  There'd just to me as a sports fan be big a big void without University of Maryland athletics in existence if another school like Towson didn't immediately start moving to fill the void.

[u/Longjumping-Eye3428 → u/CharmCityCrab]

I am not a Maryland fan (I am a Chicago-Northwestern guy) but because I am often in the Baltimore-DC area I am definitely a follower. I don't spend much time on message boards and chats but now and then to chill I will see what various fan bases are talking about. There was another Big Ten team two years ago that was talking about "we can do it in basketball but not football", "it's never really been our thing", "conference is too tough" but last year they did very well.

The Indiana Hoosiers.

Just get the right coach who can bring 15 guys with him from his FBS or FCS school, get few more transfers and of course some High Schoolers - good things can happen. Or find someone who was fired unjustly fired a few years back and wants to prove himself. (Jim Tomsula comes to mind and his is from - roughly - this (Maryland/Pennysylvania/Delaware/Virginia) area - he's not a Texan or Southern "Good Ole boy" who might not go over well with the natives or someone who has never coached east of Utah).

I wish you and the Terps all the best!

[u/rideronthestorm29]

Get a NCAA hockey team

[u/spmetz13]

Maryland hasn’t had a decent coach since Ralph

[u/Kotow92]

Wallace Loh ruined Maryland sports for the long haul. Dude is a POS for MD

[u/Ancient-Big4078 → u/Kotow92]

Maryland has to stop hiring people who don’t care about Maryland. No more West Coast hires for president

[u/gurgz → u/Kotow92]

Mark Turgeon was hired during Loh’s presidency. Jones-Hill House was approved and completed under Loh. Loh also fired DJ Durkin after the Board of Regents recommended he remain as coach. I feel like he did a pretty good job for Maryland Athletics.

[u/UnquestionablyPoopy → u/Kotow92]

I’m out of the loop why do you blame Loh?

[u/YankeePride11 → u/UnquestionablyPoopy]

He was a worthless lazy president. Didn't do jack. Didn't care about the school or athletics or anything. We need a Terrapin Alumni.

[u/B-Pep-789]

You realize Maryland is a school not a NFL team right....the money should go to the academic mission that reach all students' learning, not 100-200 students. Lowering academic standards? All of what you suggested is why some people advocate for getting rid of college football teams. I love college football but I know it's *college* not a professional league.

[u/CharmCityCrab → u/B-Pep-789]

On average, 2/3 of the fans of college athletics are not students or alumni of school they support.

For many of us, the team is the thing, and it being surrounded by a school just adds flavor or context that gives the sport a different feel than the pro game.

But the academic mission of the university itself is always going to be secondary to 2/3 the sports fan base.

That's the way big time college athletics works.  Perhaps part of why we're perpetual losers is precisely because the team's on field performance always seems to barely matter to the people running the school.

[u/scwalls]

No, no, no and no.

[u/WolfpackBP]

James Franklin is not for sale 🦃