Maryland Fires Head Coach DJ Durkin
Maryland has parted ways with head coach DJ Durkin one day after the university accepted the board of regents's recommendation to reinstate him, President Wallace D. Loh confirmed in a statement.
"A departure is in the best interest of the University, and this afternoon Coach Durkin was informed that the University will part ways," Loh said.
Durkin’s firing was reportedly not for cause and the university will buy him out of his contract, reports Rick Maese of The Washington Post. Athletic director Damon Evans allegedly informed Durkin of the news after practice and then told the team. Matt Canada will continue to fill in as the interim coach.
The board also recommended for Evans to retain his job on Tuesday, and Loh announced that he is retiring in June after the end of the 2018-19 school year.
The university first placed Durkin on leave on Aug. 11 and named offensive coordinator Canada as the interim head coach.
Jordan McNair, 19, died of a heatstroke in June after collapsing at an offseason team workout. He had difficulty standing up and breathing while running sprints at a May workout. McNair died two weeks later on June 13.
Questions were raised on the handling of Maryland's football program following McNair's death.
On Aug. 10, ESPN released an explosive in-depth report detailing a "toxic" culture within the Terrapins football program. The report outlined a culture of fear and intimidation fostered under Durkin, singling out strength and conditioning coach Rick Court in particular.
On Aug. 14, Maryland president Wallace Loh and athletic director Damon Evans announced that they had apologized to McNair’s parents and that "the university accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes our training staff made on that fateful workout day of May 29." Loh said the training staff “misdiagnosed” McNair’s situation, and Evans revealed that McNair did not have his temperature taken, nor was he given cold water immersion to lower his body temperature.
Evans also announced that the university parted ways with Court.
A Timeline of Jordan McNair's Death, DJ Durkin's Firing and Its Aftermath
In response to the Aug. 10 ESPN report on the program’s culture under Durkin—the details of which Loh said the school learned about for the first time when the story was published—Loh explained that he was establishing an independent four-person group to investigate the allegations. In September, the board of regents announced that the athletic training staff did not follow protocol when treating McNair's heatstroke symptoms at the May workout.
Maryland's board of regents assumed control of the investigation, which concluded in October. The Washington Post obtained a copy of the external report, which allegedly found several failures within the football program but determined it was not a "toxic culture."
In two seasons at Maryland, Durkin went 11–15, reaching the Quick Lane Bowl in 2016. Prior to taking the Maryland job, Durkin, 40, was the defensive coordinator at Michigan.
