Maryland fires head coach Randy Edsall six games into 2015 season
Maryland coach Randy Edsall has been fired, according to a source. FOX Sports's Bruce Feldman first reported the news.
The highly anticipated move comes just a day after the Terrapins suffered their third straight loss, a 49–28 defeat at top-ranked Ohio State on Saturday. Offensive coordinator Mike Locksley will be the interim coach the remainder of the season, per the source. Maryland has fired director of football operations Fran Foley as well.
Maryland has a 2–4 record this season under the 57-year-old Edsall, who is owed a $3.1 million buyout. In five seasons with the Terrapins, he had a 22–34 mark, which included a 10–24 record in conference play.
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Edsall helped move the program into the Big Ten from the ACC last year, a transition that began with a surprising 7–6 campaign. But his undoing also began last season when Maryland blew a 25-point lead in an eventual 41–38 home loss to Rutgers in its second-to-last game of the season.
The Terrapins were then routed 45–21 by Stanford in the Foster Farms Bowl. The poor ending to last season hurt Edsall’s bargaining power for a contract extension. Yet in June, he signed an three-year extension worth $7.5 million through 2019, of which only $500,000 was guaranteed.
After opening this season with a blowout victory over Richmond, Edsall’s future turned bleak with a 48–27 home loss to Bowling Green. The Terrapins have only won a single game since and rank among the nation’s worst offensive and defensive groups this season.
Before Edsall’s arrival in College Park in 2011, he had a 74–70 record in 12 seasons at Connecticut, which he helped transition to the FBS from the FCS.
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There’s expected to be increased interest in Maryland’s vacancy, mainly because of the financial involvement of Under Armour chief executive officer Kevin Plank, who played for the Terrapins in the mid-1990s. Speculation in coaching circles has been that he could make the program the Oregon of the East, pouring money into it like Nike founder Phil Knight has with the Ducks. Plank gave the Terps a $25 million gift to kickstart the school's new $155 million facility.
The program will reportedly make $98 million more in its first six years in the Big Ten than it would have in the ACC. An influx of capital could position Maryland to land a big coaching fish.
Potential coaching targets are Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly, Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, Bowling Green coach Dino Babers and Temple coach Matt Rhule.
