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Report: Maryland Football Players Walk Out of Team Meeting With DJ Durkin, Condemn School in Tweets
Three Maryland football players reportedly walked out of the team meeting at which they learned head coach DJ Durkin would be returning, according to The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach.
Per 247Sports' Jeff Ermann, one of the players who walked out of the meeting was offensive lineman Ellis McKennie, a former high school teammate of Jordan McNair, who collapsed from a heatstroke at a May 29 team workout. McNair died two weeks later on June 13.
Later on Tuesday evening, McKennie tweeted a post expressing his displeasure with Maryland's decision to allow Durkin to return from leave.
Another current player, receiver Michael Cornwell, also tweeted a post supporting the McNair family, which publicly spoke out against Durkin's return to the program on Tuesday.
Durkin was seen arriving at Gossett Football Teamhouse on a golf cart around 3:30 p.m., reports The Washington Post.
Maryland's board of regents recommended Tuesday that Durkin return from administrative leave and for athletic director Damon Evans to retain his job. University president Wallace D. Loh also announced that he plans to retire at the end of the 2018-19 academic year.
Durkin has been on administrative leave since Aug. 11, when ESPN released an explosive report detailing a "toxic culture" within the football program.
Questions about the handling of the program first started after McNair's death.
On Aug. 14, Maryland president Wallace Loh and athletic director Damon Evans announced that they 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.
An independent investigation announced on Sept. 21 that it found Maryland culpable in McNair's death.
