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Maryland Fires Head Coach Randy Edsall

Maryland has fired Randy Edsall midway through his fifth year with the program. Mike Locksley will coach the Terps on an interim basis until the end of the regular season.

Edsall leaves the Terrapins with a 22-34 mark, the quantifiable proof of a failed tenure in College Park. He was hired in early 2011 in a move new AD Kevin Anderson saw as the first step to elevating the football brand. But it never paid dividends. Edsall was unpopular from the get-go, in the locker room and in the local community, replacing well-liked Ralph Friedgen who was named ACC Coach of the Year just weeks after being canned by Anderson.

Under Edsall, the Terps never gained traction, couldn’t keep quarterbacks healthy and failed to replicate the rare magic the coach concocted at UConn. With the Huskies, Edsall was able to beat the odds with try-hard kids who were overlooked coming out of high school. In the ACC—and now the Big Ten—though, Edsall’s blueprint for success didn’t translate. And an inability to develop consistency behind center haunted the coach and his staff. In four-plus years, Edsall’s quarterbacks were picked off 69 times, evidence of a staff completely unable to develop young passers.

Now, with Maryland a member of the Big Ten, and with so much Under Armour money flowing through the campus, mediocrity just isn’t going to be tolerated going forward. Edsall was the embodiment of mediocrity—at best—so it was time to move in another direction. Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, a former Terp player, believes Maryland can become to the East Coast what Oregon is out in Eugene. And with a bar set in the clouds, there’s no doubt that Anderson will go big-game hunting when searching for Edsall’s successor.

When Edsall left Storrs five years ago, he labeled Maryland a ‘dream job’. Becoming a Terrapin, though, wound up being a nightmare for a coach who was a blazing hot commodity for transforming UConn into a respected football entity and a Big East champ. Edsall will be fine financially, still owed $2.6 million from his original contract. But he’ll have a real difficult time returning to the sidelines anytime soon after this stint with the Terps failed to even approach the administration’s expectations.