Maryland In Transition With Coaching & Recruitment?
by Jay Parchman, recruit757
Maryland Head Coach Ralph Friedgen (AP Photo)
Ralph Friedgen soon begins his tenth season as the head coach in College Park, Maryland. He entered with a bang going 31-8 in his first three seasons. Since then, however, a cumulative 35-38 record has followed in years four through nine. The bottom was reached last season at 2-10.
Joker Phillips (Kentucky) and Jimbo Fisher (Florida State) each begin the first season as a head coach after serving multiple seasons as an assistant with the designated tag of “coach in waiting”. James Franklin has been granted that same title with 2011 expected to be the last season for Friedgen. Many Maryland fans, however, are growing impatient with the direction of the program.
Examining impact to the recruiting efforts in The 757 is not easy to determine. Three local quality local players were inked for the 2007 class. Each remains at Maryland: Running Back Haroon Brown of Phoebus, O-Lineman Maurice Hampton of Phoebus and Defensive Back Trenton Hughes of Kempsville.
However since then, Maryland’s recruiting success and efforts are hard to pinpoint. The Terps offered scholarships to at least eight local players for the 2008 class and did land a big time prospect at WR with Kerry Boykins of Oscar Smith, but they were shut out locally in the 2009 class from their six offers that can be accounted for. Maryland’s recruiting efforts in The 757 were nearly fruitless for the 2010 class, but they did land one key player in Mario Rowson, a DB prospect from the talent laden Lake Taylor program.
The recruiting surge of new Virginia coach Mike London and staff seems to have impacted the Terps this year. Of the present six offers, two have already committed to play for the Cavaliers – Clifton Richardson and Caleb Taylor. Another, Daquan Romero of Phoebus, states he’ll play for North Carolina.
But good news might still be on the way. The Terrapins have made the trimmed list of five of Travis Hughes (6-1 220), LB prospect from Kempsville. The #1-rated Southside player according to the Virginian-Pilot, Demetrious Nicholson of Bayside, includes the Terps on his long list of suitors. The Terrapins have been recruiting Quinta Funderburk, the long, tall, WR prospect from Oscar Smith. Maryland did not appear on Funderburk’s recent final five.
All of the above players are blue chip caliber recruits and are among the most notable. Maryland is most certainly recruting the area more deeply than it appears.
The Terps are looking to tap the Lake Taylor talent pool again as Maryland Offensive Line Coach Tom Brattan is calling on the Norfolk School to land WR/DB Deandre Moore (6-1 185). It’s still too early in the recruiting season to call Moore’s recruitment, but Maryland is definitely in the mix.
With quite a bit to go, Maryland has their opportunities to make a large dent in the local 2011 class as they did with the 2007 group. A winning season would certainly help. Maryland draws a favorable schedule from the Coastal Division of the ACC. They play Virginia, Duke and Miami from that side of the ledger which is certainly more favorable than drawing three Top 25 teams in Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and North Carolina.
With the right bounces, a bowl season could be in reach. That kind of achievement would certainly be favorable for the Terps’ recruiting efforts.
It would also help Coach Ralph Friedgen keep his job.
- Jay Parchman
Maryland Schedules Irish; Leverages Ticket Sales
The Maryland Terrapins announced an “almost home” date with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame yesterday and also announced a season ticket sales driver attached to the game.
The matchup between Notre Dame and Maryland will take place on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at FedEx Field in Washington, DC. It’s almost a home game for the Terps. It’s the second time in history that the two teams will face each other and for the first time, Maryland will play a game at FedEx Field. The first time the Terps played the Irish was in 2002, Coach Ralph Friedgen’s second season at Maryland. The game was played in East Rutherford, NJ and the the #21 ranked Terrapins fell 22-0.
The game is due to be televised in prime time on NBC as part of Notre Dame’s package with the network. Because Notre Dame negotiated the venue and set up the game, Notre Dame is offically the home team for the contest. Maryland still has seven home games on the schedule for 2011, so Terps fans will only have four true road games next season.
Holding the game at FedEx Field fits Notre Dame’s M.O. of scheduling “nationally” by playing neutral sites games in different parts of the country, thereby keeping up their “national profile”. It doesn’t hurt that the game looks winnable for the Irish, especially considering that new coach Mike Kelly will be in his second year with the program.
The scheduling of the game is a win for the Maryland program as well. The game against Notre Dame gives them a national television audience and a game against a high profile team. It’s a little out of Maryland’s comfort zone, since Maryland typically schedules regional rivals like Navy and West Virginia out-of-conference, along with a game against a lesser team such as Morgan State, who is on the Terps’ schedule in 2010.
The ticket sales angle is also a positive for the Maryland program. In order to leverage higher season ticket sales for 2010 and 2011, Maryland is tying priority seating for the Notre Dame game into the purchase of season ticket packages for the next two seasons. Smart programs do this to increase sales and attendance. That’s nothing new.