It's Time: Randy Edsall has got to go

It’s time Maryland Terrapins, time to fire Randy Edsall.  It’s no longer a question of can you just hold him over until the buyout drops by $2.1 million a year to $500,000, but a question of when the right time to fire him is - the bye week or after the season.  With the loss to Michigan last week, Maryland dropped to 2-3 (0-1) overall with each loss being embarrassing in its own way with no real hope of another win this year.  Bowling Green? Great, we lost to a MAC School.  West Virginia? Glad those hillbillies curb stomped us and we showed absolutely no life at all.  Michigan? Did the offense show up to this game or did they stay in their dorms because I’m not sure I saw them on the field at all.

The list goes on.  It’s not just that Maryland is losing either, they’re losing by playing the most uninspiring football imaginable on offense while also simultaneously looking dumb while doing it.  I mean really, how many times can you go spread on 3rd and short with no one in the back field? At this point we’re in the spread so often whenever we actually try to run the ball from under center teams are stacking the box because they know what’s coming. The offensive game "plan" doesn’t look like a plan at all, or at least at most it’s comparable to the game plan my toddler has while he wants to play hide and seek where he announces where he is hiding as I try to find him.  Great job Randy.

Let’s rehash the positives.  Randy Edsall was never going to take Maryland to the next level, that much was clear.  What could he have done though? He did improve the academic performance of the team from his predecessor, which doesn’t seem like much but after all, they are student athletes.  After a rocky first two seasons, Randy strung together two seasons over .500, which isn’t saying much but one of them was what many would consider a successful first season in the Big Ten that should have ended with eight wins had they not Clemson’ed the game against Rutgers in the second half.  That’s...it.

The rest? All negatives.  Randy has yet to show up against a ranked opponent.  In fact, he doesn’t just lose the game to them, he loses on average by at least 20 points per game.  In those 11 games, 45% of the games he lost by more than four scores, two by more than five scores, and one horrendous game 63-0.  I’ve generally strayed away from this argument, but it is pretty telling that Randy is just not fit to actually take this team anywhere positive in the future.  What’s worse though? The average margin of victory for the opposing team has increased year to year, every year, under Edsall against ranked opponents except for 2013-2014.  2013 only saw two games against ranked opponents, and one was the 63-0 thrashing, which skews the average very high.  I digress, it’s been awful.

At any other school, the above alone would be reason enough to get rid of your coach if you actually have aspirations and the resources to contend to be consistently in the Top 25.  After all, if you want to get there you’re going to need to win against the teams that are there.  That wasn’t the icing on the cake though that pushed me to fire Randy.  This year has been something else entirely.  I alluded to it above, but the game planning and lack of preparation for games has been horrendous.  Absolutely horrendous.  Maryland lost to Bowling Green for Pete’s sake, but they didn’t lose because they have less talent, they lost because they were out coached.  Bowling Green was fresh off a loss to Tennessee, a game in which Tennessee absolutely ran wild over BGSU.  What does Maryland come out and do? They pass the ball 55% of the time and wind up averaging 3.7ypc from their running backs while then starting QB Perry hills ran eight times for 94 yards.  What kind of game plan is that Maryland? BGSU was thrashed on the ground and you come out with the game plan of throwing the ball? That’s a bit counter intuitive if you ask me.  Against WVU? Much of the same lack of preparation and gameplan after they were obliterated 45-6 after WVU let off the gas from a 38-0 halftime lead.  Maryland looked awful, unprepared, and had nothing to answer the Mountaineers with.  Caleb Rowe looked awful again and it’s becoming increasingly known that it doesn’t matter who is in at QB for Maryland, they cannot throw the ball.  Michigan? You guessed it. The offense comes out and sputters up and down the field, giving the defense no time to rest while the defense continually gives them amazing field position to work with.  End result? 28-0 after being down only 6 at the half with absolutely no adjustments made at halftime.

It’s time to go Randy.  You’ve worn out your stay in College Park and it’s time you moved on.  You constantly criticize the players for lack of discipline, lack of preparation, etc. but in reality that’s on you.  You are the coach in charge of the game plan, in charge of preparing them for games, and in charge of putting together something to actually beat your opponents.  Good coaches can actually show up to a game against a ranked team.  What do you do? I’m not sure, but it’s not what I would call anything that resembles a game plan or scheming to win.  Want to talk about your other favorite thing, technique? I’m tired of you saying the players need to work on their technique.  YOU ARE THE COACH.  YOU teach technique.  If the players don’t know it, that’s on you.  Not on them.

In summary, bye Randy.  You’re done.  That $2.6M is well worth it to get rid of you and whatever you think you do that you call coaching.