“No one is being held accountable”: Maryland keeps AD Evans, HC Durkin

What does it take to get fired as the AD, if you deny the request to change the training staff after a kid dies?

That is just one of the questions Maryland Athletics will have to answer after their press conference this afternoon at 3:30 ET. The University of Maryland Board of Regents, as it was expected to after reporting this afternoon by Rick Maese of the Washington Post announced that both head football coach DJ Durkin and athletics director Damon Evans would keep their jobs after a full investigation into the handling of the death of player Jordan McNair. University president Wallace Loh is expected to retire in June.

DJ Carver: Someone needs to be held accountable and somehow no one is being held accountable.

Just read pages 75 into 76 of the Washington Post report. I mean, for fuck’s sake, they have Loh and Evans on record stating [paraphrased] “Well, I guess you have that email that shows I received the anonymous email claiming abuse, so I don’t deny I saw it, but I don’t remember it.”

They are so dysfunctional that abuse was claimed back in 2016 from a parent about [strength and conditioning coach Rick] Court and they did nothing. Ignored it. Never even made it to Durkin. Got lost in the black hole of the President’s and AD’s inbox.

“After Dr Walters provided his preliminary report in July, suggesting that the training staff bore some responsibility for the tragedy, Mr Durkin urged Mr Evans to retain a new training staff before August practices began, to ensure the safety of players.

“Evans denied the request along with the previous requests prior to the incident for a dedicated team physician and psychologist, and Loh denied a request to move the training staff under the supervision of the medical school two years prior.”

Thumpasaurus: Bringing Durkin back is not the end of the world, but you know what is? Bringing Durkin back without firing ANYONE—outside of Court. If you bring Durkin back, you’re saying he tried to do the right thing and it was made difficult by the administration. So then you have to can the admins.

DJ Carver: Yes, exactly!

You have to fire Loh and Evans because bringing DJ back means you think he tried to do the right thing enough, [but] his superiors failed to allow him to do it.

He also asked for a dedicated team psychologist because he thought the one for the entire AD wasn’t really giving his players the best attention. Tried to stop having the weed testing be punitive the way it was set up, etc.

He did try; his superiors failed him. He also let Court go unchecked, which is still a huge issue to deal with and I don’t know how he wins back the locker room.

Thump: Firing the AD and/or president says “Durkin tried to do right by everyone, but wasn’t adequately supported by the Admin, and that’s where the problem was.” Instead what they’ve [effectively] said is ”the problem was limited to Court...Court went so rogue that no actions by anyone involved could possibly have prevented this.”

DJ Carver: It’s confirmed that right before this broke, they had not told the players at all what is going on. Players are in the dark, which is BS given why this happened.

And then they told the players, and...

I could probably name them. Apparently the pro- vs. anti-Durkin faction is split down Edsall vs. Durkin recruits. Best analogy I’ve seen so far is Maryland is Veep IRL. I will open this up to assign characters to Maryland people in charge. [ed. note: Do this in the comments!]

We will finish 5-7 now. Fuck that. What a bullshit punt.

[ed. note: this is an ongoing debacle and will be updated with further reaction as necessary.]