As Maryland turns the page on DJ Durkin, several emerging coaching candidates

As Maryland football seeks to redefine itself, it could turn to potential coaches with experience in redefining. This would bring the research beyond interim coach Matt Canada, who would also be considered a candidate.

Nobody can be sure at this point, given the embryonic stage of this coaching research and the potential for mistrust that candidates might fear from the Terrapins program. The following is therefore a wish list – not so many candidates but plausible candidates, and places in the university football landscape where Maryland could look.

[Among Maryland football players, a mix of relief, tension and uncertainty]

● Clemson has completely redefined itself during this decade, putting the hard drive at the top of the list of players while establishing a culture that will clearly exalt those who compose it. As a defensive coordinator Brent Venables Dabo Swinney, coach: "He has a unique ability to make people around him feel better about themselves."

While Swinney would be unreachable, Maryland could be in one of the equations for years to come: how far will schools get away from Clemson culture as they do in Alabama culture? One factor opposes this: the constancy of Clemson staff.

As he has risen from 75-54 honorable men from 2000 to 2010 to 80-11 since, including 48-4 over the last four seasons, his offensive co-coordinators and defensive coordinator have all been staff members since 2012 or before. Venables, the defensive coordinator, began this position in 2012. Offensive co-coordinators, Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott, coaches at Clemson since 2011 and 2008, respectively, and provided coordination after the departure of Chad Morris, now head coach of Arkansas, for SMU in 2015.

[Brewer: Maryland’s football players found their voice as their university floundered]

Elliott was in Maryland last July and was attending the NCAA Champion Forum, which aims to prepare minority candidates for the interview process with the head coach. At this event, he told the Associated Press that the interest he was carrying at that time was raised to two calls. In the same month, Clemson raised Venables' salary for the second time in the calendar year to $ 11.6 million, after being appointed coordinator at $ 2 million a year in February.

● If Maryland chooses the redefining path, it might notice that the state of Iowa has redefined and numbered up. After seven consecutive seasons of defeats and ten out of eleven seasons between 2006 and 2016, and with a long tradition of minor player status in the Big Eight and Big 12, it means something different now.

While they were going 8-5 last season and started 4-3, the Cyclones recorded significant wins this year at Oklahoma State and against West Virginia, still unbeaten, and last year in Oklahoma, who improved their lifetime record from 6-8. 74-2. All this happened while the coach, Matt Campbell, who excelled in Toledo, remains 38 years old.

● Among the other main coaches, Dino Babers of Syracuse has generated a lot of energy this season because he generates a lot, and because he has followed two seasons 4-8 with a start of 6-2 and the first place of Syracuse in the playoff standings of University Football (at 19). He is assistant coach in Hawaii, Arizona State, UNLV, Arizona North, Purdue, San Diego State, Arizona, Texas A & M, Pittsburgh, UCLA and Baylor, and head coach at Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green and Syracuse, then at 57. years. knows his way through a multitude of situations.

[Maryland football tumult is ‘going to have an impact on local recruiting’]

● The nation's No. 1 defense in 2018 is owned by Michigan, giving it 3.71 yards per game. The No. 2 offense in the country belongs to Alabama, with 8.3 defeats per game with a quarter -back, Tagovailoa Tagua, which is ranked both No. 1 and in the clouds (238,85). Curiously, the coordinators of these two units crossed Maryland.

The offensive coordinator of Tagovailoa, Mike Locksley, the former Towson State defender, coordinated the Maryland offense and oversaw his quarter-finals from 2012 to 2015, after qualifying 2-26 in a brief stint as New Mexico. The Maryland offense finished 120th in yards per game in 2012, 55th in 2013 and 92nd in 2014.

When Maryland sacked Randy Edsall in the middle of the 2015 season, Locksley took over as interim and scored one in five to close the season. Nick Saban, the dynastic coach of Alabama, then summoned Locksley to Tuscaloosa as an offensive analyst in 2016. He was named offensive co-coordinator in 2017 and, after Brian's departure Daboll at Buffalo Bills, offensive coordinator in 2018.

Michigan Defensive Coordinator, 63 Don Brown showed no interest in the head coaching positions and said last fall: "I have a pretty good job, right?" Coaches in their sixties do not tend to look at each other much, even though he is 67 years old. The former coach of Alabama, who signed there at age 55, seems to perform at a higher than average level.

[Maryland board also recommended retaining trainers who failed to treat Jordan McNair]

Brown was the head coach of Plymouth State (NH), Northeast, and Massachusetts, from where he traveled to Maryland in 2009 to coordinate defense in the past two seasons. from Ralph Friedgen. The Maryland defense finished 87th in yards per game in 2009 and 14th in 2010.

While former US Michigan defender Jabrill Peppers used the term "tyrannical coaching" in a radio interview to describe his former coordinator DJ Durkin, hired by Maryland as head coach in 2016 and sacked Wednesday, Brown would be considered loved. His former players talk about him in terms that shine well beyond these usual words. It would be odd if Maryland tried the Michigan defensive coordinator again, but the whim would be essentially meaningless.

● Finally, if the idea of ​​putting rubble in the rubble and making it a thing of the past, the 52-year-old Ohio State Defense Coordinator Greg Schiano showed this talent. He went 68-67 in 11 seasons to Rutgers, considered by many to be one of the feats not only in training but in human history.