Disastrous season continues for Edsall, Terps

I'll admit, I've never followed Maryland football as closely as basketball -- even during the best of times. But it'd be pretty hard not to notice the debacle that is this season, under head coach Randy Edsall. Edsall has had his hands full, and after another blowout loss last night (45-21 to Notre Dame) the Terps now have a 2-8 record and are 1-5 in the ACC.

Since Edsall is the guy to replace the beloved and rather successful Ralph Friedgen, Edsall's time at Maryland will undoubtedly be compared to everything Fridge accomplished. In 10 seasons, Friedgen compiled a 75-50 (43-37) record. His tenure had its ups and downs, but he also helped to turn around a program that had basically become irrelevant.

Here's the Terps' record in each of Friedgen's 10 seasons:

2001: 10-2 (7-1)
2002: 11-3 (6-2)
2003: 10-3 (6-2)
2004: 5-6 (3-5)
2005: 5-6 (3-5)
2006: 9-4 (5-3)
2007: 6-7 (3-5)
2008: 8-5 (4-4)
2009: 2-10 (1-7)
2010: 9-4 (5-3)

After Friedgen's first three seasons -- and really the first season, when the Terps went to the Orange Bowl -- the Terps struggled at times. They also never won more than nine games after 2003. But the only season that could compare to this one on the disaster scale is 2009, which is essentially the season that got Friedgen fired. Friedgen and the Terps turned things around the very next season, which made athletic director Kevin Anderson's subsequent firing of Friedgen even more awkward and hard for many fans to digest.

Edsall has said many times (mostly during the season, I believe) that turning around the program, or at least molding the program how he wanted, was not going to be easy. He has taken some thinly veiled shots at Friedgen and the poor condition in which he left the program, though that does seem a little ridiculous. Still, regardless of how bare the cupboard was when Edsall took over, there's no question that the Terps have been terrible.

Let's quickly compare Friedgen's worst season (2009) to this season. The comparison won't be perfect -- comparing different teams with different players and coaches, strength of schedule, 2011 season is still ongoing, etc. -- but should be interesting.

Friedgen's 2009

Wins: James Madison (38-35 in OT), Clemson (24-21)
Against ranked teams: #12 California (52-13), #21 Virginia Tech (36-9)
Outscored by 119 points (375 to 256)

Edsall's 2011

Wins: Miami (32-24), Towson (28-3)
Against ranked teams: #18 West Virginia (37-31), #13 Georgia Tech (21-16), #8 Clemson (56-45)
Outscored by 98 points (324 to 226)

It's worth noting that in 2009, Chris Turner (who was not very good) was Maryland's quarterback. This year, the Terps had Danny O'Brien, who was named the ACC Rookie of the Year last season when he threw for 2,438 yards, 22 touchdowns, and (only) 8 interceptions. In his sophomore season, which is now over after he broke a bone in his left arm in last night's game, O'Brien has thrown for 1,648 yards, 7 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions in Maryland's new spread offense. That's probably not the type of performance that many would have predicted in O'Brien's second season.

The Terps have two games remaining: against Wake Forest and NC State. Both are road games. It's possible that Maryland could win either of those games. Yet, it's also possible they lose by double digits in both.

I don't know the direction that Maryland football is headed in under Edsall, but there is some positive news: 1) Because of Edsall's contract and the athletic department's financial situation, he's going to be here for a while (meaning he should have the time to turn the program into what he wants, whatever that is); and 2) things can't get much worse.

Friedgen turned things around at Maryland

So first-year athletic director Kevin Anderson and the University of Maryland have decided to go in a different direction with the football program, asking head coach Ralph Friedgen to retire and accept a buyout. According to a few sources, Maryland is likely pursuing former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach for the head coaching position.

There's no question that Friedgen, 63, will not be leaving Maryland on his terms. Does he deserve better? Yes, definitely. But so do many underappreciated coaches. And yes, Friedgen is one of those.

Before Friedgen was hired as Terps head coach in 2001, Maryland had not been to a bowl game since 1990, when they played Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl (a game that, oddly enough, ended in a tie, 34-34). Under Friedgen's guidance, the Terps will have played in seven bowls (after the Terps face East Carolina in the Military Bowl next week) in the 10 seasons that he's been head coach. Also, considering the three previous coaches to Fridge -- Joe Krivak (20-34-2), Mark Duffner (20-35), and Ron Vanderlinden (15-29) -- all had losing records, Friedgen's (right now) record of 74-50 looks outstanding.

Is Friedgen Maryland's greatest head coach of all time? No. But he injected some new life into his alma mater's football program and made it something that it hadn't been since the mid-80s: relevant. Maryland never got close to a championship; it was very unlikely that Friedgen could have molded the Terps into that kind of team. And, in fact, Friedgen's best overall season was probably his first, when Maryland faced Florida in the Orange Bowl (and got blown out). Some say that the Terps were so good in the early 2000s because of Vanderlinden's recruits. And that may be true or may not be, but who cares? Friedgen was the guy to finally start winning again.

Like the Gilbert Arenas trade yesterday, I'm going to focus on the positive aspects of Friedgen's tenure at Maryland instead of the missed opportunities or disappointments. Having Arenas around made the Wizards better, as did Friedgen's 10 seasons at Maryland. He turned the program around, and he deserves an enormous amount of respect for doing so.

Weekly Rundown: Zorn, Marbury, Corso

Weekly Rundown is a combination of links and brief comments on stories and topics that I couldn't get to during the week. If there's something important that I missed, don't hesitate to send an email or leave a comment.

(Quick note: This post is a day late, so I'm going to include some links from today. Anyway, I should have mentioned this before, but I've been pretty busy lately, and I probably won't be able to post as often in the next few weeks. But I'll still try to get as many posts up as I can. To those of you who do so, thanks for reading.)

• It's pretty funny to mention this now, especially after what happened yesterday, but Melvin Mora, last week, said that he wanted "to be an Oriole forever." [Baltimore Sun]


• Tony Kornheiser is planning a return to radio. [D.C. Sports Bog]


• Apparently the Redskins offensive line is one of the worst in the league. [FanHouse]


• Howard Bryant wrote a long, interesting piece about Billy Beane and Moneyball, but I'm still not sure exactly what point he was trying to make. Is Beane a bad GM? Is he too concerned with things outside of baseball? I don't think either of those things is true. [ESPN]


• Jim Zorn being Jim Zorn at Redskins training camp:
  

  
  "Here's what I did, I wanted to kind of cut down on all of the colors. We had an excellent color scheme last year, ok? I wanted to become more boring, and use our burgundy as the featured color. Because we had light gray, dark gray, black, smokey gray. We had dark burgundy, we had red. We had all kinds of colors. And then we had bellbottom sweats, where guys were taping around [their ankles]. You guys remember that? White tape around everybody's ankles? We looked like bike riders trying to keep their pants from getting greasy.
  
  So what I did is I got together with Brad Berlin, our equipment manager, and we kind of created just a cutdown on colors and styles of what we wanted the team to look like."
  

  
  Don't ever change, Zorn. [D.C. Sports Bog]


• J.A. Adande weighs in on the confusing and odd Stephon Marbury situation. [ESPN]


• Posnanski on advanced fielding statistics: "They’re not as good as they could be or will be ... I think everyone would agree about that. But they try (and often succeed) and taking an objective look at how effective a player performs defensively. Those numbers say [Yuniesky Betancourt] is a disaster at shortstop. Flawed numbers or not, I would tend to believe those over my lyin’ eyes." [Joe Posnanski]


• Brendan Haywood is better than you think he is. [Truth About It]


• Check out this crazy catch by the Pirates' Delwyn Young last week that the umpires (understandably) missed. [FanHouse]


• Rob Neyer is a fan of the George Sherrill trade:
  

  
  I'm not going to criticize the Dodgers for trading Josh Bell. Who knows? Maybe Casey Blake will live forever.
  What I will do is send up a big hip-hip-hooray for the Orioles, because the single best thing any rebuilding manager can do, ever, is trade a relief pitcher in late July for a couple of solid prospects.
  
  Let me repeat for anyone not paying attention: a relief pitcher.
  
  Relief pitchers are, well, I would say that they're "fungible" except that word always makes me think of a massively fun and rigid airship. Instead I'll say that a relief pitcher, purely in terms of value, is not worth two solid prospects.
  
  Bell and Johnson are solid. Bell opened the season as the Dodgers' eighth-best prospect, and has done nothing this season to damage his credentials -- he's got mid-range power and a .364 career on-base percentage. Johnson is 21, almost 22, certainly throws hard enough (90-93) and has struck out nearly a batter per inning in his five minor-league seasons.
  
  If I were an Orioles fan, I would be organizing a party right now.
  

  
  Oh, and I'm also a fan of the trade. [SweetSpot]


• Mike Williams has lost more than 100 pounds in eight months. Next step: Play better in training camp. [Redskins Insider]


• Speaking of losing weight, Ralph Friedgen has lost 95 pounds. [FanHouse]


• Could a quarterback controversy be coming for the Redskins? [Hogs Haven]


• Is PFT's Mike Florio at it again? [Mr. Irrelevant]


• Lee Corso is on the comeback trail, and I wish him the best of luck. [Awful Announcing]