from the sunpapers
I have a story today about how long Ralph Friedgen might remain as head coach – and how his current thinking squares with the school’s “coach-in-waiting” agreement with offensive coordinator James Franklin.
There is a bit of a discrepancy here – which is one reason I wrote the story (i.e., to try to make sense of the situation).
Fridge says he’s not trying to set a record for coaching longevity. He says he won’t be Joe Paterno. But he doesn’t seem to want to be limited to three years. He talks generally about coaching three to five more years. He says he might be tempted to stay past 2012 if the Terps go to the Orange Bowl in, say, 2011.
But Maryland has a contract with Franklin that says the university is liable to Franklin for $1 million if Friedgen remains head coach beyond Jan. 2, 2012.
So how do you reconcile these two things?
One way would be for Franklin – who has passed up opportunities in the NFL and at other colleges — to simply remain as offensive coordinator if Fridge stays on and therefore not exercise his right to claim the $1 million. Another way would be for Friedgen and Franklin to agree to amend the timetable, provided the school’s administration agrees.
Here’s a quote from Athletic Director Debbie Yow that didn’t appear in the story about the $1 million promise to Franklin:
“We have a legal obligation at this point in the document to (pay) that. If Ralph wanted to have that conversation with him, that has to be an agreement they would have that changes the document.There could always be a conversation – of course – between the two of them.,” Yow said.
A logical question is why Maryland officials inserted the January 2012 date in the “head coach option” of Franklin’s contract. They could have left the date open-ended.
My sense is that Maryland wanted to be fair to Franklin by giving him a time frame of sorts. The January 2012 date seemed to work because it was the end of Friedgen’s contract.
Franklin’s original contract ended on June 30, 2011. His new one – the one with the head coach option – ends the same day as Friedgen’s.
The clear hope of Maryland officials is that they get a smooth transition. Terps fans, I’m sure, are counting on that as well
to bruce. as you can see from my 2nd additional post using story from sunpapers debbie yow says she doesn’t have the million to pay franklin. in regards to turner. you say he is an excellent q.b. he’s not excellent. he plays very well at times and other times he is very inconsistent. he plays better in games where md plays ranked teams. thing is md also plays unranked teams and in those games his performance fluctuates. excellent qb’s play consistently well. mcbrien played well his first yr and really well his 2nd. same with hill. they both were better early intheir careers than when turner was getting started and both improved more rapidly than turner has. turner is going into more or less his 3rd yr as starter where both hill and mcbrien transferred and had only 2 yrs to play where turner has been at md from the get go. that said no matter how good a qb you have no matter how good the receivers are and no matter how good your running backs are the offensive line is the key to success. no holes to run through and the running backs get smashed. can’t pass protect and the receivers don’t see the ball because the qb is getting sacked or hurried.
from sunpapers;;;The $1 million payment would not be made unless Maryland were to name a successor to Friedgen other than Franklin, or Friedgen were to remain beyond the term of his contract.
“It’s just our way of acknowledging and recognizing that [Franklin] gave up something to stay at Maryland,” Yow said.
In effect, Franklin would have to agree to amend the contract and let Maryland off the hook if Friedgen were to stay for the 2012 season.
“That would have to be a conversation Ralph and James had, where James deferred the opportunity for two more years,” Yow said. “That’s what would have to happen because I don’t have a million dollars to give James. They’ll work that out in time.” She said any such discussion “is very premature.”
Mike 8:40 am on July 2, 2009 Permalink
This is going to be great – sorry for the emails, testing out.
Rob 8:41 am on July 2, 2009 Permalink
Can’t Wait
Mike 10:26 am on July 3, 2009 Permalink
Let’s Talk Terps!
FREDDY IN BOCA 3:57 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink
from the sunpapers
I have a story today about how long Ralph Friedgen might remain as head coach – and how his current thinking squares with the school’s “coach-in-waiting” agreement with offensive coordinator James Franklin.
There is a bit of a discrepancy here – which is one reason I wrote the story (i.e., to try to make sense of the situation).
Fridge says he’s not trying to set a record for coaching longevity. He says he won’t be Joe Paterno. But he doesn’t seem to want to be limited to three years. He talks generally about coaching three to five more years. He says he might be tempted to stay past 2012 if the Terps go to the Orange Bowl in, say, 2011.
But Maryland has a contract with Franklin that says the university is liable to Franklin for $1 million if Friedgen remains head coach beyond Jan. 2, 2012.
So how do you reconcile these two things?
One way would be for Franklin – who has passed up opportunities in the NFL and at other colleges — to simply remain as offensive coordinator if Fridge stays on and therefore not exercise his right to claim the $1 million. Another way would be for Friedgen and Franklin to agree to amend the timetable, provided the school’s administration agrees.
Here’s a quote from Athletic Director Debbie Yow that didn’t appear in the story about the $1 million promise to Franklin:
“We have a legal obligation at this point in the document to (pay) that. If Ralph wanted to have that conversation with him, that has to be an agreement they would have that changes the document.There could always be a conversation – of course – between the two of them.,” Yow said.
A logical question is why Maryland officials inserted the January 2012 date in the “head coach option” of Franklin’s contract. They could have left the date open-ended.
My sense is that Maryland wanted to be fair to Franklin by giving him a time frame of sorts. The January 2012 date seemed to work because it was the end of Friedgen’s contract.
Franklin’s original contract ended on June 30, 2011. His new one – the one with the head coach option – ends the same day as Friedgen’s.
The clear hope of Maryland officials is that they get a smooth transition. Terps fans, I’m sure, are counting on that as well
FREDDY IN BOCA 4:19 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink
to bruce. as you can see from my 2nd additional post using story from sunpapers debbie yow says she doesn’t have the million to pay franklin. in regards to turner. you say he is an excellent q.b. he’s not excellent. he plays very well at times and other times he is very inconsistent. he plays better in games where md plays ranked teams. thing is md also plays unranked teams and in those games his performance fluctuates. excellent qb’s play consistently well. mcbrien played well his first yr and really well his 2nd. same with hill. they both were better early intheir careers than when turner was getting started and both improved more rapidly than turner has. turner is going into more or less his 3rd yr as starter where both hill and mcbrien transferred and had only 2 yrs to play where turner has been at md from the get go. that said no matter how good a qb you have no matter how good the receivers are and no matter how good your running backs are the offensive line is the key to success. no holes to run through and the running backs get smashed. can’t pass protect and the receivers don’t see the ball because the qb is getting sacked or hurried.
FREDDY IN BOCA 4:37 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink
from sunpapers;;;The $1 million payment would not be made unless Maryland were to name a successor to Friedgen other than Franklin, or Friedgen were to remain beyond the term of his contract.
“It’s just our way of acknowledging and recognizing that [Franklin] gave up something to stay at Maryland,” Yow said.
In effect, Franklin would have to agree to amend the contract and let Maryland off the hook if Friedgen were to stay for the 2012 season.
“That would have to be a conversation Ralph and James had, where James deferred the opportunity for two more years,” Yow said. “That’s what would have to happen because I don’t have a million dollars to give James. They’ll work that out in time.” She said any such discussion “is very premature.”