COLLEGE PARK -- Before the season began, Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow was asked about the future of football coach Mark Duffner, whose contract is guaranteed through 1997.
"If he has a very good year," Yow said, "let's say we go 7-4 and go to a bowl game, he's probably going to ask me for a lot of money."
The talk at Maryland these days isn't about lucrative, long-term deals and bowl berths, just an end to a three-game losing streak. The slump has discouraged the Terps, angered many of their fans and added to the speculation that Duffner might not get a sixth year at Maryland.
The Terps are 24-point underdogs for Saturday's Atlantic Coast Conference game at No. 13 North Carolina (7 p.m., ESPN2). Barring one of the biggest upsets of the season, Maryland will return home with a 2-4 record and its first four-game losing streak since it went 0-6 to start 1993, when this year's seniors were freshmen.
Is Duffner fighting for the life of his team and his job?
"I don't feel like that," Duffner said. "When things are struggling, if you get too consumed by that, it can take you off what you've got to do.
"The key thing now, as it is every week, is to work hard to develop a plan to be successful. Are we struggling right now? Sure. But the way to get out of that struggle is to keep pushing through it."
There has been more struggle than success for Maryland and Duffner since last September, when the Terps won their first four games. The Terps are 4-8 since then, and his five-year record has dropped to 17-32.
If the slide continues for injury-riddled Maryland, Duffner would remain the only Terps coach to fail to reach a bowl game since Roy Lester left in 1971 after a forgettable three-year stint.
Yow was reached yesterday in Colorado Springs, Colo., where she was attending a USA Basketball board of directors meeting. She reiterated her policy not to discuss the performance of her coaches in season.
Yow has said, however, that she weighs several factors in evaluating a coach.
Duffner has received praise for the Terps' graduation rate. There were highly publicized gambling suspensions last year, but the Terps' behavioral problems pale in comparison to those that have rocked Clemson, Florida State, N.C. State and even Virginia in the last year.
The finances of operating a major-college program factor heavily in a coach's longevity, and football plays a crucial part in Yow's plan to eradicate an athletic department deficit that has been chipped down to $5.7 million. Football is the biggest expenditure in a $22.2 million budget and the second-biggest revenue producer after men's basketball.
Maryland cleared $1.4 million off football last year, when it led the nation in attendance increase, but $149,304 two years ago, when the home schedule was similar to this year's.
Duffner's base salary this year is $132,439, but that's a small chunk of the university's commitment to football. Maryland spent $42 million to renovate and expand Byrd Stadium to 48,000 seats. Every 5,000 fans mean approximately $100,000, and the Terps may have turned off some customers in Saturday's embarrassing, 34-8 loss to previously winless N.C. State.
"I'm numb, in a state of disbelief," said Chad Scott, a senior cornerback who's one of the Terps' four captains. "We're not even talking about a bowl game right now. The main thing is getting back in the win column. We felt we would have a good team, but it seems like from the moment Brian [Cummings] got hurt, everything has gone downhill."
Maryland has been without one of its emotional anchors since Sept. 14, when Cummings, its No. 1 quarterback, was knocked out of the Virginia game with a slight shoulder separation. His progress was hindered by a decision to use him against West Virginia. Cummings didn't play against N.C. State, and still hasn't been cleared for North Carolina.
After the Tar Heels, the schedule lightens up briefly with dates against Wake Forest and Duke, but the Terps finish with Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State.
Here's the pie-in-the-sky approach: If the Terps can win their next five games, they'll get the ACC's fourth bowl berth. But what happens if Maryland finishes 6-5 for the second straight year or regresses to a losing record?
It could be a rugged autumn for Maryland and Duffner, who isn't hiding from criticism. A Maryland spokesman said that Duffner doesn't have to take telephone calls on his weekly radio show on WBAL, but does.
"I'm disappointed and frustrated with where we are right now," Duffner said, "but I'm also more intense than ever about getting it turned around."
Terps schedule
8/31 N.Illinois W, 30-6
9/7 Ala.-Birm. W, 39-15
9/14 at Virginia L, 21-3
9/28 at W.Virginia L, 13-0
10/5 N.C. State L, 34-8
10/12 at N. Carolina noon
10/19 Wake Forest-x 2 p.m.
10/26 at Duke TBA
11/2 at Clemson TBA
11/14 Ga. Tech 8 p.m.
11/23 Fla. St.-y 3: 30
y -- at Miami
Pub Date: 10/09/96
