October 21, 2009|By Jeff Barker | Jeff Barker,jeff.barker@baltsun.com
COLLEGE PARK - - The father of starting quarterback Chris Turner started a message board thread on a fan Web site last weekend urging that Maryland replace Debbie Yow as athletic director.
"Get rid of Yow" was the title of the thread on insidemd sports.com.
"I just fully support the football program," John Turner said in an interview Tuesday in which he confirmed beginning the thread. "I know I'm one small voice, but I believe in what those guys are doing and I want to stand behind them. This was a weekend where I really felt strongly for the football program."
John Turner's comments, posted under his screen name, said: "Get rid of Yow. And you might have a chance on being decent in football and basketball. Shes [sic] the absolute worst and will destroy your program! TRUST ME!"
Yow said Tuesday night that she had just returned from a meeting of the National Football Foundation board of directors in Dallas and had not seen the post.
"My occasional interactions with Chris' dad have been positive and pleasant in nature," she said in an e-mail in reply to a Baltimore Sun query. "So, I'd only be guessing as to who or what would influence him to say that at this time."
Turner posts frequently to the site. Among his recent comments was one in which he proposed giving football coach Ralph Friedgen "the same tools that some of the bigger programs have."
Yow, in her 16th year, oversees football and 26 other teams - five more than the average number at the Atlantic Coast Conference's eight public universities. Maryland has won 18 national championships during Yow's tenure. She has balanced the school's athletic department budgets each year since 1994. This year she made cuts in football and other sports to do so.
The football team is 2-5 (1-1 ACC) heading into Saturday's game at Duke, and some fans have called on the Internet for the firing of Friedgen, who has the backing of prominent members of the Maryland Gridiron Network and the Terrapin Club. Yow has said she will evaluate Friedgen, as all other coaches, at the end of the season.
