Edsall

COLLEGE PARK - The contracts Maryland signed with its new men's basketball and football coaches contain incentives reflecting athletic department priorities - competing nationally, quickly leasing luxury stadium suites and selling more football season tickets, and improving athletes' classroom performance. The contracts, obtained Thursday in a public records request, guarantee football coach Randy Edsall $2 million over each of the next six years and basketball coach Mark Turgeon $1.9 million a year over eight years.

In a perfect world, Randy Edsall can envision the day when the Maryland football team plays before packed crowds at Byrd Stadium, when the Terps challenge perennial powers in their league, when he and his staff attract most of the top high school talent in the state as well as from other parts of the country. Then Edsall quickly snaps out of that world and gets back to reality. And back to work. This is Edsall's reality right now: the Terps have won just six games in his first two seasons since he replaced Ralph Friedgen, four of the victories coming in the first six games of last season before injuries decimated his team, particularly at quarterback.

Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson plans to meet with football coach Randy Edsall Saturday night as part of a "top to bottom" review of a football program that ended the season with a 2-10 record that Anderson called "unacceptable. " Edsall's job is safe. "There's no question in my mind I got the right guy here," Anderson said Friday in an interview. But neither Anderson nor others connected to the program would rule out the possibility of changes to Edsall's nine-member staff following a season in which Maryland lost its last eight games.

Randy Edsall has been committed to growing Maryland's brand ever since he took the job in College Park more than two years ago. The state flag was already printed across the Byrd Stadium end zones when he arrived on campus, but that wasn't enough. The football coach unveiled state flag-inspired "Maryland Pride" uniforms for his first game on the sideline and replaced the Terps moniker with Maryland on both the field and jerseys. On Saturday afternoon, he'll unveil another part of his plan.

It's interesting that Kevin Anderson was on the Maryland sideline during the 56-41 defeat at North Carolina State in the season-ending football game. Anderson is usually up in a stadium box. But he said he wanted to gauge for himself what was going on with this team. It's not that Anderson was going to fire Edsall. The athletic director is absolutely behind the first-year Maryland coach. But the AD said he will meet with Edsall Saturday night as part of a "top to bottom" review of Edsall's program.

Since Randy Edsall took over for Ralph Friedgen in January, there has been a revolving door of coaches and players shuffling in and out of the Maryland football program. And it still hasn't stopped spinning. In recent weeks, linebacker Ryan Donohue, running back Gary Douglas and quarterback Tyler Smith announced plans to transfer, while fullbacks Haroon Brown and Taylor Watson — both of whom are graduating — decided they wouldn't return for their final season of eligibility. It's the type of attrition one might expect from a coaching change.

On January 12, 2004 MELBA M. (nee Lastner); beloved wife of the late Edward C. Fick; devoted mother of Jean Edsall and Erma Sergi; loving grandmother of Debbie McMillen, Diane Armstrong, Gary Edsall, Nancy Hoffman and Raymond Edsall and great grandmother of Lee Anna Drinan, Gino McMillen, Jermey Edsall, Angela and Julianna Vidala, Shawn and Dominic Drinan and Rachel Edsall. Relatives and friends at invited to call at the Schimunek Funeral Home Inc., 9705 Belair Rd. (Perry Hall) on Wednesday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. where services will be held on Thursday 11 A.M. Interment in Oak Lawn Cemetery.

On January 20, 2005, CORNELIASZMAJDA (nee Pace), beloved wife of the late Stanley F. Szmajda; loving mother of Joseph Szmajda, Pat Schmidt, Cookie Szmajda and the late Carl Szmajda; grandmother of Michelle Edsall, Melinda Plaugher, Cassandra and Victoria Szmajda; great grandmother of Julia Plaugher and Rachel Edsall; dear sister of Annie Thompson and Emma Pratta Friends may call at the family owned David J. Weber Funeral Home P.A., 401 S. Chester St.,...

Elizabeth W. Edsall loves to talk.The 17-year-old senior at the Severn School is a four-year member of the school's Oratorical Society, a two-year participant on the mock trial team and a first-place winner of the Rotary International District 7620 Speech Contest.But Edsall could deliver her most important speech when she tells of the obstacles she overcame as a cancer survivor at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Severna Park High School."Cancer used to be a death sentence, but it's not anymore," she said.

BaseballGiants: Signed P Osvaldo Fernandez, who has not pitched in majors since June 1997 because of elbow problems, to minor-league contract and invited him to spring training.CollegeConnecticut: Named Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Randy Edsall football coach.Illinois: Named Robert Jackson receivers coach.Pub Date: 12/21/98

Editor's note: Each week, InsideMdSports.com provides this blog with a Maryland recruiting feature that previously appeared as premium content on its site. Class of 2014 defensive end Jeremiah Clarke (T.C. Williams) took in a spring practice at Maryland for the second time this month on Tuesday - his first visit to College Park since being offered by the Terps on March 11. “It went good,” Clarke said. “I got to watch them practice. I talked to coach [Randy]

Randy Edsall is a football coach, not a marketing guy, but he's got the lingo down. Ask him why the Maryland football team is practicing Saturday at Dunbar, and he says it's all about growing the Terps brand in this area and throughout the rest of the state, too. "What we need to do is make sure we're going out and meeting the people and being visible in the Baltimore community, rather than expecting people to come to us," he says....

Maryland unveiled a 22-man recruiting class today in College Park. Here are some notes from Randy Edsall's news conference. ** It was a “pretty uneventful” Signing Day, Edsall joked before discussing the Maryland decisions made Wednesday by Friendship Collegiate Academy linebacker Yannick Ngakoue, Suitland wide receiver Taivon Jacobs and Avalon School defensive back Jacquille Veii . “I think that makes a big statement,” the...

Maryland football coach Randy Edsall wants to make Terrapins spring football more of a fan event - and he hopes to start by bringing it on the road, including perhaps to Baltimore. Edsall said Friday he'd like to hold a spring scrimmage or two away from College Park. He mentioned Baltimore and the Frederick area as possibilities. "Instead of always having people come to us, we go there and make it easier for them," Edsall said. Edsall and other Maryland coaches already travel around the state with athletic department staff, talking to fans during the spring and summer.

Maryland's decision to move from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big Ten not only caught its fans and students - and possibly ACC officials - by surprise. The stunning announcement that was first rumored late last week and was made official Monday also came as a shock to many of the school's coaches. Second-year men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon said his initial reaction was not unlike those who have been around the program for a long time. "I was like, 'Are you kidding me, what's going on here?"

Washington State is barely on anyone's radar when it comes to college football, so fans on the East Coast might not be following what has transpired in Mike Leach's first season in Pullman. It has a striking resemblance to Randy Edsall's first season in College Park.  After a 2-1 start - including a win over Football Championship Subdivision power Eastern Washington - the Cougars are in free fall, having lost their last seven games, and they've gone winless in the Pac-12 Conference.

Through five games, Maryland's longest run of the season has been 21 yards. The Terps are averaging 86 rushing yards per game, last in the ACC. Maryland is the only school in the conference not averaging more than 100 yards per game on the ground. It begs the question.  Are the tailbacks not getting holes to run through? Or are they getting holes and not locating them? The Terps won't feel like an Edsall team - at least in the way that Connecticut was - until they improve the running game and find a workhorse back.

Justin Lewis, who started 12 of 13 games for Maryland's football team last season at right guard, was dismissed from the team Tuesday and turned himself in to authorities to respond to allegations of second-degree assault, according to university and law enforcement officials. University police said a warrant was issued for Lewis, 21, in Prince George's County. "Apparently, somebody filed charges against him," university police spokesman Marc Limansky said. "There was an outstanding warrant and he decided to turn himself in. " Lewis was charged in connection with an alleged June 26 fight.

Already down a touchdown in the heart of a deafening Death Valley, Maryland needed a response after Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd guided the No. 11 Tigers into the end zone on their second series of the game. But instead what Maryland produced was something it simply could not afford. Linebacker-turned-quarterback Shawn Petty, making his second collegiate start, committed a costly fumble rushing left on first-and-10. The ball was recovered in the scrum by the Tigers and returned 16 yards to the end zone for a 14-0 lead.

Three Saturdays ago, Randy Edsall walked from the sideline out to the field to find Perry Hills, his starting quarterback, being carefully lifted onto a cart, his eyes closed in pain after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Last Saturday, just before halftime, the Maryland coach had to make that awful walk again - this time to check on senior linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield, the team's leading tackler, who was stretched out on the FieldTurf after being blocked during a Georgia Tech running play.