Gary Crowton

Recently, The Sun ran a story regarding a University of Maryland football coach ("Crowton out, Locksley in," Dec. 15) that reveals the school is negotiating a buyout for offensive coordinator Gary Crowton who is due to receive a guaranteed $500,000 salary for the next three years. I would like to see The Baltimore Sun write an investigative report on state employees like Mr. Crowton who are making more than the Gov. Martin O'Malley and more than President Barack Obama to help coach football.

The Maryland football team began practicing this week, and the debut of Randy Edsall's Terps is less than a month away. Besides their new coach, whom Maryland lured away from Connecticut, the Terps have a pair of new coordinators, new uniforms, new standards of conduct, even a new football designed by Under Armour. That's a lot of change for one summer, which might explain why the ACC media picked the Terps to finish fifth in the Atlantic Division this season even though the Terps went 9-4 under Ralph Friedgen in 2010.

Danny O'Brien likes most everything about Maryland.  That's certainly been a positive for the quarterback and the school.  And it clearly factors into the inner debate he's been having -- for months, those who know him say -- about where his immediate football future should be spent. Largely through his family, I've kept tabs on O'Brien. Here is some of what I know: * In recent months, he's tried to focus on recovering from the broken bone in his left arm. He suffered the injury when he was slammed to the turf during the Notre Dame loss on Nov. 12. He adhered to a routine in his recovery, and getting healthy seemed to take precedence over other matters.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies and some showers. The high is expected to be around 59 degrees. The low temperature is expected to be around 48 degrees tonight. TRAFFIC Here are today's morning traffic issues . FROM LAST NIGHT... Man shot in head in East Baltimore barbershop : A man was shot in the head in a barbershop in the 2200 block of Harford Road just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, police said. ( UPDATE: The victim's age has been identified by police . He will turn 32 on Friday and remains in critical condition, according to police.)

As he focused in recent months on classwork and recovering from a broken left arm, Maryland quarterback Danny O'Brien has also pondered whether to return to the Terps next season, according to a relative. With spring football approaching, O'Brien's uncertain future was the subject of tweets Wednesday from media members and anxious Terps fans. One tweet by sports anchor Dan Hellie of Washington's NBC4 said: "Source: Maryland QB Danny O'Brien is leaving. Met with Randy Edsall today and will transfer.

It's odd timing, but Maryland released the contracts of head football coach Randy Edsall's assistant coaches today even as the school continued its review of the program. The school has not ruled out staff changes. The timing was happenstance. We media bloodhounds had requested the pacts months ago and are receiving them now. These contracts sometimes take months to finalize. We got eight of the nine contracts today and were told that offensive coordinator Gary Crowton's pact was not yet available.

The Maryland football team enters Saturday's game against No. 8 Clemson with a 2-3 record (they probably would be 1-4 if Miami was at full strength in the season opener). At least one player has voiced his displeasure with Randy Edsall. And former coach Ralph Friedgen recently said he was ready to set his diploma on fire). Needless to say, the first five games of the Edsall era have not been ideal for the former Connecticut coach. When Edsall took over for Friedgen, he inherited at 9-4 team with a star sophomore quarterback in Danny O'Brien, who threw for 2,438 yards and 22 touchdowns (with just eight interceptions)

BaseballBrewers: Acquired P Tyrone Narcisse and OF Chuck Carr from Marlins for P Juan Gonzalez.Devil Rays: Named Mickey White assistant to GM and Billy Hatcher minor-league coach.Expos: Signed P Wally Whitehurst to Triple-A contract.Mets: Named Steve Phillips assistant GM and Jack Zduriencik ** director of minor-league operations.Orioles: Will not renew contract of assistant GM Frank Robinson. Signed Double-A Bowie manager Bob Miscik and pitching coach Chris Lein for one year.Reds: Acquired OF Andre King from Cardinals for IF Luis Ordaz.

The chance for Maryland to land Wes Brown had seemingly passed long ago. The Terps' 2-10 season removed them from contention for the Good Counsel running back's services, and in November it was reported that he was down to Colorado, Michigan, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech . But between then and now, Maryland replaced offensive coordinator Gary Crowton with Washington native and ace recruiter Mike Locksley ...

Each morning, Monday through Friday, I'll hook you up with reading material to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday -- that way I'll have an excuse to do the same at the start of mine.   Running it back: Now that the Ravens have signed Haloti Ngata to a five-year, $61 million deal , Joe Flacco and Ray Rice could be next. ... On Wednesday, Matt Birk, Terrence Cody and Cory Redding were the latest Ravens to sit out practice . ... Caught between the need to rest his ailing ankle and his desire to play, Lee Evans may err on the side of caution Sunday.