Vanderlinden

COLLEGE PARK - Any grounds for firing fourth-year University of Maryland football coach Ron Vanderlinden were played out in microcosm yesterday in the Terps' 35-22 loss to Georgia Tech at Byrd Stadium. Only 24,701 were in the 48,000-seat stadium (about 5,000 of them from Georgia Tech), the Terps (5-6) were never in the game against a team in the top tier of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and they lost a serious bowl bid for the second straight year in the final game of the season. Of course, Vanderlinden found solace in his team's strong second-half performance, but there was little else.

Penn State assistant Ron Vanderlinden says he won't be coming back to College Park as Maryland's new defensive coordinator. Days after one of his former assistants returned as the team's new offensive coordinator, Vanderlinden wrote to The Baltimore Sun in an email this morning, "I am not a candidate nor am I interested in returning to Maryland as the defensive coordinator. Hopefully, that will clear things up. " Contrary to some reports, Vanderlinden said he hasn't been contacted by Maryland.

COLLEGE PARK -- No one should have been surprised yesterday when Maryland coach Ron Vanderlinden refused to divulge who would be his starting quarterback for Saturday's 6 p.m. home date with winless Temple.Even if Vanderlinden has made a decision between junior drop-back passer Ken Mastrole and freshman option quarterback Randall Jones, he would not tell the opposition until later in the week.There is no need to give the Owls a lot of time to prepare.However, Jones did dominate most of Vanderlinden's comments the quarterback situation during a weekly news conference because that's who most of the questions centered around.

HOUSTON - There were signs all along that Kris Jenkins could be special. It was just that not many people picked up on them. Ron Vanderlinden saw those signs in 1996 when he recruited Jenkins out of Ypsilanti, Mich., first for Northwestern, then for Maryland. Dwight Galt, Maryland's strength coach, saw them after Jenkins' freshman season at Maryland in 1997, during a two-on-two pickup basketball game in Cole Field House. And the Carolina Panthers saw enough of them in Jenkins' senior season to invest a second-round pick in the 2001 NFL draft.

COLLEGE PARK -- There were two shutouts in the College Park area last weekend.One was Maryland's 33-0 football wipeout of West Virginia that brought the Terps some notice around the country and earned them 31 votes in the Associated Press' Top 25 poll.The other was a 4-0 blackout at Ron Vanderlinden's house in southern Howard County. That is four days without power since Hurricane Floyd blew into town, and there were no lights in the Maryland coach's house as of noon yesterday."We have an extension cord running from our refrigerator to a neighbor's house," Vanderlinden said.

COLLEGE PARK -- There is no need to wonder why Ron Vanderlinden has closed Maryland football practices to the media this week and virtually shut his players and himself off from all interviews.The Maryland-Virginia duel at Byrd Stadium at noon Saturday is the biggest game Vanderlinden has coached in his three years here.The first 32 seem like preliminaries to the high stakes facing the Terps (5-5, 2-5) when they take the field for the final regular-season game of the year.The school's first bowl bid since 1990, which would produce an $800,000 paycheck, Vanderlinden's first winning season, Maryland's first winning season since 1995 and continued belief in the Vanderlinden way, will be on the line.

COLLEGE PARK -- The rain was pouring, but it was still a fiery football scrimmage at Maryland two weeks ago when offensive lineman Brad Messina and defensive tackle Ramon Olivares carried their aggression beyond the whistle.In rapid order, both were yanked from the scrimmage and interior defensive line coach Rubin Carter had Olivares down on the artificial turf practice field, where he cranked out some push-ups."You have no right to retaliate," the former Denver Broncos star bellowed. "Retaliation costs 15 yards and that's selfish.

COLLEGE PARK -- Another year, another offense.That has been the way of life for Maryland players the past three years, going from the run-and-shoot to a ragged multiple offense and now to a new coach's version of the multiple offense.But several of the Terrapins said this year's playbook, which arrived with first-year coach Ron Vanderlinden, fits their needs."Changing offenses is pretty much the way of life here," said tailback Buddy Rodgers, who has trimmed his weight from 242 pounds last year to 220. "I don't know what we were in last year.

COLLEGE PARK -- A source at Maryland said last night that Northwestern assistant Ron Vanderlinden will be the Terps' next head football coach.Several Chicago television stations reported last night that Vanderlinden told the Northwestern players and head coach Gary Barnett that he had accepted the job at Maryland, which became open when Mark Duffner was fired eight days ago.According to WMVP Radio in Chicago, Vanderlinden was offered the job over the weekend...

Maryland football coach Ron Vanderlinden knew two weeks ago that former Illinois coach Lou Tepper was the right man to run the Terrapins' defense, and yesterday Tepper agreed with him.Tepper signed on as Maryland defensive coordinator and assistant head coach, and was joined by two new assistants. Vanderlinden also named Rubin Carter interior defensive line coach and Sean Payton as either the receivers or running backs coach. The Terps still have five coaching vacancies, including an offensive coordinator.

Former Maryland head football coach Ron Vanderlinden has taken a job at Penn State, this time as linebackers coach. Yesterday, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno announced the hiring of Vanderlinden, who plans to begin work today. "We are delighted to land someone with Ron Vanderlinden's credentials for our defensive coaching staff," Paterno said. "We had great admiration for the job he did with the Northwestern defense during his tenure in Evanston and the progress he made in improving the Maryland situation," he said.

THE BALTIMORE metropolitan area may not be a haven for the nation's best football players, but there is enough talent to have made the University of Maryland a national power in the mid-1980s and not enough to have saved Ron Vanderlinden's job last week. During his four years at the school, Vanderlinden made some inroads into the Baltimore area for signing players, but it came about two years too late. Some of the players that got away, such as McDonogh guard Lance Clelland (Northwestern)

COLLEGE PARK - Unfair? Out of line? No way. Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow's decision to fire Ron Vanderlinden yesterday was utterly fair and reasonable, if a bit shocking and unfortunate. But now comes the hard part for Yow: hiring a replacement. After nearly a decade of losing under Mark Duffner and Vanderlinden, if Yow doesn't hire a star, a name, a proven, winning coach who can inject some life into a wallowing program, she's copping out. If she doesn't bring a Bobby Ross or a Terry Bowden or some coach of that stature to College Park, she might as well de-emphasize football and go to Division I-AA.

COLLEGE PARK - Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow ended Ron Vanderlinden's tenure yesterday, unexpectedly firing the head football coach after four seasons and beginning a coaching search she hopes to finish within three weeks. Yow called it "the most painful decision I've made in 24 years of being in athletics." She announced the move last night, a little more than 24 hours after Maryland's season ended with a decisive loss to Georgia Tech and, for the second straight year, a 5-6 record.

COLLEGE PARK - Any grounds for firing fourth-year University of Maryland football coach Ron Vanderlinden were played out in microcosm yesterday in the Terps' 35-22 loss to Georgia Tech at Byrd Stadium. Only 24,701 were in the 48,000-seat stadium (about 5,000 of them from Georgia Tech), the Terps (5-6) were never in the game against a team in the top tier of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and they lost a serious bowl bid for the second straight year in the final game of the season. Of course, Vanderlinden found solace in his team's strong second-half performance, but there was little else.

COLLEGE PARK - Maryland needs to get over last weekend's loss to North Carolina before it can get past Georgia Tech this Saturday, coach Ron Vanderlinden said yesterday during a weekly news conference at Byrd Stadium. "We need to get ourselves together to play a good team," Vanderlinden said of the Yellow Jackets (7-2, 5-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who are ranked No. 20 and have won their five games since an overtime loss to North Carolina State. They are the team Maryland (5-5, 3-4)

Ron Vanderlinden received a Christmas gift yesterday when his contract as football coach at Maryland was extended two years, giving him four more years to produce a winning program.Vanderlinden, whose base salary is $134,175 a year, had two years remaining on his original five-year contract.Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow said yesterday: "Coach Vanderlinden and I have agreed that it is important to make improvements in both our ACC and overall win-loss record in the 2000 season. Both of these goals are within our reach.

COLLEGE PARK -- It has been a busy weekend for the University of Maryland football program, rounding out the coaching staff and wooing recruits.Coach Ron Vanderlinden said the Terps have commitments from two of the 10 recruits visiting College Park this weekend, and he hopes to sign several more from the group of players representing five states."

HOW 'BOUT them Terps? Ask that question today on Maryland's College Park campus or almost anywhere the Terps are followed, and you'll probably get this answer: Yeah, No. 5 in the country before the season, maybe this is the year. Referring to Gary Williams' basketball team, of course. Ron Vanderlinden's football team? It's still an afterthought, despite a three-game win streak that has the Terps within reach of a bowl bid going into tomorrow's game at North Carolina. Vanderlinden and athletic director Debbie Yow might squirm at the suggestion, but before too many students and fans start investing as much in the football Terps as they do in the basketball Terps, they're going to need to hear the right answer to a key yes-no question: Is this the season the Terps finally post a winning record and go to a bowl?

COLLEGE PARK - Maryland coach Ron Vanderlinden said he won't name his starting quarterback until Saturday, the day his team plays North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Vanderlinden does have a decision to make between Calvin McCall, who sprained an ankle in Saturday's win over North Carolina State, and Shaun Hill, who directed the come-from-behind victory over the Wolfpack. The decision could determine whether his team can pick up its sixth win, making it eligible to receive bowl invitations, most likely from the Micronpc.