Ralph Friedgen Defiant, Believes He's Returning

He very well may be and I wouldn't expect anything less from the guy, but at least he was more assured of himself than Al Groh. From the press conference:

"I told them I expected to be back but if I'm not I wanted to tell them how much I loved them and appreciated their effort this whole year," Friedgen said. "Sometimes when things happen you don't get that opportunity. That's all I said to them. But I do expect to be back."

...

"They never quit on me. Why would I want to quit on them?" Friedgen said... "I want to be there when we're good, so we can think about these times and laugh about them. They were even talking about that in the locker room afterward."

Sounds like he might know what's coming but isn't exactly embracing it.

I'm fully expecting every sportswriter worth his salt to publish his opinion on the whole ordeal, and I'm assuming that each side will use the same exact arguments.

Fridge Loyalists will cite his record, three 10-win years, his revival of Maryland football, and the fact that, economically, it would extremely difficult to buy him out.

Fridge Radicals will cite his recent record, four losing seasons in the past six years, chronic underachieving, questionable recruiting, and strange decision-making. They'll say Maryland can't afford to not buy him out.

You probably know where Dave and I fall (hint: we're in different camps).

A decision is expected to be announced within the week. Increasingly, it seems that if Fridge goes, HCIW James Franklin will go with him. Locking Franklin in to his Ralph-sized contract without any qualifications compared to most others on the market could be disastrous. Unless they're 100% about him, giving him the HC job (at least with the contract he has) is irresponsible at best.

For what it's worth, Ken Sumlin has been rumored to be the leader for the Louisville job (he'd fit in well there). Memphis didn't hire any of Maryland's rumored targets. If this goes down, Maryland will likely be competing with Virginia for some very attractive HCs.