Which is better?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE41YPdPuis

ha ha ha

First of all, not to brag too much about it, I was one of the outliers who wanted Fridge to stay for only one more year, and keep Franklin on – look it up in my comments…

Dec 19, 2010:
“In the End”:
We’re all Terps fans who want the best for the team. However, we disagree on how to get there. It’s obviously a timing thing. The group of guys we have now are talented and hard workers with good attitudes, otherwise they would not have been able to turn things around this season.

But I do not know why (because our AD would not comment on it at all) coach Franklin was simply let go. I wish our AD would publicly come out and say that he did not believe he could get it done at UMD as Head Coach in 2012. I think he would have, and Fridge thought he’d be a good HC too. But college sports is a rough business – even old alums get thrown to the curb.

by bball purist on Dec 19, 2010 5:20 PM PST

AND

“Yes, raw deal – it was a no-brainer”:
for a new AD to evaluate things by letting Ralph do his last year, bring in James for a three year deal, and then evaluate things. But no, supposedly knowledgeable people tied to the athletic program knew better and said Franklin couldn’t get it done. THAT is the part that is not being addressed because Anderson revealed this indirectly when he said Franklin would have been a candidate for the job after 2011. If Franklin stayed and the Terps went 9-3 or 10-2 with this large group of returning players, Anderson would have been up the creek. Franklin blinked, took the boneyard nowhere gig, and he made it easy for the "business people" in College Park to have Anderson put his early stamp on the program. Except to me, it’s a stamp of shame, not honor. He turned a cold shoulder to Coach Franklin, who I hope proves the AD wrong – it’s just that Vandy is the school with good academics and a horrible football program.

There were all these cowardly whisperings about Coach Franklin not being a good play caller, but this year our more experienced, tenacious guys exceeded their goal they set with Fridge. They set a 7-5 record and bowl game as their goal, and they achieved it. And for being such a bad 5-3 third best ACC record team, Fridge AND Franklin were shown the door. Make no mistakes, Anderson gladly let Franklin go to Vandy w/o a fight. What a sham…20 seasons in a row with season’s tix, and now this…disgraceful the way it was handled – the AD should be accountable for this next move. If it doesn’t work out, he should resign or be bought out – it is only about winning after all, but it doesn’t count with Fridge’s or James’ guys – have to wait 3 years, right?

by bball purist on Dec 21, 2010 7:50 AM PST

You set things up again for Edsall to “fail” according to your “standards,” but I answer your questions:

“Do you think it is unreasonable to expect Edsall to perform better than Fridge?”

>>>>>I expect Coach Edsall, if he’s here 10 years, to perform as good (at a minimum), and actually slightly better, than Frdige. That means:
Fridge – 10 years75-50, 43-37 ACC record;
(1) outright 1st place ACC finish; (2) outright/ties for 2nd overall in ACC; (2) 2nd places in Atlantic Division.

So yes, I expect him to meet this performance, and would hold KA’s feet to the fire if he didn’t come very, very close to this in worst case scenario;

“If you fire Fridge who went 9-3 and replace him with Edsall, why is it unreasonable to expect Edsall to surpass 9-3 within 3 years?”

>>>Fridge was 9-4 including bowl win. There are some reasons why 9-4 with a bowl win might be harder to come by now than in 2010. For example, Clemson has been bringing in a lot more top recruiting classes with Dabo, Jimbo has FSU back on track, UVa is tougher, etc. That being said, I do expect an 8 win season by year 3, depending upon that year’s schedule. I only have us pegged at 5-6 wins for 2012, so 8 represents another 3 game climb for 2013 – I think it’s reasonable.

Q: If Edsall exceeds either what Fridge did his first 3 years or if he exceeds where Fridge was his last year, I will give Edsall his props and publicly apologize for my criticisms of him…

You try to appear to be the big man ready to apologize if Coach Edsall starts winning, but you choose Fridge’s fantastic 1st 3 years. There’s MANY reasons why that happened at the time, bringing great joy to all of us (you too I assume?), but you again set up mostly anything RE does as a 99.999% chance of failure. So if we win 6 games next year, and then 8-9 games (9 incl. bowl victory, 8 w/ bowl loss) in 2013, you won’t give RE props for turning it around during his tenure (even if arguing he caused the 2-10 downslide)? It seems like you would, so I’ll give you the chance to address a 6 and then 8-9 win season in 2013.

BTW, were you a supporter of the Fridge to Franklin continuity choice that I first wanted? I think I was in the minority. Some did want Fridge extended, while I was more for bringing JF in as I wanted a more dynamic recruiter sooner rather than later.