More Maryland Football Notes: New Coordinators Speak, O'Brien in Limbo

That massive Danny O'Brien fiasco was a blast, right? Blogger's gold. And all indications are that it isn't about to stop anytime soon.

We already passed along the Washington Post update from last night, saying that Danny will wait it out through the weekend and talk it over with his family. While there isn't anything new on the matter, Jeff Barker at the Sun has published a trademark unspectacular-but-steady note on DOB, updating where his mind has been for the past several months. Barker claims he's been in constant contact with O'Brien's family, and has an interesting take on his upcoming decision, emphasis mine:

O'Brien is not the sort to commit to spring football under a new offensive coordinator without being prepared to follow through into the season. If he stays at Maryland, spring football would be an important time in the development of Mike Locksley's offense. That's why this is such an important period now for O'Brien, even though his participation in spring football would be limited because he is not yet 100 percent healthy. On Wednesday, he tweeted "Contrary to rumor, I am still a Terp," but he didn't address the future. Maryland has said it has no reason to believe he won't be back.

That's interesting - it had always seemed likely, at least to me, that if O'Brien was going to transfer it wouldn't happen until after spring ball, at which point he'd know where he stands on the depth chart and how well-suited he is to the offense. But if he's under the impression that committing to spring ball is committing to the 2012-13 season, that means a decision has to come now - and that's obviously what we're seeing. It also makes a transfer much more likely, given that he doesn't have a starting spot locked down.

Eric Prisbell has also pushed out a quick blog-ish update on his earlier piece, but there isn't much stuff we didn't already know. He does mention, though, that Mario Rowson is also considering transferring, which is something that was lost in the earlier piece.

Losing O'Brien would hurt Maryland in PR terms - rightly or wrongly, he's still viewed as the face of the program - and would be enough bad news to counteract the otherwise consistently good vibes coming out of Gossett lately. But I'm not sure it'd be a killer in reality, particularly given that C.J. Brown seems tailor-made to captain a run-heavy spread, which is what Maryland has the personnel to do and Mike Locksley has historically run.

Speaking of Locksley, the first interviews of Maryland's new coordinators are starting to trickle out. Locks says a lot of nothing here, but the good news is that I'm pretty sure Gary Crowton never said the phrase "doing what your personnel allows", except perhaps in the context of "I don't care if I'm not doing what your personnel allows." Also, the O'Brien transfer rumor quote at the end there is a bit ironic, given the timing.

The Diamondback also has a short piece up on both Locks and Brian Stewart, with Locks touching on his troubles at New Mexico and Stewart talking about how much pressure he wants to utilize. I love me a high-pressure look, especially in the sense Stewart is talking about - not blitzing, per se, but intensity and putting the offense on their back foot - but it does require a lot of athleticism. Not really sure if Maryland has it just yet, to be honest. Barker also has a few quick notes on Stewart, though aside from the emphasis on outside linebackers, nothing much is too noteworthy. I am intrigued by the outside linebacker comment, though; Maryland doesn't have a great fit for a 3-4 'backer, but there are a bunch in the 2013 class, led by Jonathan Allen - who, wouldn't you know it, is in Stewart's new recruiting territory.

But the biggest development in football is still Stefon Diggs. Stefonukkah is only hours away now, and Mike Farrell is still saying Maryland leads alongside Florida. He also says that the time has been moved up to 6:00 - I'll wait for something official on that, though. For those looking for bad news, a guy who writes for Sentinel Newspapers - the one that covers PG and MoCo - is saying "reliable sources" tell him Diggs is going OSU. Diggs has essentially played everyone, mind you: ask ten different people on where he'll go, and you'll get ten different answers. Don't read too much into it, and just wait the thirty hours or so.

Oh, and someone told Josh Barr that Diggs already knew about O'Brien's decision. So calm down, panic junkies.