Maryland hires search firm to help find next football coach

The search for Maryland’s next football coach is underway. The school has hired a national search firm to help replace DJ Durkin, according to the Washington Post’s Rick Maese.

While athletic director Damon Evans did not comment on the details or the timeline of the coaching search in an interview with Maese Tuesday, a person familiar with the situation told Maese that the school is using the Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search. That’s the same firm used by UConn to help find Dan Hurley as its current basketball coach, as well as the firm Oregon, Mississippi State and UCF used to find their next football coach during last year’s coaching carousel.

Maryland previously used search firms to help hire both Evans and Durkin, paying $120,000 to Turnkey in 2018 and $50,000 to Neinas Sports Services in 2015, respectively.

Evans acknowledged that the job is a “unique situation” after everything that’s happened the past five and a half months. The school and the university system’s Board of Regents have faced widespread backlash over the handling of events leading up to and the fallout from Jordan McNair’s death. Evans told Maese it was imperative to find someone who would rebuild confidence in the program.

“We’ve got to find someone who understands our community, our locale,” Evans said, “someone who understands the situation that we’ve just gone through, someone who could help us build back up that public trust, build back that confidence in what we’re trying to do here as a football program with the community.”

Matt Canada has been the interim head coach since Durkin was placed on paid administrative leave Aug. 12, leading the team to a 5-5 record with games against No. 10 Ohio State and No. 14 Penn State remaining.

In other news

Kasim Hill is out for the season after tearing his ACL again, continuing the Terps’ recent string of horrendous quarterback health.

Running back Treshaun Ward and wide receiver Ahmarean Brown announced they were decommitting from Maryland football within 20 minutes of each other.

Maryland’s final game of the regular season at Penn State will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Here’s Lamar on how Maryland basketball found success bringing freshman off the bench against North Carolina A&T.

After joining the team late this summer, Ricky Lindo is now one of the first off the bench, writes The Baltimore Sun’s Don Markus.

Here’s a quick interview with volleyball’s Erika Pritchard, who currently leads the Big Ten in kills per set.

Today starts the early signing period for every sport except football, and we’ll have updates as the day progresses. As of now, Maryland women’s basketball has the top recruiting class in the country, according to ESPNW.