Why did Kevin Anderson leave Maryland? The picture seems clearer now

Kevin Anderson left Maryland football, for all intents and purposes, sometime in October. Exactly when in that month is still not clear, but he never returned from the “sabbatical” Maryland announced that month after reports emerged that Anderson had been fired.

Thanks to new reports from The Diamondback and The Washington Post, we know a lot more about what preceded that firing.

According to the reports:

• Anderson arranged for $15,000 in athletic department-controlled money to be used for the legal representation of two Maryland football players accused of sexual assault in what appears to be a violation of NCAA bylaws. Attorneys began representing the two unnamed players in June 2017.
• Around September, Damon Evans, who was unaware of the arrangement, told the school administration about Anderson having authorized the payment.
• “The president’s office” directed Anderson to “cut ties with the attorneys.”
• Anderson did not cut ties with the attorneys.
• A month later, the school learned Anderson had not cut ties with the attorneys and started an internal investigation.

This leads to a timeline in which the school reportedly launched its investigation into Anderson not long before it announced Anderson was on leave. The Diamondback’s report does not directly state causation between the events it reported and the school’s eventual decision to place Anderson on a paid leave from which he never appeared even slightly likely to return.

But the idea that Anderson’s exit wouldn’t be tied to the details we’ve now seen reported is so far-fetched that we don’t need to worry about the possibility right now.

The other reporting we know of paints a picture of the events *right* before Anderson’s exit. On Oct. 14, Inside Maryland Sports’ Jeff Ermann reported:

University president Wallace Loh informed Anderson of his intentions to relieve Anderson of his duties last weekend, which appeareed to end his seven-year tenure overseeing Terps athletics, per sources. Anderson’s quietly been on leave for nearly three weeks, sources said, and hasn’t attended the past two football games while Loh moved toward parting ways with him.

In other news

SB Nation’s wonderful college football preview is out.

Maryland men’s soccer plays Washington tonight. It’s a late one.

We podcasted about everything going on, though we did record before The Diamondback’s report on Anderson came out.

And tonight is opening night for three Maryland fall sports teams—men’s soccer, field hockey and volleyball—as well as the first game in College Park this year. It’s Twin Night for the women’s soccer team’s home opener.