By Mason Viener
Before you read this please note: What I am about to say doesn’t mean that the proper people shouldn’t be accountable in the case of Jordan McNair
This is my opinion (Mason Viener)
Link at the bottom to interviews with Shane Cockrille and Perry Hills.
Dr. Wallace Loh and AD Damon Evans have failed. Failed at what you might ask, well I’ll tell you. The belief of an ESPN report that was written with only one non-anonymous source, and let’s not forget that they lost that report from Roman Braglio that Mr. Jones was laughing at a movie on his phone during that team meeting (Jones). “Said he had an altercation with Durkin after Durkin took exception to Jones’ smiling during a team meeting. Durkin and Jones went to another room and, according to Jones, Durkin accused him of “bad-mouthing the program” and encouraged him to leave.” The lack of due diligence in the ESPN report just baffles me. How could Dr. Loh and AD. Evans does not see that these are simply allegations, not concrete facts. Allegations by players that are either no longer on the team or by ones that wouldn’t share their names, allegations that the University of Maryland says that it’s Athletic Director of Football had no idea about DJ Durkin and Rick Court’s “culture”, I believe that administrative leave was the right thing to do.
Rick Court
Most coach’s walk a very near paper-thin line of being a good motivator or being a crazed dictator. If the allegations put toward Mr. Court are true, then he should’ve have been fired without settlement (since the ESPN report Rick Court and the University have parted ways with a settlement of 315K).
DJ Durkin
Like Court, Durkin walked the fine line and may have crossed it, but many former players including Michigan star Jabrill Peppers said that Durkin came off as a “bully coaching style” but later said that he knew Durkin “came off that way” but didn’t mean it. Former Maryland players like Roman Braglio, Parry Hills, and Shane Cockrille have said (Parry Hills) “Having played under Coach Durkin, I don’t think it’s really fair to him because of how passionate and how genuine he is of a guy and how much he actually cares about the team,” Hills said on Glenn Clark Radio (Press Box) Aug. 13. Hills played quarterback for Durkin in 2016. Cockerille (Gilman) said the coaches ultimately looked out for the players. Cockerille, who played quarterback and fullback under former coach Randy Edsall, was shifted by Durkin to linebacker, where he played from 2016-2017.”There are ways they go about things,” Cockerille said. “There are rules they expect you to follow. Their big thing, they’re trying to bring a winning culture to Maryland. Not only do they want to win, but they want to have the kids leave, graduate, be good men in society. I think they did a great job with me. Obviously had some bumps along the road, but I thought [Durkin and Court] were two stand-up guys.” (Interviews linked at bottom) for Durkin more so than Court there is a war Parents have expressed they want Durkin to stay and many concerns have risen
Damon Evans
Mr. Evans, I have one question for you if this was going on in your program IN YOUR BUILDING how do you not know it was happening? But on Damon’s side of thing, he played big-time football at Georgia maybe like Michel Strahan said that what he has been around his whole life and that helped him get to where he is today.
Dr. Loh
The same question if I had one to you would be why didn’t you march yourself down into YOUR BUILDING and say what the heck is going on here. I have little to no idea why Wallace Loh has handled this situation his time might be up as President.
For the situation as a whole, there are about 3 ways this comes out for Damon Evans
1. He was at practice on a regular basis, and never saw abusive behavior.
2. He was at practice, saw abusive behavior, and did nothing about it.
3. He was never at practice, which means he wasn’t doing his job as football AD.
Obviously, 2 and 3 mean Damon is gone and for 1 he played at UGA and maybe he just saw it as day to day ops.
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