Maryland football coach DJ Durkin has been placed on administrative leave in the wake of damaging allegations against his staff. Offensive coordinator Matt Canada will serve as interim head coach in his absence. Durkin's leave comes one day after ESPN published two stories alleging that Maryland's program has a "toxic culture," and that its staff was negligent in its handling of former Terps offensive lineman Jordan McNair, who collapsed at a team workout on May 29 and died two weeks later. Athletic director Damon Evans announced Durkin's leave in a release. "I am extremely concerned by the allegations of unacceptable behaviors by members of our football staff detailed in recent media reports. We are committed to fully investigating the program. At this time, the best decision for our football program is to place Maryland Head Football Coach DJ Durkin on leave so we can properly review the culture of the program. This is effective immediately. Matt Canada will serve as interim head coach," Evans wrote. "The external review into the tragic death of Jordan McNair continues, and we have committed to releasing publicly the report being prepared by an independent and national expert. The safety and well-being of our student-athletes is our highest priority. These alleged behaviors are not consistent with the values I expect all of our staff to adhere to and we must do better. You will be hearing from me as our work continues to rebuild the culture of respect in our football program." Durkin, 40, is entering his third year as Maryland's coach with what appears to be his best team. But now, after ESPN's bombshell accusations set off a storm of bad publicity on Friday, it's unclear when or if he'll return to the sideline. The reports cited unnamed players as saying staffers had forced McNair, a 325-pound offensive lineman, past the point of exhaustion during that practice, and failed to adequately treat him for what was later diagnosed as heat stroke. He was hospitalized later that day, later received a liver transplant and died in the hospital on June 13. Head football trainer Wes Robinson, the staff member who allegedly yelled, "Drag his ass across the field," that day as McNair struggled to complete a series of 110-yard sprints, was placed on leave Friday. So were director of athletic training Steve Nordwall and strength and conditioning coach Rick Court, whom, according to ESPN's report, has enforced a culture of punishment and intimidation. (What's the next big story at Maryland? Before you finish reading, take five seconds NOW to sign up for our FREE Terps newsletter. We'll deliver the latest big news to you!) "There were multiple people that said, 'Wow, Jordan looks f---ed up, he doesn't look all right,'" one player present at the workout told ESPN, the site reported. "We knew he was really exhausted, but we didn't know he was in danger of his life. But that doesn't mean that a medical professional shouldn't know to put him in an ice tub." ESPN's second article, citing unnamed former players and coaches at Maryland, made several inflammatory allegations: that staffers forced players to overeat as punishment, that Court threw weights and other objects at players and that players were demeaned when failing physical tasks, among other things. In a press conference a day after McNair's death, neither a tearful Durkin nor athletic director Damon Evans mentioned Durkin was at the fateful workout. “The workouts were supervised by our strength and conditioning staff, and certified athletic trainers were present throughout," Evans said on June 14. McNair's parents later disclosed heat stroke caused their son's death. In a July 12 press release announcing the resumption of normal workouts after classifying them voluntary for the weeks following McNair's death, Maryland revealed for the first time that Durkin had been present at McNair's final workout. A little more than a month earlier, the school had hired longtime college athletics trainer Rod Walters to conduct an investigation into McNair's death, which has cast a shadow over the program for the past seven weeks. That review is expected to be complete by Sept. 15, the school has said. Durkin addressed the investigation at Big Ten media days in Chicago in late July. "We want the same answers," he said. "To speak to someone and tell them what happened that day is fine. There were a lot of people there. Be honest, be truthful, be forthright, and let's get the answers." Durkin, a hard-charging Ohio native, has always been known for his intense demeanor. Legend says he once battled Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, one of his mentors, in a bloody 1-on-1 basketball game that ended in a 4-3 score after 90 minutes. After then-Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson hired him in Dec. 2015, a steady stream of players recruited to the program by his predecessor, Randy Edsall, departed the program. Durkin's posted a 10-15 record in his first two seasons, stumbling to a 4-8 mark last fall after losing his top two quarterbacks and best pass-rusher early in the season, but has upgraded Maryland's talent pool by signing the first back-to-back top-25 recruiting classes in program history. Last offseason, several players turned down the opportunity to leave for the NFL or let their eligibility expire, instead returning for another year playing for Maryland and Durkin. “Some of my closest friends, they had to go, they couldn’t adapt,” defensive back Josh Woods said last season of the transition from Edsall to Durkin. “You have to earn everything you get in this program. And I mean everything. "But there's no malice." Despite his reputation and an old-school, no-excuses football coach, though, Durkin's never been the subject of such allegations before, and player turnover has been sparse after that initial wave of Edsall's recruits leaving. Many players have been vocal about their love and respect for him. Former Maryland lineman Roman Braglio, an Edsall recruit who served as a captain under Durkin, defended him in an interview with the Baltimore Sun, saying ESPN's unnamed sources likely were disgruntled former players who didn't thrive under Durkin. “After the transition from Coach [Randy] Edsall to Coach Durkin [in December 2015], there were kids on the team that didn’t want to play football. They didn’t want to be part of a winning team, is the best way I can put that,” Braglio told the Baltimore Sun. “There were some kids there that were along for the ride ... He’s your life coach. He’s teaching you how it’s going to be when you get into the real world." While none of ESPN's illustrations of a purportedly toxic culture at Maryland included Durkin directly, he could take the fall for that, and more importantly for McNair's death, as the program's CEO; he was at the practice field on the day the 19-year old lineman from Baltimore fell ill, when trainers allegedly pushed him past exhaustion and placed him in front of a fan rather than submerging him in ice, as is standard practice in suspected heat stroke cases. "Our preliminary investigation reveals there is an unexplained one-hour time period when nothing significant was done to avoid the complications of heatstroke ...Although there is some evidence they allegedly tried to cool him down, he should have been iced immediately. He presented at the hospital with a temperature of 106, which means he was not cooled down," attorney Billy Murphy, hired by McNair's family, told ESPN. "We're very concerned about the unexplained one hour between the time of the seizure and hyperventilating that was observed by a coach, and what happened in that remaining hour before the EMT people were actually called. This points to an utter disregard of the health of this player, and we are extraordinarily concerned that the coaches did not react appropriately to his injury." Murphy previously represented the family of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore man who died from injuries sustained in custody of local police, reaching a $6.4 million settlement with the city. Sources said he could be seeking upward of $10 million in McNair's case.<doc-sep>“From a donor standpoint, I kind of stand behind DJ and his program and what he has been doing,” Gossett said in an interview before the university placed the coach on leave. “I’m sure there have been instances where the kids have benefited from his tutelage, as well as the other coaches. On the other hand, there’s probably a couple that are disenchanted with any kind of rules and regulations where they have to do something that doesn’t fit their modus operandi, so to speak, as individual players.”<doc-sep>Maryland coach DJ Durkin has been placed on immediate administrative leave by the Terrapins following a detailed report alleging a harmful culture around the football program. "At this time, the best decision for our football program is to place ... Durkin on leave so we can properly review the culture of the program. This is effective immediately," athletic director Damon Evans said in a statement. Newly hired offfensive coordinator Matt Canada is serving as interim coach at this time. Evans said he was extremely concerned by the allegations of "unacceptable behaviors" by members of the Maryland football in the ESPN report. He reiterated his support for the full investigation of the program. "The safety and well-being of our student-athletes is our highest priority," Evans continued. "These alleged behaviors are not consistent with the values I expect all of our staff to adhere to and we must do better." The allegations in the story include ones of verbal and mental abuse that have contributed to a "toxic" culture at Maryland, which has already been under self-appointed external investigation following the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair following a workout. McNair, 19, is said to have died of heatstroke after collapsing at a practice and receiving a kidney transplant while in the hospital. The results of these probes will determine the future for Durkin and two staffers from the strength and conditioning program, who were previously placed on administrative leave. Urban Meyer, Durkin's former boss at Florida and current Big Ten foe at Ohio State, is also presently on paid administrative leave as part of a university investigation into whether he knew about one of his assistants' past history of alleged domestic abuse.<doc-sep>
One of Urban Meyer’s disciples is now in a similar predicament for different reasons, as Maryland Terrapins head coach DJ Durkin was placed on paid administrative leave by the school on Saturday as the program investigates allegations of abuse following the June death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair. Offensive coordinator Matt Canada was named the interim coach by athletics director Damon Evans. “I am extremely concerned by the allegations of unacceptable behaviors by members of our football staff detailed in recent media reports,” Evans wrote in a letter sent to members of the Maryland community. “We are committed to fully investigating the program. At this time, the best decision for our football program is to place Maryland head football coach DJ Durkin on leave so we can properly review the culture of the program. This is effective immediately. Matt Canada will serve as interim head coach.” The investigation by a sports medicine consulting group is expected to be completed by September 15. A bombshell report on Friday from ESPN prompted the decision by Maryland, as former players and staffers described a “toxic” culture, and immediately resulted in the school placing two trainers on paid administrative leave on Friday, with the strength and conditioning coach facing the same fate on Saturday. The school is now investigating accusations that the coaching staff used fear, intimidation, and harassment in attempts to motivate players. Tirades laced with profanity were common — one player was targeted after passing out during a drill. Based on those accounts, Durkin and his staff were pushing players to the extreme in an attempt to change the culture of the Terrapins football program. Beyond the psychological abuse alleged in the ESPN report, it seems clear that if the accounts are true, the football program was risking the health of its players by pushing them beyond their limits. McNair tragically paid the ultimate price. “It shows a cultural problem that Jordan knew that if he stopped, they would challenge his manhood, he would be targeted,” one of the current players told ESPN. “He had to go until he couldn’t.” However, it wasn’t just that McNair knew the consequences if he stopped, it was the unexplained hour between the on-field seizure that McNair suffered and the emergency call to 911. When he was finally admitted into the hospital roughly 40 minutes later, his body temperature of 106 degrees raised questions about whether he was iced down properly in that critical time period following his seizure. McNair passed away two weeks later. Texas faces Maryland in the season opener on September 1 at FedEx Field in Maryland.