Maryland

Maryland's head coach Ralph Friedgen will coach his last game for the Terrapin's in today's Military Bowl against East Carolina today after being bought out of the remainder of his contract. So that got me to think about how Maryland has fared over the last three years under coach Friedgen. Here are the numbers from the production model.

In 2008, Maryland was #70 (in terms of overall production) - which is below average - and they faced a strength of schedule equal to 49.92 (which is tougher than average) and went 7-5 in the regular season, and finished 8-5 due to their bowl win against #24 (in terms of overall production) Nevada. Their offense was ranked #77 and their defense was ranked #62. Maryland's best win that season was a victory over #14 (in terms of overall production) California. The Terps worst loss was to #94 (in terms of production) Virginia.

In 2009, Maryland was #107 (in terms of overall production) - which was one of the worst teams in the FBS that year, facing a strength of schedule equal to 54.50 and went 2-10 in the regular season. Maryland's best win was against #11 (in terms of overall production) Clemson and their worst loss was to #100 (in terms of production) Virginia again.

This year (2010) Maryland was #28 (in terms of overall production) with the #45 ranked offense and the #21 ranked defense.  The Terps finished the regular season 8-4 facing a strength of schedule equal to 62.54. Their best win was against #37 (in terms of overall production) North Carolina State and their worst loss was to #50 (in terms of overall production) Clemson.

Thus we see a team with a level of performance that is highly variable over the last three years. Of the three, this is the best performance relative to the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision, with a final regular season production ranking of #28, which puts Maryland in the top 25% of all FBS schools this year, but yields a three year overall production average of #68.33, which is below average in terms of production rank for the 120 FBS schools during that time period. Given the expectations of Maryland's AD and the teams performance, it may not be that surprising that coach Friedgen's contract was bought out.

What will be interesting is how Maryland fares over the next few seasons with a new head coach. I will try to return to this in the future.