A voice that could say more

There's no sugarcoating it: This season has been an unmitigated disaster for the Terrapins football team. A year after racking up nine victories, the Terps look like they may only wind up with two — and one of them was against Towson. This certainly isn't the way coach Randy Edsall drew up his first year in College Park.

And somehow, his public relations efforts so far might be even worse.

Edsall has brought a one-voice mentality to College Park, putting a gag order on his assistants and offering only select players to the press. Edsall, by design, is the dominant voice. And that's fine — if the voice is actually saying something. But for much of this year, Edsall hasn't.

With a few words, he could ease the sting of this season's shortcomings. If he'd offer a glimpse into his own psyche, Terps fans would know he's just as frustrated as they are. If he tried to explain why the team is faltering, the Terps' shortcomings may be a bit easier to manage.

But he's only poured salt in the wound, maintaining a robotic persona and insisting this is all part of the process. No, opening up wouldn't make everything better for the Terps. It wouldn't win any games, either, which is the biggest problem facing the team. It certainly would help, though.

Yet just as the Terps haven't improved through the season, neither have Edsall's media appearances. His remarks to reporters have primarily landed in two categories: meaningless coach speak and foot-in-mouth moments.

When the Terps struggle, Edsall fails to elaborate on why, or on just about anything else. Ask a question, and it gets answered with a football cliché — film, improvement, competition. And these aren't intricate questions about the game plan. They're simple things. Things he should be able to answer. Things the fan base wants to know.

Yesterday, Edsall said he had seen improvement in certain areas. When asked to be more specific, he replied, "Well, I think that is something that just stays here within our family."

After losing to Boston College, Edsall was asked about his personal frustrations with the season. He said he needed to review the film.

The few times Edsall has decided to go into detail, he's looked foolish. After telling his players not to make excuses, he seemed to blame former coach Ralph Friedgen for the state of the program he inherited. He bizarrely conceded he might not have done a good job in minimizing expectations for reigning ACC Rookie of the Year Danny O'Brien. He likened his situation in College Park to the one he faced at Connecticut — where he took the Huskies from Division I-AA to a BCS conference — then said yesterday he wasn't actually making that type of comparison.

"The problem is there's things that I say that kind of get taken out of context at times," Edsall said.

At this point, it doesn't matter what he's trying to say. The Terps' fan base still perceives Edsall as the bad guy. Check the message boards and Twitter — they're brimming with displeasure. During Saturday's loss to Virginia, fans chanted, "Fire Edsall."

It's easy for fans to criticize Edsall when he's acting this way. At best, he's a guy who's not yet media-savvy. At worst, he comes off as arrogant.

Aside from what appeared to be tears in his eyes at the end of one or two press conferences, he doesn't appear to be suffering along with Terps fans through this abomination of a season. He keeps harping on his football clichés instead of giving real answers or exuding real emotion. Fans don't only think he's a bad representative of this university, they don't feel bad for him. They don't have empathy for him.

This season has to be grating on Edsall. He's spending hours and hours working every week and has little in the way of results to show for it. So let that emotion show. Show some frustration. Let the fans know you're in this with them.

Of course, if the Terps weren't in the basement of the ACC, this likely wouldn't be an issue. If this team were playing well, fans would be too happy to care that their coach was saying nothing. Nick Saban is a curmudgeon with media down in Alabama, but he manages just fine because he's probably the best coach in college football.