The year that couldn’t get worse finds a way

Randy Edsall's first year as Terrapins football coach was pretty much the season from hell. Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong. From blowouts to late-game collapses, with plenty of suspensions and injuries and "Fire Randy Edsall!" fodder in between, the comedy of errors from September to November just never stopped.

Come December, we now have the offseason from hell.

Let's review what we've seen since the Terps' historic collapse against N.C. State. Players transferring? Check. Players getting arrested? Yup. Assistants' job statuses being questioned, but having contracts too large to buy out? Got that, too. Even though the football games have stopped, the nightmare continues.

So, you might ask, how do you fix this? Say good riddance to the players leaving the program? Cut the players running afoul of the law? Fire the coaches at the helm of the worst season in program history?

If only it were that easy.

These are deep-rooted problems that aren't going to be fixed in a single offseason. Frankly, it's safe to wonder whether they'll be fixed at all.

Transfers are to be expected whenever you change coaches, and they're usually manageable. But Edsall's military-man approach alienated periphery players as much as it did some of the program's most talented "young men."

In a move that surprised no one, D.J. Adams announced his intention to transfer. The controversial running back had the class to wish Edsall and the program luck in a statement. Meanwhile, we're still waiting for Edsall's thoughts on losing the most talented tailback the team had after Davin Meggett. Heck, we're still waiting to hear why Adams was benched for most of the year.

Offensive tackle R.J. Dill — a starter and one of the team's best linemen — is transferring, too. Not only does it hurt the team from a football standpoint in the short run, but it also begs the questions: Who else is leaving, and who is going to come to College Park now?

Edsall's reputation precedes him. Maybe he just needed to rid the program of some bad apples. But at this rate, the orchard is going to be pretty bare. What high school player wants to come here when he sees players running from College Park?

But maybe the players aren't the problem. Maybe it's actually the coaches. Edsall originally hired Todd Bradford to be the linebackers coach but made him defensive coordinator and now pays him $350,000 a year. Gary Crowton, the offensive coordinator who LSU couldn't wait to get rid of, gets $500,000.

(Oh, yeah, and he was openly stumping for the Colorado State head coaching gig. It's generally a bad sign when Gary Crowton is the one trying to get out of a situation, not the other way around.)

Even if you don't question the Edsall hiring, it's almost impossible not to wonder about the logic behind these contracts. None of these guys are dominant coordinators or big names. There's no reason they should have gotten such big deals. What leverage could Edsall have had in those deals? What was he going to do, go back to Connecticut?

The only way these assistants go anywhere is if Edsall receives the vacant Jacksonville Jaguars coaching job. Some consider him a candidate, and if he leaves, the contracts will be voided.

So strap in for what might just be the worst offseason College Park has ever seen. More players will leave, yet the coaches probably aren't going anywhere. We might be treated to a football team next year that has C.J. Brown as the unquestioned starting quarterback, a makeshift offensive line and Justus Pickett as the team's No. 1 and No. 2 running back.

How can this offseason get any better? Well, maybe the Jaguars are interested in going from good to great.

schneider@umdbk.com