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Ralph Friedgen met with athletic director Debbie Yow for a second day today with no announcement on his job status.
There is no evidence that any of Friedgen's assistants have been fired either.
I believe this will be resolved soon -- tomorrow perhaps? -- since I can't imagine anybody wants to stretch this out much longer.
Jeff Barker has been a Baltimore Sun sports writer since 2004, handling stories and projects including Terrapins basketball, the NFL, sports economics, congressional steroids hearings and youth coaches who run afoul of the law. Before that, he covered news -- including the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks -- and politics for The Baltimore Sun, the Washington bureau of The Arizona Republic and The Associated Press.
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Comments
This is virtually a no-win situation for Debbie Yow. If you fire Ralph, you also have to fire James Franklin and take a $5 million hit that significantly limits the funds you have available to hire a decent replacement head coach and staff. If you keep Ralph as head coach with an agreement he has to make changes to his staff, what assistant coach worth a salt will want to join the staff of a lame duck coach, knowing he will be out in another year or two.
Posted by: Ray | November 30, 2009 8:35 PM
I'd be surprised to see him go at this point.He may be notifying some staff that they're going to be replaced. Nevertheless,some changes,adjustments should be reguired for this football program.Also,expenses/ money might become an issue for the future.
Posted by: Dan R. | November 30, 2009 9:48 PM
Nothing exudes confidence like retaining a coach because they can't afford to fire him. For a guy whose team has been inconsistent and underperformed for 5 years, what can change now? He's played the assistance coach shuffle. This is just a bad football program.
Posted by: Tate | November 30, 2009 10:05 PM
Tate - okay, what's the plan then?
Posted by: Biff 33 | November 30, 2009 10:44 PM
That's the problem - they have backed themselves, voluntarily, into a corner. They have to give Ralph the time, ala Weis, to end his contract.
So 2 more years of what we have seen the past 5 - and imagine the recruiting, trying to gain confidence in recruits, explaining that he will be here for their 4 years.
And if they did fire Fridge, who can they hire with exhausted funds? Very bad situation.
Posted by: Tate | December 1, 2009 8:50 AM