Athletic director Debbie Yow’s decision last week to leave Maryland for N.C. State could lead to some chaos in the Terps' football offices.
Yow, in February of last year, made the decision to hire offensive coordinator James Franklin as head coach upon the resignation or retirement of Ralph Friedgen.
Franklin, 38, got a big pay raise and the guarantee of a million dollar parachute should someone else follow Friegden.
That outcome now seems likely.
The next Maryland AD — Yow reportedly has recommended Connecticut assistant Jeff Hathaway — almost surely will want to select the head football coach regardless of when Friedgen is replaced.
Franklin has worked in several different places, including one season in the NFL with Green Bay, but never as a head coach.
Friedgen is coming off a dismal 1-7 ACC, 2-10 overall season but is still 66-46 overall in nine seasons at his alma mater.
Yow hired Friedgen, then the Georgia Tech offensive coordinator, in 2001, and he immediately won 32 games in his first three seasons.
Since 2003, however, the Terps frequently have struggled, and there was some belief that he would be forced out by Yow after last season.
But reacting to Yow’s exit, Friedgen said "I think it was unprecedented what she accomplished here. Obviously she did a very good job. I wish her well.”
His basketball counterpart in College Park, Md., coach Gary Williams, didn’t express much of an opinion either way.
"I have nothing to say, specifically other than I’ll let other people judge the 15 or 16 years Debbie Yow was at the University of Maryland," Williams said.
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