Here's what I find interesting about Maryland's new special teams coordinator and tight ends coach -- he wasn't a predictable hire.
Some football programs make expected hiring decisions. You know the ones I mean. The guy who worked with the head coach or is from a safe coaching "tree" -- someone who is very much a known quantity. These can turn out to be solid hires.
But give Maryland credit in recent job searches (defensive coordinator and special teams coach) for looking -- really looking -- for talent, for gems.
Ralph Friedgen had never met Don Brown, the new defensive coordinator who was head man at Massachusetts. Brown was recommended by rival coaches Mickey Matthews of James Madison and Jimmye Laycock of William & Mary.
The just-hired special teams coach, Charles Bankins, has no obvious ties to College Park that I can discern (although he is from Leonardtown). Bankins was an assistant at the University of Richmond and is a James Madison graduate. He was previously at Hampton University and with the St. Louis Rams before that.
His recruiting areas while at Richmond included portions of Virginia. His contacts in that state could help the Terps.
I don't know Bankins, who will replace Danny Pearman. But I like the idea of a coaching search really being a "search" instead of a coronation.
