The chairman of the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents, James T. Brady, on Wednesday defended the governing body’s decision to retain the University of Maryland’s head football coach and athletic director, despite the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair and a subsequent investigation into the university’s football program that found pervasive problems.
Below is a transcript of The Baltimore Sun’s interview with Brady, edited for length and clarity.
Brady’s opening remarks: The process we went through as a Board of Regents was quite exhaustive. We had many meetings and talked about the issues, all very important issues, extensively. From the beginning we knew that whatever answer we came up with was going to have some element of controversy connected with it. It’s a complicated issue and I understand everyone’s concern with everything connected to it. I think the process we went through was an excellent process. We had two reports done — we met with the investigators and we met with the principals. This was not something where any answer was blatantly obvious. We tried to come up with best answer for long and short term interests of the University of Maryland, which is what our responsibility is.
Jordan McNair’s tragic death was the result, as the medical report indicated, of a very unusual set of circumstances. As I said yesterday, the university will take responsibility for that, to the extent the responsibility is theirs. That’s something we’re very regretful of.
The issue of the dysfunction in the athletic department is a different story, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to tie the two together and come to conclusions in that fashion. That requires a separate analysis and that is what we did.
Editorial page editor Andy Green: You really don’t see a connection between Jordan McNair’s death and a dysfunctional athletic department?
Brady: The situation was very unusual. There is no connection drawn in any of the investigations done that say that the dysfunction in the athletic department was responsible for the tragedy of Jordan McNair’s death. That’s all I’m saying.
Green: You don’t think a more functional department might have been better prepared to handle something like this?
Brady: A more functional department would in any situation would be better than one that isn't as functional. For this particular situation, the Jordan McNair situation, I don’t think that connection is valid. We want to make the athletic department as functional as possible.
Green: If the athletic department is dysfunctional, why are we keeping the same leadership of it?
Brady: For several reason. A lot has happened over the last two to three years. In the case of Damon Evans, he ascended to the role very recently. I thin the dysfunctional nature of the athletic department created a situation where his job as associate athletic director and interim athletic director was made far more difficult than it should’ve been. We recognize that Damon was there, and we also recognize that he has come back to us with a very thoughtful plan and with a total understanding that things have to change, that this is not the way this has to be run.
We had several options. Do we blow it all up? That was something that certainly was on the table. Or do we evaluate the people that are currently in place and determine if they are willing and capable to effecting immediate, needed changes. We spent a good deal of time going through that evaluation.
We felt in the case of Damon that he had the capability and willingness and knowledge to go through that change. In the case of DJ Durkin, he was a very young coach, a first-time head coach. I think part of the dysfunction in the athletic department was that he did not get the on-boarding and training that you’d expect at any organization.
Could Damon have done more? Possibly. Maybe even probably.
When DJ came on board, he didn’t get all the help he needed. Being the head coach of a college football team in 2018, in a big conference like the Big Ten, is a big job. I don’t think the proper consideration was given to all of that. But we felt he is a good man and a good coach. We want to give him the opportunity to get that right, recognizing full well the challenge he has in front of him to do that.