The news that Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow is negotiating a contract extension for Mark Duffner is proof that Santa Claus does exist.
In three years as the football coach at College Park, Duffner has won nine of 33 games.
Of those nine wins, only one (West Virginia this season) was against a team that finished the season with a winning record. The other eight were against teams that averaged fewer than three wins a season. All cream puffs, in other words.
Duffner hasn't come close to proving that he can make Maryland into anything more than the dull franchise he inherited from Joe Krivak. Resultingly, his teams have drawn seven crowds of fewer than 30,000 and only two of more than 40,000. You can't fool the people.
Why is Yow considering rewarding such a performance by extending Duffner's original five-year contract?
Because, she said, the program is headed in the right direction.
Well, there was no wrong direction left. The Terps couldn't get any worse than they were in 1993, when they won two of 11 games and allowed more yards than any other team in Division I-A history.
And it is debatable to submit that their 4-7 season in 1994 represented an improvement worth measuring.
Yes, they did compete for 60 minutes against creditable teams such as Syracuse, West Virginia and North Carolina State (as opposed to 30 minutes against Virginia and Florida State, and about 10 minutes against Duke). They weren't just sieves, as they were in '93. At times, it was almost possible to imagine them competing for real in what is a relatively weak football conference outside of Florida State.
But were they really improved? Had they not substituted Tulane for Penn State on their schedule, they'd have had the same 3-8 record that they had in Duffner's first season. And their defense, supposedly better, moved all the way up to 94th in the nation out of 107 teams in yards allowed, instead of dead last. Isn't that special?
At that rate of "improvement," the Terps will round into bowl-caliber form sometime after the start of the new millennium.
Oh, and as for this notion that a steady stream of blue-chip recruits is flooding the program and brightening the future, 10 of the 25 members of Duffner's 1993 freshman class either were ineligible or no longer in school this fall. In other words, 40 percent of the class was of no help after just one year.
It makes no sense to give the man a contract extension. But if you're a Terps football fan -- there must be a few of you still out there -- and you're screaming at Yow, relax. She isn't really playing Santa.
Although she won't discuss any details, it figures that the extension she has in mind is a "soft" one patterned after the contract Gary Williams signed. It would trigger only if Duffner met certain standards on and off the field in the next two years. In other words, he would have to win a certain number of games and graduate a certain number of players. If he doesn't, the extension gets tossed in the trash can.
While pushing college coaches into a must-win corner is philosophically dangerous -- so many don't need any more reason to break rules -- tying a contract to the team's graduation rate pretty much kills the chances of the win-at-all-costs mentality prevailing. It's a creative, right-minded idea. Kudos to Yow for putting it in play.
No, she's not about to make any more of a hard commitment to a coach who hasn't proven anything. She's a bottom-liner who is spending most of her time chipping away at the $7 million deficit she inherited. Considering all the money the school has put into a new football building and improvements to Byrd Stadium, and considering how much the rest of the department needs the revenue the football team generates, you can be sure Yow isn't going to keep Duffner around if he can't carry his weight.
At the same time, she wants to give Duffner every chance to succeed. That's what the extension is all about. He's tireless and enthusiastic, and, sensing that opponents would begin using his uncertain future against him in recruiting, Yow wants to show some him some support.
It's doubtful that recruits will be fooled, but there's little harm in trying. (As long as Yow sets the must-win "trigger" high enough to avoid getting stuck with Duffner if she doesn't want him. It should be seven wins, minimum. Make the guy prove something.)
Understand, Duffner hasn't agreed to sign an extension yet. Why wouldn't he? If he didn't and then suddenly started winning, he'd have more leverage.
He should sign immediately.
He isn't a Fred Goldsmith, Duke's one-year miracle man. He isn't a Mack Brown, building a solid North Carolina program in three years. Just what Duffner is, no one knows. For him to get an extension in any form now is more than he deserves.