Criticism about Leone, based on how Maryland has done while he's been head coach, is seriously premature. He started in 2016. That year, they had a disaster. In 2017, they had a significant improvement. Prior coaches' influences last for about 8 years, from a statistical perspective. Or, to put it differently, it isn't fully a new coach's results until he's/she's been there for 8 years, from a stats perspective. That's on average, so for some it's shorter and for some longer. In the meantime, we're seeing a combo of the prior coaches' influences and the new coach's influence.
What's his incoming freshman class looking like? Or were all of these kids recruited by Morgan? I think,that one of them was going to follow Morgan to Tennessee, but switched back to Maryland. That would suggest, if I am correct, that Leone may be a decent recruiter. I know a little about the first one Last summer, she was invited to U18/19 YNT camp along with two of her teammates after their club team finished in the bottom 16 of the ECNL AND after her club's TD was named U19 YNT coach. Just sayin... not sure that inclusion means a lot,but may be one to watch. http://www.umterps.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=751512&SPID=120735&DB_OEM_ID=29700&ATCLID=211700051 Oddly they aren't quoting Leone on his opinion of these kids or listing a position. It's kind of a lame write up actually.
Significant improvement? They went from 1-10 in Big Ten to 1-8-2 second season. Problem with looking at things "statistically" you are looking at total wins or RPI. To tie two more games in your conference is a stretch to say significant improvement for a power 5 school that should win games against a non conference schedule of an average 152 RPI. Previous coaches influence? Previous coach went 4-14-6 in the big ten, so why is he doing worse if the previous coaches influence is still there?
At the college level it does matter that you care about more than winning. Whether you like it or not there is an academic mission that has to be performed. It is a matter of having integrity in the program. Integrity matters. Plus, historically the teams at Maryland that did well in the classroom also did well on the field. The characteristics of hard work, setting priorities, and good time management tend to transfer to other areas, which is kind of the whole point of scholarship athletics in any case. I am trying to set some parameters here. If you have problems with the way Ray Leone is running his program -- and the jury is still out on that -- then academics cannot be one of those problems.
I don't disagree, but doing well in the classroom and not on the field works at the ivy league and in mid majors. That alone, isn't going to give you longevity at a power 5.
I am sure you are right. I am just resisting a tendency I see at times like this where some people start to say everything is wrong with the program. Clearly it is not. Just as clearly, it is going to take more time to discern the progress in this program.
I was just at a club game and Leone was there watching one of his committed kids. Combining both teams, she was about the 10th best player out there. THAT is the current problem at UMD. Some AD's may say something like "just graduate your kids, stay out of trouble, and get to .500 now and then and you'll be fine" I don't think UMD is in that category.
Not every kid a coach recruits is going to be a stud!!! Roster of 30 and you are bound to have some kids that may be players you develop and are good role players. Unless you see all the committed players in a class and compare the whole group you can not make a judgment on what the coach is doing. There are many players out there that are not highly recruited and or may seem that they are lesser, that develop into good, sometimes great players at the college game.
I wonder who will buy this argument if they don't qualify for the BIG tournament for a 3rd year? 200K+ in coaching compensation and 300K+ in scholarships spent. What would be your own reasonable expectations if you were the new AD at UMD? I'm a MD fan but this team scored a grand total of 1 goal in the month of October last year. This is not the time for local project kids. There are some signs of life in the program but lets be honest, a jump start is needed. It used to be that the All-Met POY from the Washington Post and Balt Sun went to MD almost automatically. These are usually National Team pool level players. At least UMD recruited them. Right now people are looking around the sidelines of club games surprised at who the UMD staff is actually watching.
Do you know any of the 2018 class? I know the Ohio kid. has been to numerous national camps ...after her coach became the u19 WNT coach so not sure what actual bearing that has. But still probably a highly regarded attacking kid.
OK, I go back a long way with this program. Most first and second year Maryland coaches did not have brilliant recruiting classes. Even April Heinrichs who was by far the best known coach upon arrival, had a struggle to establish recruiting. Everybody and their mother recruits in the Washington, DC area. UNC and UVA, which were fully funded programs back when Maryland was not, were taking players from here long before Maryland could even get on most people's radar screen. Alan Kirkup came in after Heinrichs and had a team full of what a lot of people thought were roll players and got them to the NCAA Tournament three consecutive years before he got hired away by Arkansas. You can win with players like that who work hard and are disciplined but you have to teach them up. Kirkup did that; not everybody does. I have also seen coaches who recruit better talent, hardly teach them anything, and hope that is enough to get into the tournament. Shannon Higgins Cirovski was probably the best combination of recruiter and teacher we had but she had had enough after seven years. I thought Brian Pensky could equal or better what she did but, well, we all know how that story went. Love him or hate him, Ray Leone is now up against the image of a program that always seems close but no cigar; a program that has had all kinds of potential but has never lived up to it -- has never held onto a coach long enough to do that. After J.Morgan's failure, if Ray Leone fails the uphill climb with be even steeper.
McNesby was a Tennessee commit who switched to Maryland, for reasons unknown. I happened to be standing beside her dad at a showcase tournament a couple of years ago. She is small but speedy winger--got a lot of pace. Solid prospect. Maybe Maryland offered her more money or she just wanted to be closer to her PA home, which she mentions in the little blurb about "why Maryland."
Wow, can't believe we have gone this much time without anybody commenting on the season to this point. That must be a record for this program and that ain't good. Not a whole lot of excitement around this program and that's no surprise given they are 4-7-4 overall, 2-4-1 Big Ten. In all likelihood this is another year of not making the NCAA Tournament. Not unless they put on a run in their last four regular season games and then do something in the B1G tournament. The brightest spot of the year happened this past weekend with a 2-1 upset win over then-#14 Northwestern in College Park. It was the kind of victory that can show Maryland what they are capable of becoming. One has to hope this is a turning point for the program. It won't take long to find out. Either wise, the offense has been disappointing: 14 goals and 10 assists in 15 games; against 17 goals by opponents indicating the Maryland defense isn't bad, just not getting much help. That said, Maryland is behind the opposition on corner kicks 81-64. The scary part is that 6 of Maryland's 14 goals come from senior Jenna Harmon -- and just two other players have 2 goals: redshirt junior Darby Moore and sophmore Anissa Mose. That would indicate that despite the apparent uptick in recruiting, Ray Leone is still depending on holdovers from the Morgan period for production -- and the production has been anemic. One thing the stats indicate is a constant shuffling of the lineup. Anissa Mose and sophmore midfielder Malikae Dayes are the only two who have started all 15 games and only five others have appeared in every game. Some of that is injuries but there is a sense that there just hasn't been a settled lineup in any case. The silver lining of course is that by now nearly everyone on the roster has appeared in some games and there is some experience down to the end of the bench. As such there are some freshmen getting a lot of PT, especially defender Adalee Broadbent and midfielder Loren Sefcik; redshirt freshman forward Alyssa Poarch; and sophmore mid Hope Lewandowski. Those players along with Dayes and Mose appear to be the young cadre' that Ray Leone needs to build around. That said, this team has a lot of holes that have to be addressed through recruiting and soon or I don't see the situation getting much better.
Ray's safe another year regardless because all the admins were sacrificed, right? UMCP should default to top three with Rutgers and PSU being in the heart of the I-95 corridor money and population density. I've heard several camp goers describe an uninspired, unprofessional, negative experience with Ray's staff. Kids used to like Morgan's camp. The win over Northwestern is not surprising cuz Northwestern is neither here nor there to the factories...I-95 and southern California. All continental interior schools in the rankings will be over-rated.
Holmes12, your post reminded me that the Maryland Athletic Dept. is at this time distracted by other matters. The football team is winning, but off the field the controversy is off the scale. Everybody is waiting for the other shoe to drop on the investigations and the AD is among those under fire. In that context, nobody is going to be too worried about the struggles of a non-revenue sport. Your are right that Ray Leone is safe for the time being, probably has at least two more years to get it turned around.
I heard the interim AD who replaced Anderson and Loh were going to go down. But that was before Durkin officially took the hit. The best AD they ever had was Dick Dull, sacrificed for Bias.
Damon Evans was the interim who got promoted to AD. He and Loh are at risk. I don't think this is going to stop with Durkin. Too many screw-ups above his level and the fans are slowly but surely abandoning ship. Its just sad. Our home game vs. Penn State last year might as well have been a PSU home game.
I agree that UMD admin is pretty distracted. Leone likely has 1 year left and the program has enough of a heartbeat that I don't expect them to pay him early to leave. I just got an email from a ticket broker- they are giving away Football tickets for the Illinois game this weekend. Stubhub has them for $6, I think that's the minimum with their fees. Troubled times in College Park.