By: Eddie Hobbs
A day after being reinstated as head coach of the Maryland Football Program, DJ Durkin was fired on Wednesday, according to the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun.
On Tuesday, the University System of Maryland Board of Regents announced that Durkin, along with Athletic Director Damon Evans, would retain their positions immediately.
While the 3:30 p.m. Board of Regents press conference was happening in Baltimore, Durkin addressed the team back in College Park, and reportedly had a “mixed bag” of responses, according to Jeff Ermann of 247 Sports. It was reported by Ermann that senior center Brendan Moore, senior tight end Avery Edwards and junior offensive lineman Ellis McKennie walked out of the practice.
McKennie—who was Jordan McNair’s high school teammate and was a close friend of McNair— took to Twitter Tuesday night to air out some of his issues with the announcement the board made earlier that day.
“Every Saturday my teammates and I have to kneel before the memorial of our fallen teammate,” McKennie tweeted. “Yet a group of people do not have the courage to hold anyone accountable for his death. If only they could have the courage that Jordan had. It’s never the wrong time to do what’s right.”
After the board announced that DJ Durkin would be returning to his head coaching position, mounting pressure from students and state legislators called for Durkin to be removed from his position.
The executive board of the UMD Student Government Association organized a rally that would be held on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The executive board of the student government was “outraged” by the board’s decision, and demanded justice for McNair, according to the Facebook event.
Gov. Larry Hogan released a statement today saying how he is “deeply troubled by the lack of transparency from the Board of Regents, and deeply concerned about how they could have possibly arrived at the decisions announced yesterday.”
“The University System of Maryland has let down the University of Maryland community and the citizens of Maryland, and now is the time to fix it,” the statement continued.
