Maryland fumbles the football

The Maryland Terrapin athletic program fumbled away a huge chance to make an impact on the national scene with the hiring of Connecticut's Randy Edsall over former Texas Tech boss Mike Leach.

I don't have anything against Randy Edsall, he did a solid job in moving the Connecticut program from 1-AA to a BCS bowl team (Of course, he did it with an 8-4 team in the Big East, the weakest conference in the BCS and one that should be booted from the monopoly) and certainly makes sense to be a mentioned candidate for the Maryland job.

However, Mike Leach battled in the toughest state to recruit in the country (Texas) kept Texas Tech in bowl consistently and in the toughest division of any conference in the country (the now defunct Big 12 South) had the most exciting offense in the country.

Detractors of Leach argue that he never won a conference title, but Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Texas A & M are quite a cut above the likes of Rutgers, Syracuse, and Louisville.
Anyone that looks at recruiting at Tech knows the issues that coaches battle there and Mike Leach succeeded there beyond anyone's hopes.
This comes from someone that was not always a Mike Leach fan and was questioning his hire in replacing the retiring Spike Dykes.
Maryland had a chance to finally hire a reasonably young and innovative coach with a track record and finally had an opportunity to become the boss of the ACC, which lives one step above the Big East of BCS conferences.

Football would become a hot ticket again in College Park for the first time in years.
Hell, I was even planning on getting to a game or two with the hiring of Leach.
All looked to be going in the direction of Mike Leach and suddenly, one day after Connecticut's expected BCS drilling against Oklahoma, Randy Edsell is in Maryland.

Edsell seems like an ok coach and is certainly a safe hire, but can Maryland and its football budget that ranks behind every ACC state school except N.C. State afford a safe hire?
Maryland needs the home run, not the infield single.

Edsell seems much like Ralph Friedgen-a good coach, a less than exciting x and o guy, and an average recruiter.
When you consider the clumsy manner that Maryland chopped Friedgen at the block and the PR hit that the school took from the firing, was it worth all of that and the upset alumni that loved Ralph Friedgen-was Randy Edsall worth all that and is he even an upgrade?
Our answer is no and no and that isn't a shot at Edsall, who could keep Maryland football on the current track that sees bowl bids to the ACC's sixth and seventh team.

Maryland clearly got cold feet from the media that were hitting them for the release of the popular Friedgen and figured that hiring the controversial Leach would lead to more hammers from ESPN among many despite the positives that the program would receive from the paying customers and boosters, someone got jumpy and Edsall was the best they could get.
No guts No glory-typical Maryland......