THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508200188
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLLEGE PARK, MD. LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
When Mark Duffner moved from Holy Cross to the University of Maryland in 1992, he must have needed a dozen 18-wheel haulers to deliver all the mottos and slogans he brought with him.
Motivational phrases and catch words were pasted everywhere. Along the halls of the football offices, in the locker room, above doorways and in the cafeteria.
Everywhere a Maryland player looked he could see the signs of Duffner's success. Clearly, this was a man who knew how to win.
At Holy Cross, he had taken over a program that was 4-6 the previous year and jump-started it to becoming the best in Division II.
His teams won 60 games and lost only five in five seasons, and when the Terps decided it was time to revive their sagging program, Duffner clearly seemed to be the man.
He was young and bright, a graduate of William and Mary, where he played for Lou Holtz. He had been a graduate assistant under Woody Hayes at Ohio State.
And Duffner knew the territory. He was a native of Annandale, Va., just across the Potomac River from College Park.
But if Duffner was the clear choice in 1992 to replace Joe Krivak, the picture has since become cloudy.
Duffner, 42, is in the fourth year of a five-year contract, and in the words of the motivational sign above the door of the meeting room, ``It is time to deliver.''
The inspirational messages and banners still decorate every wall that a Terp player passes. They just seem considerably more hollow than they did four years ago.
In six years at Holy Cross, Duffner never had a season in which he won fewer than nine games. It took him three years to win nine games at Maryland.
His Holy Cross teams lost five games in five years. He lost that many in six games at Maryland.
Maryland can't afford to lose many more games - or any more dollars.
The athletic department is almost $7 million in debt, not including a $40 million refurbishment of Byrd Stadium that increased seating from 34,000 to 48,000.
If anyone wanted to paint a slogan on the back of the new 125-foot, triple-deck grandstand, it would be, ``Win or else.''
Debbie Yow, who took over as athletic director a year ago, says many of the new seats this season will be filled by a promotion that allows families to buy four season tickets to all five games for only $99.
Yow knows that if the seats ever are to be sold at full admission, it will be because of a winning team.
She said Saturday she is ``very optimistic'' about this season and ``very supportive'' of Duffner.
But what happens if there is not a solid improvement?
``I look at Mark and I see him and his family, and I see these other coaches and their families, and what I see is a lot of nice people staring me in the face,'' Yow said.
``I don't want to do anything to have a focus on Mark's situation week in and week out. He, and that whole staff, needs to focus just on coaching, just on winning, and just on educating those kids. My hope is he is going to have the opportunity to do that.''
The season is already off to a bad start, with star quarterback Scott Milanovich forced to sit out the first four games as punishment for betting on college contests.
Duffner's response to the situation sounds much like the inspirational messages he plasters on locker-room walls.
``Out of some tough times come some good times,'' he said of being without Milanovich for four games.
As for his own situation, he says things are never as bad as they seem or as good as they seem.
``I never thought I could walk on water when we were winning like crazy,'' Duffner said.
``I think I am a better coach now than when I came here, but the record doesn't show that.''
And if the record doesn't improve quickly, Yow will have to find the answer to the big question that hangs over the Terps' season. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Mark Duffner compiled a 60-5 record in five seasons at Holy Cross
before arriving at Maryland in 1992. He is 9-24 since then, and the
athletic department's fiscal woes are adding up.
by CNB