Recruiting will suffer. With allegations hanging over this school like these parents will be reluctant to encourage their kids to play here.
The program could lose what little swagger it was developing very quickly.
DJ Durkin is not the only possibility as a head coach for Maryland and probably not even the best at this point. If the school tries defending him it will be seen by some as a gambit for defending the wrongful death lawsuit that follows. I suspect that the sooner he is dispatched the sooner a replacement is hired, the sooner that replacement starts recruiting his athletes, the better for the Maryland football program. The allegations are deep troubling. This is beyond the Adam James/Craig James/Mike Leach issues, which in my view the allegations there were nothing approaching those here.
We will see what the independent reviewer's report says. I suspect Maryland will await that report and then fire DJ Durkin for cause based on violation of the morality clause these contracts usually contain so Maryland has grounds to fire for those reasons, and not pay any part of the remainder of the contract. If the independent review goes the other way, i.e. finds no fault with the coaching staff they keep him this year and use that independent review defensively for their lawsuit, and then terminate him because he has a bad season.
