After being spurned by former Miami head coach Randy Shannon, Maryland has decided to look internally to find a new defensive coordinator. The school has announced that they have promoted former inside linebackers coach Todd Bradford to defensive coordinator.
"I'm pleased to name Todd Bradford as our defensive coordinator and secondary coach," head coach Randy Edsall said. "He will lead an aggressive, attacking and fundamentally sound defense that will work to cause turnovers and create disruption for opposing offenses. He brings great experience and knowledge to the position and has been successful throughout his career."
Bradford was the defensive coordinator at Southern Mississippi before being hired to initially be the inside linebackers coach at Maryland. However, when former defensive coordinator Don Brown abruptly left to take the same position at Connecticut, the Terps suddenly had an opening to fill. They reached out to Shannon, who turned them down because it would cost him the $1.5 million buyout he negotiated with Miami.
To replace Bradford as inside linebackers coach, Maryland has hired Keith Dudzinski, who served for seven seasons as the defensive coordinator at UMass-Amherst.
The school updated Bradford's biography before making an official announcement, something noticed by Patrick Stevens of D1Scourse. That, along with the promotion from within, has SB Nation's Maryland blog Testudo Times seething.
Bradford was a worst-case-scenario type of hire. In his three years as DC at Southern Miss, he posted national rankings of 47, 81, and 64 in total defense. Golden Eagles fans were happy when he left. He may not have flamed out there, but he certainly didn't succeed. And I'll never understand the logic behind hiring at a high level when he failed at a lower level. But, y'know, whatever.
As far as his recruiting goes, it's nothing special. He was good for a three-star or two a year, but certainly nothing game-changing, like Randy Shannon or Larry Johnson would've been.
Oh, yeah, real quick: just compare him to Shannon. That should be enough to depress you for two months. I have no idea how they think, "Oh, okay, we missed on the perfect candidate, let's go get Plan Q now." There was no respectable backup they could attract with the dough they were throwing around at Shannon?