D.J. Durkin rebuilds Maryland culture with intense focus on competition

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – There have been a number of times since his arrival in late 2015 that D.J. Durkin has proclaimed this day – today, yesterday, any day – to be the most important in Maryland’s football history.

As on national signing day. This is the biggest day in our program’s history, Durkin told his assistant coaches. He said the same after one of the Terrapins’ wins during the previous season. At some point during these coming months, Durkin will make a similar assertion: that today, or whatever day he chooses, will be the most significant day this place has ever had.

“Because it is,” Durkin said, “until the next one. That’s the mindset.”

These are bullish days for Maryland football. Durkin, the program’s second-year coach, won six games in his debut last fall, doubling the team’s 2015 total to bring the Terrapins back into bowl play. The rapid improvement came even as Maryland played 16 true freshmen, one of the highest totals in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

On signing day, Maryland inked the nation’s 18th-ranked class, according to the composite standings compiled by 247Sports.com. Included in the Terrapins’ haul were victories in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., a fertile recruiting area deeply crucial to the program’s long-term goal of challenging the top tier of the Big Ten Conference.

These are moments to be celebrated. Winning six games in the East Division of the Big Ten is an achievement, and doubly so as a first-year coach. Recruiting is an inexact science, and it’s nearly impossible to properly grade a class on signing day itself. Even then, the Terrapins’ crop of newcomers is very likely the strongest group in program history.

Yet they are just moments – and the same achievements are being replicated by the elite of college football on a daily basis, at places in as close proximity as Ohio State and Michigan. To gain ground on the Big Ten’s best, Maryland must take two steps forward for every one made by the Buckeyes and Wolverines.

Durkin understands that.

“They definitely preach urgency and being ready to go when your number’s called,” said senior linebacker Jermaine Carter.

But Durkin remains optimistic. “I’m even more convinced now than when I evaluated it. We can and will win championships here,” he said, making sure to emphasize the plural – championships, meaning more than one.

“There’s not a reason you can’t. Yeah, we don’t have the tradition of maybe some others, but …,” Durkin adds, trailing off. There is that championship trophy from 1953 in the entryway to Maryland’s football facility, he’s reminded.

“And a long list of NFL players that have come through this place,” Durkin continued. “There’s not anything I can point to and say, well, this is the reason why you can’t. We can. It’s just a matter of changing the mindset, changing the culture and building the program.”

Signing day is a good place to start. More than a year ago, Durkin and his staff put together a less-than-full class in two months. Rather than fill that class to the brim, the staff left a few spots open for the class of 2017, banking on the potential of reaching a higher caliber of prospect with the benefit of an entire recruiting cycle.

The end result was the sort of class that rivals – if still trails, an important point – groups inked by the nation’s elite programs, particularly those within the East Division. Maryland’s staff spent so much time recruiting during this past season, for example, that players initially wondered where their coaches were. Durkin was brutally honest: They’re out recruiting guys who are better than you.

It might feel cutthroat. And it is, in some ways. But it’s no different than the mindset in place at, say, Ohio State and Michigan. It’s no coincidence that Durkin’s two primary coaching mentors are Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh.

“It was actually refreshing, in my point of view,” said junior center Brendan Moore. “It’s just nice to have a transparent coach. I feel like that’s not very common. A lot of coaches like to play mind games and are not transparent with players. He’s made it clear this is our team, not just his.”

At Maryland, as at those two national powers inside the program’s own division, the culture has come to be defined by competition. Instituted shortly after his arrival, Durkin’s “champions club” grades players on how well they meet the program’s standard for effort, discipline and accountability, rewarding club members with steak and crab cakes while others dine on hot dogs and hamburgers.

Holdovers from Durkin’s predecessor, Randy Edsall, were shocked last winter by tug-of-war competitions before breakfast. In one of his early meetings with the team, Durkin told the collected roster that he wanted to push the Terrapins to the point where they’d ask themselves: Do I really want to do this?

“It was supposed to be shock and awe,” said Moore. “It was really meant to cultivate a championship mindset and have a culture change within our program.”

There have been growing pains. That the Terrapins played so many true freshmen was evident at times last fall, particularly during an ugly four-game losing streak in October and November. And a brutal schedule that awaits in September, beginning with a road trip to Texas in the opener, will almost certainly lead to a sense of treading water in the win column.

Basing a successful season on how Maryland fares against the top-ranked teams on its schedule misses the bigger picture, however. It’s only up close that you see the Terrapins’ flaws, and even then on a smaller scale – inexperience at quarterback and a still-young roster, to name two concerns. Admittedly, that will keep this team in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten this coming season.

Maryland’s bigger picture points toward an eventual rise. How do you beat Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh? Durkin would know better than most. Echoing the process seen at Ohio State and Michigan, his short time at Maryland has been defined by two themes: recruiting and competition. Catching up with the Big Ten’s best means doing it again and again, with no days off.

“All in all, when you step back and look at it, things are really following along with the plan we had,” Durkin said. “There’s a definite positive vibe around the campus and the university, and around this area. Many people feel and understand where this thing going.”

PHOTOS: EARLY TOP 25 FOR THE 2017 COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON