Terps Fire Wide Receivers Coach Bossard
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Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Changes to the Maryland football coaching staff continued when Coach Ralph Friedgen fired third-year wide receivers coach Bryan Bossard on Sunday, less than 48 hours after the Terrapins dropped several passes in a 21-14 loss to Oregon State in the Emerald Bowl, a loss that sent Maryland to its third losing season in four years.
"Surprised? Probably not," Bossard said yesterday.
"It's part of the business. Whenever things don't go as planned, someone's always got to take the fall. I think we made plays, too. I would hope it's not just off of one game. But again, who knows? You're asking the wrong person why this happened."
Bossard said Friedgen started scrutinizing the wide receiving corps during a three-game slide during this season.
Meantime, injuries took their toll. Danny Oquendo and LaQuan Williams suffered injuries that knocked them out of action toward the end of the season, forcing the team to use younger players such as redshirt freshman Emani Lee-Odai.
"I was proud of us," Bossard said of his three-year tenure, in which he worked mostly with underclassmen.
"I thought we played hard, I thought they played well, I thought they blocked. Yes, there are plays I wish they made, but that happens at all levels of football."
A national search is underway for Bossard's replacement. Bossard's firing was the third staff change in the last two weeks. Special teams coordinator Ray Rychleski left to take the same job at South Carolina and former Terrapins assistant coach James Franklin left Kansas State and returned to Maryland as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach.
Maryland has two coaching vacancies -- wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator -- but only one staff position open, leaving open the possibility that a member of the staff would take one of those jobs.
Last week, Friedgen did not rule out the possibility that Franklin would also coach wide receivers, a role Franklin filled during his previous stint with the program.
