Not since Lew Perkins took over the athletic department at Maryland in 1987, 11 months after the death of basketball star Len Bias, has the school’s athletic director faced as big a challenge as Damon Evans has in front of him.
Perkins inherited a basketball program that had fleeting success under Bob Wade before it unraveled amid NCAA violations. The football team, an Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse under Bobby Ross, sunk to mediocrity when Ross departed a year after Bias died.
As Evans takes over this week, the football team has been reeling from the recent death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair and the department itself faces its share of financial hurdles.