Maryland Football: D.J. Durkin ranked ninth in new hire rankings

The early return for D.J. Durkin has been very good with Maryland getting off to a 3-0 start.

In fact, CBSSports ranked the top 29 first-year head coaches and Durkin came in at No. 9. Durkin is one of three Big Ten coaches slotted in the top 10 of the rankings.

Tracy Claeys (Minnesota was ranked fourth while Chris Ash (Rutgers) was tabbed as the 10th best. The list is basically power rankings of how each coach’s new team is doing and is not a grade of an individual hire.

Mark Richt (Miami, Fla.), Jim Grobe (Baylor), and Justin Fuente (Virginia Tech) round out the top three of the rankings. The Hokies are the only team of the three that has lost a game.

9. D.J. Durkin, Maryland (3-0): The Terps are halfway to bowl eligibility after taking care of business in their first three games. A win over Purdue would alleviate some pressure as the schedule takes a difficult turn in October and November. We don’t know much about Maryland yet, but the early returns have been good.

The Terrapins are off to a 3-0 start for the first time since the 2013 season. They went 4-0 before that forgettable 63-0 drubbing at hands of Florida State in their final ACC campaign.

Durkin came to College Park after a two-year stint as the defensive coordinator at Florida under Urban Meyer. In 2015, Durkin was the defensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh at Michigan.

He also had stops at Bowling Green as a defensive ends and linebackers coach, Stanford as a defensive ends coach, and he also coached the linebackers at Florida.

Maryland certainly has the potential to bypass a 4-0 start with the likes of Purdue, Penn State, and Minnesota up next on the schedule. It’s extremely possible that the Terps could race out to a 6-0 start if they play the way they’re capable of.