Terps self-impose practice-time sanctions

Already this offseason, Maryland has been forced to deal with the loss of three football scholarships for the 2011 season due to poor academic performance.

Now, first-year head coach Randy Edsall will be forced to deal with less practice time thanks to the poor accounting performance of his predecessor’s staff.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the Terrapin football program has self-imposed sanctions after minor violations that occurred under the previous regime were uncovered earlier this year. The biggest issue was in the area of practice time and how some areas of it were accounted for and interpreted by Ralph Friedgen‘s staff.

The school found that the Terps under Friedgen last season practiced an hour and 15 minutes above the in-season allowable time of 20 hours per week. As a result of the NCAA’s 2-for-1 punitive measures for these types of violations, the football team will only be permitted to practice for a total of 17 hours and 30 minutes per week throughout the 2011 season.

“Specifically, 30 minutes of meeting sessions and 30 minutes of practice on Mondays and one hour of weightlifting on Wednesdays were not accurately reported,” Maryland said in a May 5 letter to Chris Strobel, NCAA director of enforcement for secondary violations. “During the review it was apparent that the coaches and staff at the time believed those activities were voluntary in nature; however, when reviewed in detail, the institution determined the activities to be mandatory.”

The NCAA has reportedly signed off on the self-imposed sanctions and will impose no further practice restrictions.

In addition to the practice time issue, it was also discovered that two interns and two graduate assistants improperly observed voluntary summer workouts.

Under Maryland’s self-imposed punishment, interns will not participate in this August’s practices, and graduate assistants will be restricted from attending the first 16 practices.

Obviously, given the presence of a nearly brand-new coaching staff, the practice time sanctions will have a significant impact on the program.

“It’s significant,” Edsall told the Sun. “We’ll deal with it and I’ll put together a weekly practice plan that will allow us to do the things we need to do. We’ll be prepared for every game.”

Maryland is the second known Div. 1-A program in the roughly a year to see a reduction in practice time; in May of 2010, Michigan docked itself a total of 130 practice hours -- more than quadruple what the Terps will ultimately be hit with -- as part of their self-imposed sanctions for a broader array of issues within the Rich Rodriguez-led Wolverines football program.

As of late last month, Michigan was “very close to being done” with their practice time penance.