Ralph Friedgen on Kevin Anderson's head coaching hire blunder: "How did that work out?"

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While the on-field product has drawn enough of the headlines, Saturday also draws several of the familiar storylines surrounding the matchup given the added attention surrounding a meeting between Mike Locksley and James Franklin.

With a chance to close non-conference in a make-or-break season against a regional foe whose led by a head coach that has prioritized DMV recruiting, Mike Locksley's team in year eight has an opportunity to make a statement. Add in Maryland trending toward a sellout, another opportunity to win fans over with butts in the seat, it's the type of game that can go a long way for the University of Maryland.

Yet the return of James Franklin to College Park gave former head coach Ralph Friedgen a chance to reflect on how the end of his ten-year head coaching tenure ultimately unraveled given his two former assistants are set to face off at SECU Stadium this weekend. Franklin was named head coach in waiting back in Feb. 2009 with Friedgen at the time agreeing to the succession plan that ultimately never materialized. Though the agreement came to fruition under former AD Debbie Yow, the one-time insurance plan fell through once Kevin Anderson stepped in as the replacement before putting a pause on the transition, letting Franklin become the head coach at Vanderbilt beginning in 2011.

Anderson's desire to go outside of the program to make his own hire loomed large in the fallout, which Friedgen noted was a big swing and a miss when looking back roughly 15 years later.

“You would think if they were going to fire me and already had a coach-in-waiting, they would have hired him. But they didn’t,” Friedgen told Michael Howes of The Baltimore Sun. "[Kevin] Anderson said he wanted to take Maryland from good to great. How did that work out?”

Former Maryland quarterback Scott McBrien noted he "always thought Coach Locksley and Coach Franklin were deadly together" as they overlapped for three seasons under Ron Vanderlinden then Friedgen before going their separate ways, growing to become rivals en route to building competing programs.

“The commonality is that we've worked together, we know each other really well, know families," head coach Mike Locksley said on Tuesday. "There's no doubt from a personal level. But like I said, the game here will have nothing to do with the personal. We both were raised – I know I was raised offensively under Ralph. When you look at how I prepare offenses, the way we self-scout, the way we gameplan, the way you call plays. Those are all byproducts of one of the best coaches I've had an opportunity to work for on the offensive side of the ball. I'm sure for him – and you'd have to ask him those things – but I'm sure for him, Ralph had [a] similar impact, maybe on his coaching career. But there's no doubt the commonality is that we both work together. We know each other very well, but this is going to be more about the upgrade in the game for us more than our personal relationship.”

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