Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990 TAG: 9005230113
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Follows orders. Keeps his nose clean.
He would jump into shark-infested waters if ordered. He might not agree, but he'd do it.
Krivak is a football coach. At Maryland. A school that has major problems.
He also is a test case. If he goes 3-7-1 again this year, he probably won't be retained.
That won't mean he hasn't done his job. Or that he hasn't been a good coach.
"I'm not worried about job security," Krivak said during the ACC's spring meetings. But that probably is because he is 56, has been married for 29 years to a supportive wife and has put all his kids through college.
"If I were 35 or 37, I might be concerned," he said.
Krivak is a coach - one of many - caught in the jaws of reform.
He is working for a school that has tightened admissions drastically, that has financial problems that won't go away and that is overscheduled in football.
In September, Krivak's Terps will open their 1990 season against a veteran Virginia Tech team that went 6-4-1 last year. The Hokies replace Western Michigan, one of the three teams Maryland beat in '89.
The other non-ACC opponents are heavyweights - Michigan, Penn State and West Virginia.
"Nobody in the ACC plays a schedule like we do," Krivak said, without a trace of rancor.
It is a schedule that, combined with cutbacks throughout a strapped athletic department, makes getting fired more than a possibility.
Which brings us back to the beginning.
"We've run the program within the guidelines," Krivak said. "It hasn't been the easiest task."
Still, he believes there has been progress. Instead of 11 seniors, Maryland will have 19 in the fall. And more than 20 in 1991.
Krivak knows, however, "We're all evaluated by the fans," and the fans don't appreciate 3-7-1 marks at schools that traditionally have won big.
That's where the change lies. This is not the old Maryland, of Randy White or Boomer Esiason. This is the Maryland with tougher admissions policies - and the ghost of Len Bias.
"I knew all that when I took the job," said Krivak, a career assistant who was 52 when he got the opportunity to become the Terps' head coach.
"There is no doubt we'll see reform in the '90s," Krivak said. "We've got an image problem [with college sports]. We've got some problems that are a carryover from society."
So there will be changes. Cutbacks. Reductions.
At Maryland, "It's more difficult to get in [school], stay in, stay eligible. That's reality," Krivak said.
It's also reality that Krivak, and those like him caught in this tightening noose, still will be evaluated the old-fashioned way - by the number of games they win and lose.
"You want to be competitive," Krivak said. "The academicians have got to understand. We're not unreasonable. We want the same things they want, for [athletes] to get an education, to be successful."
But Joe Krivak also knows - even if he does what's expected of him - there's always that other factor. He has to beat some people.
Even in an era of reform, not everything changes.
by CNB