Damon Evans expected to leave Maryland, be named new athletic director at SMU

After 36 hours of rumblings, Maryland Athletics will now look to find a new athletic director with Damon Evans now officially expected to accept the same position at SMU.

Evans, initially carrying the interim tag, was announced as the new athletic director back in June of 2018 where he filled the role left by Kevin Anderson. Evans then signed a contract extension last year which initially kept him in College Park through 2029. With Evans now leaving, Maryland will be owed $500,000 per the terms of his contract.

Evans previously served as the athletic director at Georgia until a DUI arrest led to his resignation in 2010.

News of Evans-to-SMU surfaced on Thursday while ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Evans’ hire was expected to be made official. The move could be made official as soon as today, one day after men’s basketball head coach Kevin Willard publicly confirmed the news.

“He's probably going to SMU, so it's kind of tough to negotiate with somebody that's maybe not here,” Willard said.

Evans, who was responsible for hiring both Mike Locksley and Kevin Willard as head coach of the football and basketball programs, have seen mixed results during his time with the university. But Maryland also consistently struggled with fundraising efforts with the former Georgia wide receiver leading efforts, consistently taking a reactionary approach as Maryland aimed to stay competitive in the ever-changing NIL landscape of college athletics.

The news also officially comes one day after Willard said he needs to see “a fundamental change” with his program.

“I wanted to spend an extra night in New York this year to celebrate Christmas with my team and I was told that we can't do that because it's too expensive. So I don't know how we can be a top-tier program and I can't spend one extra night in New York because it's too expensive. So there's fundamental things I'm fighting for my team and my program. It's not so much about me. I want to make sure that whatever we do going forward we're successful and we're successful at the highest rate. So I am confident that we'll get things done. It's a little difficult right now, I'm not going to lie, but I'm confident that no matter who we're negotiating with at the end of the day, this program's going to be in a great spot and that's really my focus is this Tournament, this team, and this program.”

Related Links