The chairman of the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents announced his resignation Thursday, a stunning turnabout barely 48 hours after the board recommended that the University of Maryland’s head football coach D. J. Durkin be retained — a decision that the university’s president overturned a day later.
The board came under heavy and widespread criticism after the chairman, James T. Brady, and the university’s president, Wallace D. Loh, announced on Tuesday that Mr. Durkin would stay on despite the death of one of his players, who experienced heatstroke during a practice in the spring, and a report detailing cultural problems in the football program.