By Eli Cohen and Harrison Rich
Maryland athletic director Damon Evans is leaving College Park to take the same role at Southern Methodist University, he announced Friday.
“While I relish the opportunity ahead, this decision was among the most difficult in my professional career,” Evans said in a news release Friday. “Maryland will forever remain a treasured part of my professional and personal life. Although I will soon wear different school colors, a big part of me will always be a Terp.”
Evans said in the release that University of Maryland president Darryll Pines named Colleen Sorem the interim athletic director. Sorem was previously Maryland athletics’ senior deputy athletic director and chief operating officer since 2018 and 2023, respectively.
Evans served as Maryland’s athletic director since 2018 and signed a contract extension through 2029 last August. SMU joined the ACC in July 2024 and made the College Football Playoff last season.
The Terps’ football program is coming off a 4-8 season, meaning Evans, who played football at Georgia and earned his first athletic director job there, would go back to a school where football is the top priority.
Evans hired Maryland football coach Michael Locksley and men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard. Though Maryland hired its men’s lacrosse, women’s lacrosse and men’s soccer head coaches before Evans joined, each program won a national championship during his tenure.
[Report finds Damon Evans led a chaotic athletic department, didn’t monitor football program]
Maryland’s revenue-generating sports — football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball — have seen mixed results under Evans. Brenda Frese’s women’s basketball team has made the NCAA tournament every year, while the men’s basketball team sat out two seasons. But this year, men’s basketball recorded its most wins since Evans took over.
But Maryland has also lacked the resources of other top programs. Willard said he needed to see “fundamental changes to the program”. He said Maryland’s had among the worst Name, Image and Likeness and revenue sharing among major programs. The coach also described being told he couldn’t spend an extra night in New York earlier this season because it was “too expensive”.
Since Evans arrived, the football program has made progress after years as a Big Ten bottom-feeder, but has yet to prove an ability to contend with the rest of the conference. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Evans’ hire at SMU is expected to finalize in the coming days.
