Cosgrove candidacy is ‘red flag’

Jack Cosgrove’s emergence as a candidate for the head football coaching vacancy at the University of Rhode Island raises some serious red flags about the state of the sport at the University of Maine.

Cosgrove basically has bled UMaine blue and white since his quarterbacking days in the 1970s, including the last 15 years as the Black Bears’ coach.

But apparently the frustration level Cosgrove has reached at his alma mater – where his current contract expires on June 30, though university officials have offered him a new contract – has pushed him to look elsewhere.

Rhode Island would be a lateral move at best. The pay is modestly better – Cosgrove is making a base salary of $135,000, while recently fired URI coach Tim Stowers earned a base salary of $155,301.

Maine and URI have shared a common conference affiliation since their Yankee Conference days, both now residing in the Colonial Athletic Association. And Maine has fared much better overall, earning trips to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs in 2001 and 2002. URI had just one winning season in Stowers’ eight years.

But it’s a constant struggle for Maine to remain competitive within the CAA.

The planned replacement of the aging synthetic turf at Alfond Stadium will erase one problem. But other major issues remain, like the geographic challenge of attracting players to Maine, providing enough scholarships, and low pay for assistant coaches, which has led to frequent turnover in Cosgrove’s staff.

Maine has tried to address the financial issues by scheduling a Bowl Championship Subdivision (formerly Div. I-A) opponent annually in recent years. And while games against Mississippi State, Nebraska, Boston College, Connecticut and next year’s opener at Iowa help the coffers, they also reduce the Bears’ margin for error as they pursue a playoff berth.

Cosgrove has done fairly well, all in all, over the years. He has survived long enough to become the program’s winningest coach, and his 80-90 overall record represents more success than the mere winning percentage would indicate, given the playing field on which he and the Bears compete.

And who knows how that playing field will evolve during the next decade, or what options the Black Bears will have.

A look at the landscape, given both the university’s resources and the changing face of college football, brings to light such possibilities as a nonscholarship program or perhaps no program at all one day.

The Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Div. I-AA) for Northeast schools already is heading south, geographically speaking, with the recent absorption of the Atlantic 10 by the CAA.

Then add the talk of the University of Massachusetts perhaps moving up to the big time and new southern programs like Old Dominion – coached by UMaine alum and former Black Bears assistant Bobby Wilder. One has to wonder how much longer most CAA schools will want to continue flying north to Kingston, R.I., Durham, N.H., or Orono, Maine, when there is so much competition much closer to home.

The football future isn’t all that bright at Maine, and it isn’t all that bright at URI, either, where fundraising also is a crucial part of the head coach’s responsibilities.

Cosgrove may not get the URI job; two other candidates have ties to the program, one a former player who now is associate head coach at Rutgers.

But just the fact he’s looking is an ominous sign.

Ernie Clark may be reached at eclark@bangordailynews.net or 990-8045.