Until last week, the University of Maryland needed a defensive coordinator.  Wow, could you imaging needing a DC at this time in the year?  Uhh, umm, well, never mind on that one.  Anyway, during their search, they interviewed one Randy Shannon and offered him the job.  He reportedly said no, (and may give a clue as to why we passed on him) leading the Terps to offer the job to their linebackers coach, Todd Bradford, who accepted the job.  Some of the Maryland fans are unhappy, and looked out west for inspiration as to how to deal with this.

From SBN's fine Maryland blog - Testudo Times:

A few weeks ago, the fine folks over at Bruins Nation - a fellow SBN blog and one of our most respected colleagues - successfully spearheaded a movement, named #VetoSeto, to depose their failed hire of a defensive coordinator, Rocky Seto. They used a crazy amount of social media and used it successfully, helping to overthrow Seto as the hire. Crazy stuff.

Some enterprising Terrapin fan has decided to try to replicate BN's success, starting up the official @VetoBradford Twitter. For the record, no, it's not me.

No, it's probably not going to work. I don't even know if it should work - some measure of conviction would be nice out of the dept. after the continuous mess-ups - but it's a pretty good indicator of the rage around the hire out there in Terrapin Nation (I hate that phrase, but whatever, I'm going with it).

There is a major difference in these two situations, though. In our case we initiated the #VetoSeto campaign (which has become bit of a folklore around the internets) before the Seto hire became official, giving the U.C.L.A. admin and Coach Neuheisel the chance to stop the process in its tracks. In Maryland's case, however, it looks like the deal is done, so their campaign faces a bigger challenge at achieving the same success as ours.

I don't know enough about Coach Bradford or the situation at Maryland to have an opinion whether he's the right guy for their program or not.  But I do understand the frustration and urgency felt by those behind the campaign, who are actually lashing out at the athletic director and head coach more than Bradford personally...

I should probably reinforce, as a few commenters have pointed out, that the real problem here isn't Bradford: it's [Athletic Director Kevin] Anderson, potentially [new Head Coach Randy] Edsall, and the entire department and program. This is the same as basketball: I have no quarrel with Bradford, same as I have no quarrel with Adrian Bowie. I just have a problem with their superiors putting them in this position. 

We wish our friends at Testudo Times luck, and we hope it works out for the best for all involved.  

Finally, I must admit, there is something pretty satisfying by being used as an example of how a united fan base can use its passion and its outlets to get some pretty big things done.  Ryan's post criticizing Morgan's lack of communication about Pauley renovation is a similar example.  Our gutty little Tyler might have something to add along those lines, too.

The potential influence or causal effect BN might have is just sobering sometimes (I stole that line from Meriones).  Bruins Nation is a powerful voice.  Let's always use it wisely.