Ralph Friedgen. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

In what has been a shocking turn of events in College Park, the University of Maryland has asked Ralph Friedgen to step down as head coach of the Terrapins. Friedgen’s contract ends in 2011. The head coach has declined to retire, according to ESPN. The university will be forced to terminate the employment of the 2010 ACC Coach of the Year and payout the remainder of his contract, which is valued at $2 million.

The news comes shortly after it was announced that Maryland assistant coach James Franklin accepted the head coaching job at Vanderbilt. Franklin was Maryland’s head coach-in-waiting and was guaranteed $1 million if he was not named Friedgen’s successor by January 2012.

The head coach-in-waiting agreement was originally agreed to in early 2009 when former athletic director Debbie Yow presided over the department; Yow departed earlier this summer to take the same position at North Carolina State. Newly-appointed athletic director Kevin Anderson stated in a teleconference with reporters last Friday that he did not extend a counter-offer that would have kept Franklin in College Park.

Obviously, Anderson did not envision Franklin as the future of the program during his tenure at Maryland.

What was even more surprising: during the very same teleconference, Anderson remained noncommittal regarding the future of Ralph Friedgen.

“I will sit down and everybody will understand where we’re going and how we’re moving forward with the program,” Anderson said in an afternoon teleconference with reporters. “At this point in time, I’m not going to answer that question.”

Within hours, news broke that Friedgen was asked to retire and accept the buyout.