Maryland football coach — for now — DJ Durkin continues to see his reputation take hit after hit, with the latest report coming out of the Baltimore Sun making him look even worse.

It was previously thought that former athletic director Kevin Anderson had hired an attorney who represented two former players in a sexual assault case. Both were accused of sexual assault by a female student at the school.

Don Markus of the Sun is reporting that Maryland and the Terrapins athletic department actually severed ties with the lawyer, Donald Maurice Jackson, but apparently he kept working to represent the players and it appears as if it was the football budget that kept him paid.

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

In fact, Donald Maurice Jackson, a lawyer with The Sports Group, said Friday he was sent an email from Anderson about two weeks after taking over the case from another attorney informing him that Maryland was severing ties with him. Jackson said he had already been paid $15,000 by the football team and continued to represent the athletes.

The Sun provided wording from an email then-athletic director Kevin Anderson sent to Jackson, in which the former AD was clear that the athletic department would compensate him for work previously done but they would not pay for any work pertaining to the athletes.

There was a clear conflict of interest there — a school and athletic depart paying to represent its football players against allegations from another student — but apparently that conflict didn’t stop because Maryland football kept it going.

This was not known to the school, according to the report:

A university spokeswoman said Friday “the issue is not whether the email was sent, it was that the [attorney’s] work did not stop and it was not reported back to the university that the work did not stop.”

An athletic department spokeswoman said Thursday night that the attorney had been paid through the athletic director’s discretionary fund, but Jackson said: “I was under the impression it was coming from the football budget because DJ was the person that I worked with as far structuring all of this. Kevin was not involved in any of this. I had periodic contact with Kevin about the basketball player’s case and that’s all. There was fairly infrequent contact on that case.”

Durkin was in hot water after the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair. It should only get worse from here on out — deservedly.