Maryland’s college football team have parted ways with their strength and conditioning coach and have acknowledged that “mistakes were made” in the treatment of offensive lineman Jordan McNair, who collapsed on the practice field and subsequently died.

Athletic director Damon Evans said on Tuesday that Rick Court is no longer associated with the program. Evans added that a decision on the status of head coach DJ Durkin, who is on administrative leave, will come “as additional information comes forward”.

An ESPN report detailed an alleged toxic culture surrounding Durkin’s leadership, with claims the coach deliberately targeted less skilled players.

“They were trying to weed out players,” former Maryland safety JT Ventura told ESPN. “They actually called some players ‘thieves’ for being on scholarship and not being very good. During some of the workouts, there were kids who were really struggling, and coach Court, he’d keep on yelling. He would use profanity a lot, try to push kids when they reached their limit during workouts.

“If a kid would stop or go on the ground, him and the medical staff would try to drag players up and get them to run after they’d already reached their limit. They definitely bullied us to make sure we kept on going.”

According to McNair’s family attorney, the 19-year-old collapsed and had a seizure at 5pm on 29 May but emergency services were not called until an hour afterwards.

“We have learned that Jordan did not receive appropriate medical care, and mistakes were made by some of our athletic training personnel,” Evans said.

Evans and university President Wallace Loh met with McNair’s parents on Tuesday to apologize.