Maryland Minute 6.28.09 - Football Preview Edition
by Ben Broman on Jun 28, 2009 11:56 PM EDT
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NYT: Maryland Football's #66
The New York Times ranks every single football team, from 120 to 1, Maryland's #66 on their countdown. It's definitely lower than expected, at least for me. Their summary isn't very flattering, either.
The lifeblood of any football team, college or pro, is the play up front, and while the Terps have a number of past highly-rated recruits in the two deep, these units remain major question marks. There are some things to like about Maryland, such as its experience at quarterback and talented skill players, but I don’t believe this team is equipped to make a run at an A.C.C. championship. If it enters November with five wins, like I predict it will, Maryland has a good chance at reaching bowl eligibility. It the Terps slip up early – say, lose to Middle Tennessee State – Maryland may finish with the worst record in the Atlantic Division. I’m not crazy about Maryland, but I do think the Terps will return to bowl play. But barely: 6-6, 4-4 in the A.C.C.
Dennis Dodd: Maryland's #5 in ACC Atlantic
I don't know if this is better or worse then the NYT prediction.
5. Maryland -- We can see the end of the Ralph Friedgen era in College Park. Offensive coordinator James Franklin is the coach in waiting. The Terps should take a major dip after going 8-5. Twelve starters have departed including receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey. Friedgen loves Torrey Smith and redshirt freshman Kevin Dorsey as emerging talents at receiver. Franklin has done a good job shaping senior quarterback Chris Turner.
Is it just me, or does that seem like a vaguely positive review for a 5th place team?
Terps offer local DB, competing with Wisconsin again
Can someone explain to me why Wisconsin is recruiting defensive backs in the DMV? First Frank Tamakloe is a Badger, and now the Terps are competing with the guys in Madison for Blake Countess, a DB from Good Counsel.
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound rising junior picked up a verbal* offer from the University of Maryland, according to Good Counsel assistant coach Kevin McFadden. The defensive back currently holds two verbal offers -- his other offer is Wisconsin. Countess was one of the breakout stars of the 2009 Nike Baltimore Combine -- posting the eighth best SPARQ** Rating and the third best of all sophomores.
Lance Visiting Cincy
I can't tell if this makes me happy or sad. And I don't really know why.
Star recruit Lance Stephenson of Brooklyn's Lincoln High is taking an official visit to Cincinnati this weekend, sources told Sporting News on Saturday. Stephenson is one of the last remaining unsigned prospects for the 2009 class. The source said Stephenson has been playing pickup games with current Bearcats and attended the Deveroes Summer League.
The most interesting thing about this? Cincinnati, like Maryland, is participating in the Maui Invitational. Is there any chance he wouldn't drop 40 on us?
NCAA Riches to NBA Rags: No. 6, Juan Dixon - The Dagger
Not exactly great to see a Terp on a list like this, but it's great for a trip down memory lane to the good old Juan days.
Dixon validated himself by leading Maryland to the NCAA championship (winning Most Outstanding Player honors in the process), but today that feels like a forgotten achievement. There is frequent talk about '01 Duke, '03 Syracuse, '04 Connecticut and both championship Carolina teams, but when's the last time you heard about those Terps? When's the last time you heard about Juan Dixon?
Ex-Terp Hook wins Dave Sanders Award
Interesting story that highlights some history of Maryland's Woman's basketball. The article talks about Gail Hook, former Terp great, who is now a high school basketball coach, and how she lead the Terps to the National Championship game, where they eventually lost to UCLA.
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The NYT paid someone for writing that...?
Whoever wrote that for the NYT is an idiot. Boston College is clearly going to be the worst team in the Atlantic Division. I’m not saying Maryland is going to be head and shoulders above anyone else, but I have a strong feeling that BC is going to be in the basement. They have had the absolute worst luck since the end of the 2008 regular season…. and they weren’t as good as their record indicated that year. But coach Jags was fired, their best QB (Domonique Davis) transferred, their best defensive linemen left for the NFL (B.J Raji and Ron Brace), and their best linebacker and overall player (Mark Herzlich), tragically, has been diagnosed with cancer.
Maryland could be 2-10 or 10-2; there are some big question marks like all the preseason rags say, but I don’t think the problems are quite as big as they think. Last year was a pretty big disappointment considering how much experience they had (31 seniors, 46 lettermen), and how close they were to an ACC Atlantic title. Still, those “veteran” defensive and (especially) offensive lines underachieved at almost every available opportunity. I’m not sure what it was, but it appeared there was just a lack of chemistry or heart or something. So, losing a lot of those guys could be a case of addition by subtraction.
On top of that DC Cosh is gone and with him so is the overly complicated and overly passive D scheme. I think Don Brown will be good as DC and his scheme is far less complex, so should be an easy transition. We have the best backfield in the ACC hands down. I think the D line is going to be all right — as long as they stay healthy. I don’t think theyre as bad as everyone else thinks, but it is certainly not deep. The LB corps has some studs with Wujciak, Moten, and true freshman Darin Drakeford. The season’s performance will all come down to how the O line performs. If Turner is getting crushed every other down like the end of last season, it’s going to be a long year.
Anyway, for what it’s worth (nothing), my prediction for the ACC Atlantic is: #1 NC State, #6 BC, and Maryland somewhere in the middle…. Looking at their schedule, I say they’ll finish 8-4 or maybe 7-5.
Partial retraction
I take back calling the NYT guys idiots. I disagree with them wholeheartedly on placing Boston College ahead of Maryland (for the stated reasons), but their breakdown of the team actually looks pretty decent (although more or less a synthesis of the preseason magazines’ analysis). I’m sure it’s hard to write something that in-depth for all 120 FBS teams so I was probably a little hard on them.
I think the CBS assessment is a better projection though. They have NC State first, and BC last even before Herzlich was diagnosed with cancer. I say GT wins the Coastal, but their guess of VT followed by GT is very feasible. I think UVA will be last (CBS has Duke last) — they are switching to a spread offense, and aside from not having the athletic talent in my opinion, they are going to need time to adjust to that. Im going to go out on a limb and say Duke finishes higher than UVA, maybe even higher than a couple others.
Very valid points JC1...
…but the biggest indicator for a team’s performance is the experience on their offensive line and we’re going to have one of the youngest ones in D1 next year, so I think that is why a lot of people are down on the Terps, so to speak. But all of the things you listed could counter that. But I do agree that I think MD will be a middle of the pack team next year. I think 7-5 is a pretty good guess…
The program
After many years of Maryland football, my wife and I decided to not renew our season tickets. I hope I end up regretting this decision and Don Brown really helps to make this team a winner. I think there is a lot riding on him. Last year took a lot out of the program. Ralph and Debbie Yow both have to share some of the blame. Ralph used to openly talk about an ACC Championship. Now, our goal is to make it to a bowl game. We were in control of our season going into FSU game and even then Ralph didn’t have much to say about the opportunity to win our division. The program needs to get hungry for big wins again. As to Debbie, facilities to generate cash flow has the highest priority. There was no doubt that Cosh wasn’t getting the job done before last season. Why did we waste a year with a senior laden team on him? She wasn’t prepared to buy out the last year of his contract. An AD committed to winning should have found the money.
Then there is Cosh. Maybe he had to deal with team chemistry issues. I don’t know. Certainly no one can complain about his commitment to the defense but maybe he wasn’t getting the players to buy into it. His defense just couldn’t be counted on to keep us in big games and the overall lack of aggressiveness was mind boggling.
Let’s hope Brown can turn that around and make use of the talent they’ve got. A 7-5 season won’t make me reget my decision but 8-4 will.
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