Maryland football played 6 top-17 teams in final AP poll

It was known well before the season Maryland football had one of the toughest schedules in college football in 2017. The Terps went 4-8 against a schedule that included six of the top 17 teams in the final AP poll.

Head coach DJ Durkin’s squad in fact played four of the top eight teams, including, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 6 UCF (the self-proclaimed National Champs garnered six first place votes for their undefeated season), No. 7 Wisconsin and No. 8 Penn State. The Terps went 0-4 against that slate with a combined score of 204-40.

Two more of Maryland’s losses came at the hands of Michigan State and Northwestern, who finished the season ranked No. 15 and No. 17, respectively.

On the season, the Terps went 1-5 against ranked teams, with their only win coming against Texas, who started the season ranked No. 23, but didn’t make the year-end list. (Northwestern wasn’t ranked when it came to College Park, while Michigan was No. 21 when it played the Terps.)

Only three teams that made the final poll appear on Maryland’s schedule for 2018—Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State—but that’s a whole new season.

In other news

Durkin officially announced the additions of offensive line coach Bryan Stinespring and safeties coach Chuck Heater to the coaching staff. Linebackers coach Matt Barnes was also given the responsibility of special teams coordinator, even though Pete Lembo still holds the title. Jared tried to make sense of all the madness.

Stinespring won’t get the opportunity to coach former four-star Richard Merritt, who will transfer to a junior college without playing a down on offense for the Terps.

Juan Dixon finally has his first win as Coppin State’s head coach, and he’s finding out the hard way how difficult it is to win at historically black colleges and universities that often have to stack their schedules with Power-5 “buy games,” from The Washington Post.

After a career with the Terps that included two seasons with over 30 tackles, defensive end Cavon Walker will try to make it in the pros. He’s signed with the Athletes Trust sports agency to try to build his draft stock; he’s not currently projected to get drafted.