Remember the days when Maryland football was a perennial bottom dweller in the ACC?  I’m talking about the days of Andy Geiger, Mark Duffner, and Ron Vanderlinden.  The program was starving for direction and hungry for wins, but somehow everything seemed simpler then.  Every victory seemed like a big victory, and every loss was easily forgotten.

Those simple days are gone.  Expectations were high coming into this season.  The fans had gotten used to to the team winning during the last eight years since Ralph Friedgen took over.  Now that the program has had a few lean years anger is surfacing and fear is creeping into College Park.  Newsmen are calling for Friedgen’s fat head on a platter, or at least planting the seed for a firing.  Fans are heading for the exits.

Take heart Terrapin fans.  Although this is shaping up to be a long, unsuccessful season, there are still good reasons to root for the Terps.  First off, the ACC schedule hasn’t even started yet, and Maryland’s in conference schedule is weak.  In the final eight games, Maryland does not play a ranked team outside of Virginia Tech on 11/14.  Outside of that game, road games against Florida State and NC State are probably the toughest match-ups the Terps will face through the rest of the year.  Neither of those two teams is lighting the nation on fire right now.  It would be a stretch to say Maryland can go 6-2 against the ACC and become bowl eligible, but they can be competitive in conference with the likes of Clemson, Wake Forest, Virginia, and Duke coming up.  If the Terps can start getting its defense off the field, then the team could potentially still finish .500 given the weak schedule it has.

Although the Virginia Tech game is almost guaranteed to be a loss, it will still be fun to have a top 10 school come into College Park.  This is the type of game that used to get the campus lit up back in the day.  A highly ranked team comes to town, Terps fans tailgate hard and pack Byrd Stadium, and once in awhile the Terps win due to sheer force of will.  I’d love to see the Terps get their act together and pose a legitimate spoiler threat to Tech near the end of the year.  That game alone is something to get psyched for.

Most importantly, Terps fans should keep watching to see some key players as they develop on the field.  Sophomore Torrey Smith is turning into a bonafide star, and is averaging 244 all purpose yds/gm through four games, including an average of 96 REC yds/gm.  Smith also has 4 TD in 4 games.  Sophomore cornerback Cameron Chism has showed evidence of progress on the field while learning on the job, and currently has 2 INT to go along with 20 tackles, 13 of which were solo tackles.  After an off-season of intense and well documented competition at the kicker position, freshman Nick Ferrara has emerged with a steady foot, and is so far 6/8 FG with no missed extra points.

Relax Terps fans.  Take a deep breath.  Don’t drive yourself crazy for the next few months.  For the rest of this year, try and dial your mind back to the times when the Fall was footloose and fancy free.  Readjust your expectations.  You’ll enjoy the wins more, just like in the old days.

-terphed (http://shellgames.wordpress.com/)

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Tags: Cameron Chism, Maryland football, Nick Ferrara, Torrey Smith

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 7:29 pm and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.