Maryland Football Preview Courtesy of Chad Floyd
07 Aug 2009
12 Teams in 12 Days: Maryland Preview
August 6, 2009
Coach: Ralph Friedgen (9th year at Maryland, 64-36 overall)
Stadium: Byrd, 51,500 (Grass)
Wins: James Madison, Middle Tennessee St., Clemson, Virginia, Boston College
Losses: at California, Rutgers, at Wake Forest, at Duke, at N.C. State, Virginia Tech, at Florida State
Record: 5-7 (3-5 ACC)
Bowl Projection: None
Schedule Overview: The first thing that will jump out to most is, yes, I have them losing at Duke. I’ll address this further with my preview of their season, but they’re too well-coached not to win at least one ACC game. On to the Terps, wins against James Madison and MTSU should be givens. Losses to Cal (top 10 team) and Rutgers (my pick to win the Big East) seem fairly certain by my view. As always with the Terrapins, they will surprise one week and disappoint the next. Therefore, they are impossible to peg in games where the talent levels are similar. The best way to offset this unpredictability was to look at matchups, and thus I see home wins against Clemson, Virginia, and BC. 0-3 against the state of North Carolina is tough for me to justify except by saying that all of those games are on the road.
Outlook: The most profound difference between the 2008 and 2009 Terrapins should be the defensive scheme. New coordinator Don Brown comes from Massachusetts with a more aggressive, attacking scheme. While this should lead to more turnovers forced by the Terps’ D, inexperience will also lead to huge plays for opposing offenses. 60 of their 85 scholarship players have been on campus for no more than two years.
Among those 25 experienced players, however, is a lot of talent. RB Da’Rel Scott illustrates the strength of the running back position in the ACC, as he rushed for 1133 yards last season but wasn’t in the conversation for preseason all-conference. Quarterback Chris Turner provides continuity to the position. Center Phil Costa, my pick for the preseason All-ACC team, anchors a line that only returns two players. Defensively, preseason All-ACC pick Alex Wujciak had 133 tackles last year and anchors the D. Four seniors man a secondary that will be asked to do a lot of single coverage under Brown’s D.
As for the players that need to emerge for the Terps to be successful, sophomores Torrey Smith and Tony Logan will try to replace first-round pick Derrius Heyward-Bey at receiver. The front seven, which switches to a 4-3 base this year, only returns two starters. Besides Wujciak, DT Travis Ivey, and outside linebacker Adrian Moten, all of those positions seem up for grabs. The degree of success these players have will be the difference between a winning season and a step back, in my opinion.