Boston College runs over Terps; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Often in sports, when you are bringing in a new Head Coach (or Mgr.) you are doing so coming off of a poor season. Based on that, the fan-bases of those new Coaches typically are understanding that a building process is going to take place, and that immediate positive results might not happen.

That is not what Coach Edsall inherited here at Maryland. He took over a program that had finished the previous year in the Top 25, had the ACC’s Coach and Rookie of the Year, and won a bowl game. Maryland has facilities better than anything he had at Connecticut. There was also a fair amount of talent returning. Even without his own personnel in place, I think most would have expected a more competitive Terps team than they have shown to be.

To be fair to Coach Edsall, he has had plenty of adversity to deal with. He was surprised by the negative academic status of many Terrapins. Edsall did the right thing by self-reporting the secondary violations under Coach Friedgen, which resulted in the Terps having less practice time per week this year.He ran off a number of players that he did not believe were fitting into the program he wants to run. He lost some players who left on their own. During this season the Terps have been crippled with injuries, forcing 19 Freshman into the 2 deep.

That adversity understood, what has hurt the Terrapins the most is the regression of O’Brien. While the young QB bears part of the responsibility for his lack of results, Edsall and Offensive Coordinator Gary Crowton also need to share the blame for O’Brien’s lack of development. Instead of trying to get O’Brien to fit the offense they would like to run, maybe they should have spent more time evaluating what O’Brien excelled at last year; and incorporating that into their offense.

It should also be noted that part of the rationale for letting go of Friedgen was to fill up the seats and suites at Byrd. Bad weather or not, there was a horrible crowd today, illustrating the general apathy of the fan-base. The Terps will need to be a sustained winner of a period of several years to ever build up a crowd that comes out no matter what. What today showed is that the losing coming into today has had a negative impact in the stands. Would the crowd today (and the results this year) been any different had Mike Leach been hired? That will never be known, but starting next season there will be pressure on Edsall to produce the results necessary to sell more tickets, and be more profitable. It is one thing for a team decimated by injuries to lack the personnel to finish off games against athletically strong opponents like West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Florida State. It is another thing to get literally ran out of your own building against a Boston College team that had entered Saturday 1-6 overall, 0-4 in the ACC, with their only win against 1-AA UMass. The 28-17 Terrapins loss, drops Maryland to 2-6 overall, 1-4 in the ACC.

The Good:

1) Alex Twine recovered a BC fumble in the 2nd Quarter. Without that recovery, the Eagles would have likely moved the score to 28-3.

2) On the next BC series, Chism would add a fumble recovery of his own.

3) Ferrara would escape pressure, and get a punt off rugby style on the Terps first possession of the 3rd. It looked like he would be dropped for a significant loss, instead he got some yards out of punt (and Maryland actually got the ball right back, when the punt went off the ankle of an Eagle).

4) DJ Adams got out of Edsall’s dog-house long enough to pick up 4th and 1 on his 3rd quarter carry. Adams pushed O’Brien into the end zone on the QB’s rushing TD.

5) Meggett had 16 carries for 103 yards.

6) Adrian Coxson gave Maryland their first TD of the day, with a 55 yard reception in the 4th. From Baltimore’s City College, Coxson was a 4star receiver that had enrolled with Florida last year but was given his release.  He finished with 3 catches, for 78 yards, and the TD.

The Bad:

1) Boston College had a 6 play,  60 yard, 2 minute 35 second drive for a TD to start the game. Rolandan Finch ran in untouched from 18 yards out for the score.

2) Maryland’s first series saw them face 3rd and 3 on the Boston College 15 yard line. The Terps ran a fake one way, with Brown coming back across the field and throwing an incomplete pass. Really poor looking play, which stopped the drive short of the end zone.

3) On their fourth possession, the Eagles converted three 3rd downs. The drive consumed 16 plays, 80 yards, and resulted in a third BC TD.

4) At the end of the 1st Quarter, BC’s Finch already had carried the ball 13 times for 76 yards and his score. He finished with 39 carries for 237 yards, and 2 TD’s.

5) I thought O’Brien should have started, but what was the point of starting Brown at all, if you were going to pull him with over 11 minutes left in the 2nd Quarter?

6) After the Twine recovery, Maryland went from their 4 yard line to the BC 39. On 2nd and 9, McCree had a 6 yard loss. Facing 3rd and 15, the Terps were not able to convert.

7) After the Chism recovery, Maryland started with a 1st and 10 at the BC 14. O’Brien would recover his own fumble on 1st down. On 2nd down, the Terps would pick up 2 yards on a pass to McCree. On 3rd and 12, Meggett would drop a pass. On 4th, Ferrara would miss a 34 yard field goal. Down 21-3, these were back to back possessions in BC territory where the Terps came away with nothing.

8) Starting the 3rd quarter, Meggett dropped his 3rd pass of the game.

9) Following Adams’ picking up 4th and 1, Maryland had 1st and Goal at the BC 10 yard line. Meggett up the middle for no gain on 1st, O’Brien rushed for 1 yard on 2nd down, and on 3rd, O’Brien passed to Pickett for 1 yard, setting up Ferrara’s 2nd FG miss.
9a) That 2nd FG miss from Ferrara was on a 27 yard attempt. The field was a mess, but at that point the snow had died down. His own reaction indicated he felt he should have made it. Boston College’s kicker would miss a couple of kicks after this, so maybe the field was too much of a mess to hold Ferrara responsible.

10) As the 3rd quarter ended, Maryland was unable to come up with a needed stop on 4th and 4th.

11) Would have liked to have seen the Terps kickoff after their first TD.

12) Furstenburg’s first reception came with just over 4 minutes left in the 4th.

The Ugly:

1) Brown would be picked off on the Terps 2nd possession, after pump-faking and telegraphing his throw. After starting in Maryland territory, the Eagles would score two plays later when Alex Amidon rushed down the Terps sideline for 21 yards.

2) On O’Brien’s 2nd series, Maryland’s other QB would be picked off as well. O’Brien would finish 14 for 35 for 165 yards, 1 td, 1 rushing td, and that pick.

3) Maryland’s defensive front 7 was dominated by the Boston College offensive line. The ground did not help, but it would be an excuse to say the field was the culprit.

4) Defensive Coordinator Todd Bradford has had to deal with the brunt of the Maryland injuries this year. Any discussion of Bradford’s performance has to start with discussion of those injuries. Still, I think the highlight performance for Maryland’s defense this year was at Georgia Tech. Against that triple-option offense with 6 starters out, the Terps were ‘competitive.’ Beyond that, it has been tough to watch. Under Don Brown, the Terps had the mindset of bringing pressure and attacking. What is Bradford’s focus? Yes, Maryland has lost Tate, Robinson, and Ross for the season. Yes, Maryland has also had to play numerous games without Drakeford, Hartsfield, Monroe, Anderson etc. You still have to do more with the personnel you have.

If it is a priority of the University of Maryland leadership to sell out their luxury boxes at Byrd, give Edsall the dollars necessary to improve his Coaching staff this off-season. Edsall should have his checkbook out, and try and obtain some of the best defensive position coaches he can find. Even if you can not lure such coaches from LSU, or Alabama; you have to be able to improve the current staff with additions from somewhere.

You could also reach out to the pro ranks. The Ravens Secondary Coach is Teryl Austin, who was the Defensive Coordinator for the University of Florida last year. Maybe Austin could bring the Ravens Defensive Line Coach Clarence Brooks with him. Brooks previously had success at the College level as the D-line Coach for the University of Arizona, and their ‘Desert Swarm’ defense in the early ’90’s.