In Ralph Friedgen’s return to Maryland, from 2001-2003 he went 31-8. Then the drop off came with a pair of back to back 5-6 seasons along with a 6-7 record in ‘07 and a 2-10 record in ‘09. There are several factors that you can point to as to why Friedgen’s final 7 seasons were more uneven. One of those factors was the expansion of the ACC with Virginia Tech and Miami entering in 2004 and Boston College entering in 2005. Just when Maryland was getting their program back on track and becoming a factor in the ACC, in came some former Big East schools. VA Tech always had a solid program under Frank Beamer and recruited in MD’s backyard to begin with, Boston College was just beginning a nice run with QB Matt Ryan for 3 years and Miami was trying to rebuild once again after another couple of National Championship runs but they were still ‘The U’ with a ton of tradition over their last 25 years. Then towards the end of Maryland’s tenure in the ACC, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Pitt entered. The point of all this being is the timing of the new ACC entrants was poor maybe even bad for Maryland at a time when they could have continued to consistently flourish.
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Flash forward to 2020. Maryland Head Coach Mike Locksley who has already had numerous coaching stints in College Park takes over a fallen program in 2019. He goes 3-9 but rebuilds bridges and strengthens relationships locally. He starts back up and delivers the DMV movement that never came to full fruition in the Edsall days. Now there is a genuine excitement about the future of Terps football in College Park with an excellent 2021 class coming in made up largely of DMV kids. There is also excitement because Locksley is a local guy, and this is his dream job and its legitimate as he grew up in DC rooting for the Terps.
Getting back to timing. Look around the Big Ten. In the East Division we already know the powerhouse that Ohio State is, the tradition of Michigan and Penn State. Indiana has and is climbing the ladder and is ahead of Maryland in the division. They have a ton of players back, talented ones too and will be a tough opponent for anyone. Tom Allen and his predecessor have done a nice job making Hoosier football respectable, 8 wins last year to boot. They still haven’t won a Bowl Game since ’91 but they are getting there. The Hoosiers are an underrated program in the Big Ten, but the results are there.
Then you have Michigan State with new Head Coach Mel Tucker who has a very solid resume – much of it in the NFL. He is a former college player himself and a good one. He is from Cleveland and has those Ohio ties in that rich recruiting state. Tucker is young and hungry and has coached at MSU as a GA and has been at the big boy schools too like Alabama, LSU and Ohio State. While MSU has quickly fallen from an elite Big Ten team to the middle of the pack they still have a lot of recent tradition to sell, more so than Michigan and Penn State. Then you have Greg Schiano who has come back to Rutgers for Part II to try to rebuild what he once built up only to see it falter and then enter Big Ten Football playing major catch up. Schiano has great New Jersey ties in an excellent high school football state. He also coached at Miami at one point and has ties to the state of Florida as well, another talent rich hot bed.
On the other side of the East in the West you have your stalwarts in Wisconsin and Iowa. Throw in Northwestern, the underrated program of the West, three 10-win seasons and one 9-win season in the last ten years. Put them all aside. You have a Minnesota program in PJ Fleck who had a phenomenal year winning 11 games including a Bowl win over Auburn. He has is going into his 4th year. He currently has a Top 5 Big Ten recruiting class. Scott Frost who had a sensational college career is back at his alma mater Nebraska going into his 3rd year. It is taking longer than people like in Lincoln, but you know your going to get 500% from Frost who will not go down without a big fight. Jeff Brohm is going into his 4th year at Purdue with a super loaded young team who got a lot of experience last year due to injury.
Timing! Timing can be everything! I do not write this necessarily as a negative because the rest of the league has to compete with Mike Locksley too and the days of the DMV being picked apart by outsiders is over for the time being. However, Locksley is entering the Big Ten with some difficult timing. There are two coaches within his Division rebuilding at the same time and are geographically close. Both those coaches have NFL resumes and can recruit too. Indiana is already ahead of MD and Rutgers in establishing respectability in the East. MSU is caught in the middle, it could go either way for Tucker but Sparty has been among the best in the Conference over the last 15 years. In the West you have 3 coaches who are building or who have built the program up and have three years of groundwork laid.
A lot can happen in the next few years, it would not be surprising if Tucker went back to the NFL, Brohm and Fleck end up taking bigger college jobs or in Brohm’s case goes back to the NFL where he played. It is the end of the line though for Schiano, so he is going to see it through as is Frost with his deep ties to Nebraska. Indiana might succumb to the increased competition in the East, but Allen is staying put. This is a strong Big Ten Conference when it comes to coaching and Mike Locksley’s timing in taking over Maryland was perfect but his timing in entering the Conference makes it a very difficult job on top of the fact it’s Big Ten Football. Time will tell but the progress or lack of progress at Michigan State, Rutgers, Minnesota, Purdue and Nebraska will play a factor in Mike Locksley and Maryland’s success. Timing.
Terps Analyst
Mike Popovec is a Weekend and Fill-In host at 105-7 The Fan. In addition Mike hosts the Pre and Post, Halftime and Scoreboard Updates for the Football Games on the Maryland Terrapins Sports Radio Network. He also hosts the Pre and Post Game Show on weekends for some of the Maryland Basketball Games. Popovec also hosts a local News, Talk and Sports Morning Program at the beach on 92-7 WGMD. He also produces and hosts High School Football Games and Shows throughout the season out of Easton covering the Eastern Shore’s Bayside Conference. He sideline reports for CW54 for the Maryland State High School Football Playoffs with Bruce Cunningham, Doug Duvall and Wally Williams.