Vince Salamone/The Diamondback
The Terrapin football team’s chance to be taken seriously in the ACC this season passed away at 6:52 p.m. Saturday in Byrd Stadium. It was three games old.
Middle Tennessee kicker Alan Gendreau did the honors with his 19-yard walk-off field goal that gave the Blue Raiders a 32-31 win. There were 43,167 people who got tickets to see it, but many of them were gone or never bothered to show up at all.
The Terps’ loss to the Sun Belt Conference foe for the second straight season added another unsightly blemish to the Terps’ record. But it also showed how far the team needs to go to be good and how much improvement hasn’t happened through the first three games.
The conference schedule is coming, and opposing teams aren’t scared to see the Terps on their schedule. On a Saturday when the ACC gained credibility from key non-conference wins by Florida State and Virginia Tech, the Terps’ home loss to Middle Tennessee sent an entirely different message.
When the Terps’ hopes slipped away, nobody really knew how to react.
It was quick, thanks to a 73-yard Blue Raider drive that lasted just 90 seconds. But the blow levied by quarterback Dwight Dasher and Co. was hardly painless.
Terp players filed into the Gossett Football Team House as the Mighty Sound of Maryland solemnly sounded “The Battle” from Gladiator. To their left, Middle Tennessee, which marked last season’s win with a storming of its own Red Floyd Stadium, celebrated the biggest road win in its history with its small blue-clad contingent.
No one quite knew what to say.
Junior linebacker Alex Wujciak couldn’t decide if the loss represented the lowest point in his Terp career.
“No. Umm. I don’t know. It could be actually,” Wujciak said. “We’re 1-2 right now. That’s unacceptable. This is a game we shoulda had.”
For a team that has seen its share of puzzling and frustrating losses in recent seasons, the players and coaches’ struggle for answers told a lot.
“I woulda bet a million dollars on that last drive that we were going to win the game,” quarterback Chris Turner said.
Coach Ralph Friedgen realizes the direction the team seems to be headed. He was uncharacteristically angry after the loss, vowing to change the turnovers, penalties and generally uninspired play around with a return to strict discipline.
But his only grief was for the three lost fumbles, and he wasn’t ready to eulogize the season.
“I’m going to go back, and I’m going to start getting real tough,” Friedgen said. “We’re going to start doing things the right way. We’re going to play better next week. I’m going to promise you.”
The Terps played poorly the first two weeks, but a promise of improved play with more time to gain experience at least brought hope. This inexplicable loss makes the flaws shown in those two games even more obvious and less fixable. Now, the Terps will be lumped at the bottom of the conference with Duke, which got throttled Saturday at No. 20 Kansas, and Virginia, which blew a 17-point second-half lead to lose at Southern Miss, until they prove otherwise.
After contending for a spot in the ACC Championship game two of the past three seasons, the Terps have already made a strong statement that it won’t be that type of year.
In lieu of flowers, send better play-calling, improved offensive line play and a defense that allows fewer than 30 points per game to the Gossett Football Team House.
“We just can’t keep making mistakes and beating ourselves,” anchor Deege Galt said. “Something needs to happen. We need to start rolling and get this thing going again.”
The team hopes its somber postgame ritual Saturday was a funeral for its poor play. In theory, there are still nine games to get the season turned around and a fourth-straight bowl berth isn’t inconceivable.
But if you want to stage your own personal Byrd Blackout to mourn during next week’s game against Rutgers, it should be in honor of the team’s fallen conference credibility.
edetweiler@umdbk.com
