Saturday, October 13th
Last year was a complete disaster for new Maryland coach, Randy Edsall, as his team followed up Jabba the Hutt's 9-4 2010 campaign with a 2-10 year and the early departure of seemingly half the team. Coming into 2012, UMD needs to replace their QB, best offensive linemen, and a dozen others who jumped ship after meeting their militaristic new coach. But hey, at least Edsall can say everyone still on the team really wants to be there. Truly, this team is in terrible shape. After incumbent QB Danny O'Brien, who tore it up in 2010, transferred after being replaced, the man who replaced him, C.J. Moore, tore his ACL in summer camp. Now, this already terrible team will be looking to freshman Perry Hills to run around as quarterback.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Maryland also brought in a new defensive coordinator to change up their system on that side of the ball. Brian Stewart runs a 3-4, which isn't an easy transition for college teams by any means...and certainly susceptible to the run, particularly without the perfect type of trained athletes needed to run it effectively. Let's see...how did Maryland look last year against the run?
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| First play of the game. |
Alright, well I guess you've got to start somewhere. Sometimes "somewhere" is from the very bottom.
Speaking of new coaches, Maryland also sunk to an entirely new level of garbage with its panic hire in the offseason of Mike Locksley, who completely failed in his first attempt as a head coach at New Mexico. Locksley brings some of the UNC flavor back to the ACC as an assistant coach, already throwing enough Xboxs at mega-recruit Stefon Diggs to upgrade the talent instantly at the skill positions. Locksley does have a pretty decent track record as strictly an offensive coordinator, so he may be able to make something out of the complete shitshow of a depth chart. Can it come together this season? I doubt it. But there's enough talent for a couple big plays here and there. However, he's probably only got a 2 year window before Edsall gets canned or the NCAA shuts down the terrible program due to its recently installed benefits program. Whatever brings in the wins though, right? But those wins aren't going to come easily anytime soon. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see Maryland go winless for the next couple years (or forever), which won't happen. However, they'll be pretty darn awful this season.
The Hoos should control the game from the start this year. The usual plan, mixing up the offense after establishing the run, should lead to a ton of possession and a ton of points and while our defense will have holes this year, they're going to be a hell of a lot better than this pathetic opponent. One of Edsall's first quotes after taking the job was "We don't lose to Virginia." The football and basketball teams are 1-4 since that statement. 1-5 should be easy enough.
Early Prediction: Hoos 40 Turtles 10
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