Terrapins win first ACC contest

The Maryland Terrapins sure love to make it interesting. In a game with multiple momentum shifts, missed field goals, and high-pressure moments, the Terrapins came away with their first Atlantic Coast Conference win against the Clemson Tigers, 24-21. Both teams made mistakes at critical junctions in the game and the game swung in the balance for the last five minutes.

“I was working my rosary pretty good,” head coach Ralph Friedgen said after the game.

For a team that had lost two consecutive games and was being left for dead, a win against Clemson seemed like a tall task.

Clemson got on the board first with a field goal by Richard Jackson following a muffed punt return by Anthony Wiseman. Five minutes later, the Tigers scored on a touchdown run by wide receiver Jacoby Ford to take a 10-0 lead. It looked as though the Terrapins would find themselves on the wrong side of a blowout for the second week in a row.

The Terrapins would fight back, however, with a 43-yard field goal by Nick Ferrara early in the second quarter. Jackson would kick a 51-yard field goal to make the score 13-3 to put the Tigers up 10.

The Maryland offense would come to life, however, and capped off a 76-yard drive with a 29-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Torrey Smith. Following a defensive stop, the Terrapins would get the ball back with 2:15 remaining in the half and drive 81 yards to take the lead 17-13 into the half.

In the third quarter, Tony Logan returned a short punt to the Clemson 1-yard line to give the Terrapins a chance to add to their lead. Three plays later, Davin Meggett took an option pitch from Turner and dodged a tackler to give the Terrapins a 24-13 lead with 4:27 left in the third quarter.

On the ensuing kickoff, Spiller broke multiple tackles and went 93 yards to swing the momentum back in Clemson’s favor. A two-point conversion brought the Tigers back within three points. The two teams would continue to trade possessions until late in the fourth quarter. With less than five minutes remaining, Friedgen decided to go for it on a forth and short from his own 30 yard line. He called for a QB sneak.

“James [Franklin] wanted to go for it. The kids wanted to go for it. I knew our defense was tired, and I went for it,” Friedgen said. “I wanted to think about it. I probably changed my mind three times.”

Chris Turner was stopped and lost yardage. Friedgen left his defense to face a good Clemson offense already in field goal range. It looked like the game would either be tied or the Terrapins would find themselves trailing with little time remaining.

His defense stepped up, however, and forced a three-and-out by the Tigers. Richard Jackson went out and kicked a long field goal to tie the game. There was one problem: Friedgen had called a timeout right before Clemson hiked the ball. Jackson was forced to try again, and missed.

The Terrapins had dodged a bullet and had a chance to ice the game with a couple first downs. On their first play, however, Meggett fumbled the ball and gave the ball right back to the Tigers. The defense, yet again, stopped the Tigers in their tracks and forced a field goal attempt. Surely Jackson, one of the best kickers in the ACC, would not miss twice from the same spot.

He did. Jackson missed the kick again, and gave the Terrapins another chance to end the game. The Maryland offense, however, was forced to punt after another three and out.

With the ball back and 1:30 left on the clock, the Clemson offense had a chance to march down the field and tie or win the game. After three plays, they were already in field goal range in Maryland territory. On third down, however, Terrapin linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield capped off a 10-tackle day by breaking free and sacking Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker. Hartsfield forced Parker to drop the ball, and, after a review, Maryland had the ball and their first ACC victory.

Still, the Terrapins have problems on both sides of the ball. They had costly fumbles, untimely penalties, and missed assignments.

“I know what’s wrong and I’m trying to fix it,” Friedgen said. “But it was better today.”

The running game also continued to struggle. The Terrapinsonly had 28 total yards on the ground last week vs. Rutgers. Turner was the Terrapins’ leading rusher at the half with 7 carries for 31 yards. Da’Rel Scott, who lead the Terrapins in rushing last season and came into the game with 297 yards on the ground, had no carries in the first half and sustained an injury on his first carry of the second half. Meggett ended up with 10 attempts for 29 yards and Gary Douglas had 7 carries for 24 yards.

Defensively, the Terrapins had their best game of the season. Clemson running back C.J. Spiller was held in check (18 attempts for 72 yards) despite his kickoff return and first-year defensive coordinator Don Brown was finally able to use the blitz effectively to stop the powerful Clemson offense, especially in crucial moments in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. Brown saw his defense become closer as a unit and better at running his defense.

“We’re really getting comfortable now in terms of guys disguising. We’re running the pressures. Even though we only sacked [Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker] twice today, we chased him around all day long,” Brown said. He also felt his defense finally put together a solid, full game, which is something he preached all week long.

“The proof is in the pudding. We played 60 minutes today.”


-Tyler Radecki

Terps avoid upset, beat JMU in Overtime

For a large portion of last night's game, it looked like JMU would be the third FCS team to beat an ACC team. The Dukes came out of the 2nd half, scored 21 unanswered points, and completely shut down the Maryland offense. At one point, the Maryland offense went three-and-out following a JMU touchdown, prompting boos from the Terrapin faithful.

But as the fourth quarter went on, the Terrapins bounced back, coming back from down a touchdown twice. Chris Turner led his team back with some clutch passing plays - one a 20-yard pass to Ronnie Tyler on fourth down and two - and the defense made crucial stops when they needed to. As the two teams headed to overtime, it looked like the Terps would be able to pull it out. A three-and-out and a missed field goal later, the Terrapins had their chance; they ran the ball to get inside the redzone, centered the ball, and brought in true freshman Nick Ferrara to kick the game winning field goal. The Terrapins had survived a big-time scare, winning the game 38-35. It wasn't pretty, but it was a win.

"Just another day in the office," an exhausted Ralph Friedgen said as he entered the post-game news conference.

Last night's game was a roller coaster ride for the Terrapins, but they managed to stay in the game and win it in overtime. Here's some other notable quotes from Friedgen:

On the momentum swings and the team's perseverance:
" I was very proud of the way our players hung in there and fought. I knew the game was, momentum was getting ready to swing. We turned the ball over, with the interception for the touchdown, and momentum really swung in their favor. And sometimes, that’s hard to turn around, especially with a young team. And our kids hung in there, and found a way to win, and that’s a positive. It kind of showed who they were. If you had won big, you might never know that. But now, they’ve been in a situation in which they had to fight and scrap for a win against a very good football team that was very well coached."

On improvements on both sides of the ball:
" There are a lot of things we have to get corrected. Defensively, I think we have to tackle better and we have to play our responsibilities better. We have to make more plays. We’re not making as many plays as I thought we would make after camp. Offensively, we need to limit the penalties. Those are the things I am going to get corrected this week."

On the status of the team, his concerns:
"I think I have concerns. I do think we will get better and I'd like to say it'll happen overnight. The penalties and fumbles have nothing to do with experience; we have to get smarter and better. One thing that is positive about these kids is that they will work. We can't get frustrated and listen to a lot of the negative talk. We have to stay together as a team, and trust the coaches. That's the only thing I know how to do."

On senior quarterback Chris Turner:
"I was pretty impressed with Chris all night. He threw the interception and got dinged up a little bit too. The play he scored on, I don't think I've seen him make a play like that since he's been here. That was tough and he stuck it in the end-zone. I thought he hung in there. Chris has always been at his best in the toughest times and I think he came through for us big time tonight."

Senior defensive tackle Travis Ivey:

On the defensive problems:
"All the gashes came from missed tackles, not from people not being in the right place."

On facing and preparing for a team using two quarterbacks:

"We know one guy likes to run, we know one guy likes to do both. We play the same way regardless."

On potential positives to take away from the game:

"There’s always reason for optimism, especially when you pull the game out. The one positive thing we can take out of this game is that we never gave up. If there’s one positive, it’s that we didn’t give up."

On the play of the younger players:

"We prepare everybody as a starter. That's the one thing Coach [says]. Whether you start or you don't start, that basically you've got to be ready at anytime. We've got Cameron Chism. We've got Richard Taylor. We've got a couple of guys that come in and I don't think there is going to be any type of let-up because these guys have been playing pretty good at practice, anyway. I look forward to seeing those guys go out there and play and see what they can do."

On the aggressiveness of the defense:

"I think we played too aggressive at times. We missed a few tackles because we were too aggressive. I think if we just go back to the drawing board and keep working on our fundamentals, we hopefully won’t miss those tackles that we missed."

Junior Linebacker Alex Wujciak:

On getting better as a team:

"We’re definitely going to gradually get better. I think we learned how to win tonight. Finish games out. Just like coach preached to us all week. We have a lot of young guys, and I think they all got a lot of experience tonight."

On JMU's performance:
"There are a lot of good players and they run a different offense than we're used to seeing, so it was definitely a challenge for us."

On the biggest challenge on defense:
"Probably when they run that spread when the quarterback kept it."

Other notes from the post-game:

-Cornerback Nolan Carroll is likely done for the season after breaking his tibia bone. A senior and one of the team's co-captains, Carroll's loss not only hurts the secondary, but the entire team.

-Saturday's overtime game was the Terrapins' first overtime game since September 22, 2007 at Wake Forest; they lost that game 31-24. Their last overtime win was a 33-30 win on November 12th, 2005 at North Carolina. It was their first overtime game at home since 2000, when they beat N.C. State 35-28.

-Torrey Smith continued to add to his sparkling kick return resume by returning a kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. Smith was also a focal point of the offense, leading the team with 8 catches for 80 yards. He also had an 8 yard touchdown run to tie the game at 28. In total, he had 229 all-purpose yards.

-Da'Rel Scott only had four carries in the second half, but gained 22 yards on those four carries. He ended with 17 carries for 68 yards and a touchdown. Chris Turner ended with 7 carries for 28 yards, capped off by a 3-yard touchdown run in the 2nd quarter.

-Maryland utilized its depth at wide receiver all night long. Smith led the team with 8 catches, but Quintin McCree had four, Adrian Cannon had 5 (for 55 yards and a touchdown), Ronnie Tyler had 3 for 47 (one of which on 4th down), and LaQuan Williams had one. Most of the passes were screen passes to complement the running game, but late in the game the playbook opened up as the offense featured more spread formations and crossing routes.

-Check out Eric Prisbell's recap from today's Washington Post.

-Next Saturday the Terrapins take on Middle Tennessee State. It will be an interesting test for the Terrapins, who could not contain the Blue Raiders' spread offense and could not muster any long drives. This year's game is at Byrd Stadium, but with the Terps already having trouble with JMU's spread offense, Middle Tennessee State could do some significant damage.