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College Park Collision: How Dangerous is Maryland?

By Joey Weaver
<em>Last year, Tevin was barely good enough to get us a 5-point win. Hopefully he steps up his game when we go to College Park.</em>
Last year, Tevin was barely good enough to get us a 5-point win. Hopefully he steps up his game when we go to College Park.

The first thing that you should know about Maryland (besides the fact that their state pride, while respectable, makes for an absolutely hideous uniform) is that, since we beat them last year, they haven't won. I'm serious. Last year they won on Labor Day against Miami (wearing those awful uniforms, yes), and they won a couple of weeks later against Towson, before coming to Atlanta to begin an 8-game losing streak. They finished the season 2-10. Which reminds me -- if these jokers can beat Miami....WHY THE HELL CAN'T WE?!? But that's a different story for a different day.

Maryland was straight up AWFUL last year. Under new coach Randy Edsall, their defense finished the season at 102nd nationally, giving up 34.3 pts/game (still better than a Dave Wommack defense, for what that's worth), while their offense put up an 87th-ranked 23.1 pts/game. They were bad. Really bad. (Side note: I mentioned the Edsall hire to a Connecticut fan once recently. They almost couldn't stand up because they were laughing so hard.) Let's just say that in Year 2 under Edsall, there's not much reason to think this team will be any better. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and they'll be contenders in the ACC Atlantic. But my best judgement at this point can't think that they'll be much of a threat to anyone.

All of that being said, we know that Tech has been known to hiccup against teams they have no business doing it against. This is a team that, while bad, could still be the blind squirrel that finds the nut if it's placed right in front of him. If Tech takes care of business, they'll come back to Atlanta with the win. If not, they're leaving the door open for a nasty, nasty upset. Here's to hoping that it's a pretty routine victory and no more exciting than it needs to be.

Over or under a 3 touchdown margin of victory for the Jackets? Will we come home with a victory or a nasty upset? Will Edsall restore some respect to the Maryland football program this season, regardless of the outcome of this game?