Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

I will have to admit, I wasn’t home for the first half of the game.  You see these days, Maryland football isn’t appointment television for me.  If something more appealing comes up, I am going to do it.  Yesterday, it was an afternoon on the town with my wife who finally felt well enough to leave the house for a while.  So, I kept checking the score, getting text from everyone, including my mother who couldn’t believe they were winning.  So I got home, fired up ESPN 3, and voila, NC State is celebrating in the end zone.  No big deal right?  I mean it was 41-21 in the third.

As I watched feeling kind of excited, and hoping Edsall would get a win to send these seniors out with a win in their last game that had been through such a horrendous season, it started happening.  Three and out, NC State score.  Fumble, NCState score.  All of the sudden it was 41-35, and Uncle Mo was clearly on the Wolfpack’s side.  We were on the door step of keeping the pack out of a bowl game.  Something we all surely, could find some joy in with as bad as our season was.  And it was all slipping away.

Interception, a few minutes later, another touchdown.  Game was tied, pending the extra point.  State made it, and they had taken the lead.  I let myself think, well we still have time.  Then I thought back to games of the past this season.  WVU, we had a chance late, but couldn’t do it.  Georgia Tech, same story, coming up short late.  Clemson, well, that seemed eerily similar.  It was then that I knew it wasn’t going to happen.  Pick six, ball game.  Season over, and let the Edsall bashing continue with even more jet fuel for the fire.

From the time I walked through the door, NC State outscored the Terps 42-0 in a little over quarter.  Really?  Is that even possible?  This season anything negative was possible.  The entire second half they kept saying how the Terps were pressuring Glennon in the first half.  What happened there.  I saw a couple of Terps in the back field until they completed that fourth down.  After that, it was as if the Terps went into a prevent mode.  All that did was make Glennon look like an elite QB.  Of course this wasn’t the first time Maryland’s defense did that this season.

I think the thing that burnt me the most was seeing Edsall smiling on the sideline as this was unfolding.  It was almost like he was saying, “I don’t know what I am doing out here, and I can’t think of anything to change what is happening.  Might as well laugh.”  I’m sure that wasn’t it, but as I watched through my sometimes clear, sometimes grainy ESPN 3 feed, that’s the feeling I got,  and it hurt me to see him looking like that.  If thats his personality, that he laughs when things get tough, I guess we are going to see a lot of him smiling in the future, because the immediate future isn’t looking bright.

Let me throw one more quick thought out there for you.  Edsall, has his reasons for doing what he does.  We don’t see everything, but it is clear he made a mistake here.  When he buried DJ Adams on the depth chart in favor of Freshman Justus Pickett, well that’s when he started to really make me question what he was doing.  Yesterday was more fuel for that fire.  Adams finished the day with 3 carries for 41 yards.  Pickett, 5 carries for -5 yards.  Sure Adams picked up 33 on one carry.   Take that away, and he still had 8 yards on 2 carries.  Still beats -5 right? What could he possibly have done to have been left out of some of those early games?

There is a lot to say regarding this football team.  There is going to be a lot of news this offseason with transfers, position coaching changes (hopefully), and flat out disgust.  This week we have a big basketball game against Illinois on Tuesday and another against Notre Dame on Sunday.  In the time between, I hope to really dig into the debacle that is Maryland Football.  Lord knows we have plenty of material.  Edsall took all the hype surrounding Danny O’Brien and helped ride him to the bench.  He took an All Conference player in Kenny Tate, and made in a non factor in the few games he did play, by moving him out of position.

I’m sorry I didn’t write this yesterday.  I was so angry, and it would have been a complete Edsall bashing anger filled rant.  This still was, but I feel a little calmer today.  I wish Edsall luck.  I want Maryland to win.  If he is the coach, I want him to win.  It doesn’t mean I have to endorse him.  It doesn’t mean I have to like how he does it.  I don’t think I can root against the team, just to see a coaching change.  He has a lot to do to repair this fan base, and he needs to look in mirror if it is going to happen.  We are stuck with him for the near future.  We as a fan base don’t fund the athletic department enough to buy out the remaining $10 million on his contract.  We can’t even fund enough to keep all the teams competing.

Extra Droppings:

Though Maryland football has ended, Maryland Futbol is alive and well in the NCAA Tournament.  The Terps face #12 Louisville at 5:00 on Campus.  If you want one last tailgate for the season, I present you this opportunity.  Go Terps!

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2011 at 7:11 am and is filed under Maryland Terps Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.