Here are the list of officially signed Terps from the UMTerps website.  It looks like there are a few stragglers out there.  Let’s just hope everyone who committed signs.   And keep your fingers crossed maybe we can get a surprise signing as well.  For those who made it official, welcome aboard, and we look forward to seeing you in uniform.

Signing Day Log (confirmed NLIs)

• P.J. Gallo (7:01 a.m.)
• Alvin Hill (7:02 a.m.)
• Nick Brigham (7:10 a.m.)
• Stefan Houston (7:19 a.m.)
• Malcolm Culmer (7:24 a.m.)
• Kenneth Goins (7:28 a.m.)
• Joe Riddle (7:32 a.m.)
• Wes Brown (7:44 a.m.)
• Brock Dean (7:50 a.m.)
• Perry Hills (7:54 a.m.)
• Anthony Nixon (7:55 a.m.)
• Shawn Petty (7:57 a.m.)
• Caleb Rowe (8:23 a.m.)
• Mike Madaras (8:32 a.m.)
• Albert Reid (8:41 a.m.)
• Avery Thompson (8:45 a.m.)
• Amba Etta-Tawo (8:47 a.m.)
• Roman Braglio (8:50 a.m.)

It is hard to be too optimistic after the disaster that was the 2011 Maryland Football season.  Enter DC Recruiting specialist Mike Locksley, and maybe, just maybe there is a sliver of hope us Maryland fans could be pleasantly surprised.  I guess the worst case scenario is that the 23 players who “committed” actually sign tomorrow.   The best case scenario is that Locksley swoops in and nabs an player who has yet to make a commitment, or “steals” one from a certain school up north with a new coach.

Personally, I think Locksley got involved too late this season to truly have a positive effect on this class.  Next year is another story, but I think the combination of the 2-10 record and Locks coming on board just a month ago aren’t really going to help us this year.   That being said there is still some top talent that at least have the Terps listed.  The biggest get would be WR Stephon Diggs from Olny/ Good Council.  I would put this at about a 1% chance of happening, but…   The bad news is he never took an official visit, and just a couple of days ago went to USC.  So I guess the hopes of him wanting to stay close to home is about our only hope.

Ronald Darby is a Penn State commit that did take an official visit to Maryland.  The CB from Oxon Hill could find his way to Maryland if he wasn’t enamored with all the drama at Penn State.  Again the odds of this is very low, but you just never know.  Stranger things have happened on signing day.  Usually they happen to Maryland, not in our favor.

So don’t forget to keep an eye on all the signing day craziness.  I have a pretty busy day tomorrow, but maybe I will be able to update where the Terps stand at lunch time.

One final football note.  I would like to point out that Gary Crowton did indeed find his next job.  He is on his way to Canada and will be the OC for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.  We will always have fond memories of Coach Crowton from that Miami game.  And that is all!

The original post was going to be about how great Maryland plays basketball down the stretch, but…well….

Anyway, Chris and I both followed this story close on Twitter and know that this has a lot of meaning to many of our friends.  In fact, this has a lot of meaning for anyone who has lived near or around Annapolis.  One of the great, well you can’t really call it a secret, but one of the great restaurants in the Capitol is Chick and Ruth’s.

I know I have had many a breakfast there back when I lived in Annapolis, mostly after a night out on the town, and before taking an out of towner back to the airport.  In many cases both.  Well Chick and Ruth’s is famous for hosting all the important political figures in the state (there is a table for the Governor aways at the ready), but they also have the Food Challenges.

The Challenge has 4 versions; first is “Man vs. Food” which is 6 lb milkshake and a 1.5 lb sandwich.  Number two is the Colossal Milkshake Challenge which is just the 6 lb milkshake (I use the term “just” lightly).  The third is the Super Colossal Sandwich Challenge which involves a 3 lb sandwich, and fourth is the Super Duper Colossal Burger Challenge, which consists of a 3 lb cheeseburger.  Win and you get your photo on the Chick and Ruth’s website.

Well thanks to Twitter we know now the Maryland’s own AJ Francis is among the latest to finish the 6 lb Milkshake Challenge.  It didn’t seem as though he had much trouble consuming the milkshake, but keeping it down was another issue.  Congratulations to AJ on being part of an Annapolis tradition (a tradition for others, not me!).  I’m sure he has on less thing hanging around on his bucket list.

Well it looks as if the replacement for To(dd) Bra(d)for(d) is about to be made.  Brian Stewart, University of Houston’s DC is expected to be announced as the Terps new Defensive Coordinator according to Patrick Stevens.  The interesting part of this for me is, Stewart was passed over by Houston to become the head coach when they promoted special teams coach Tony Levine instead of Stewart.  I don’t know enough about any of the parties involved other than to say it is interesting they went with a special teams coach over a coordinator. You can also throw in the fact that Levine didn’t retain Stewart as an interesting tidbit as well.

When you think of Houston, you think of prolific… offense.  And we go out and get the defensive coordinator.  Sounds like the Maryland Football way to me.  In all honesty, Houston had a pretty solid defense, and some of those numbers are probably worse than they should be, just because of the sheer minutes they spent on the field.  With that much offense going on, you are bound to be out there a little more than the average defense.  One number to look at is red zone defense.  They only allowed points on 67% of opponents trips inside the redzone (2nd in the NCAA), and were among the nations leaders in takeaways.  So I guess you can say that had a pretty solid defense.  I guess it would be hard for a team to go 13-1 with a less than solid defense.

So what does it mean in the grand scheme of things?  Who knows.  You would have to think he would be an upgrade over Bradford.  He has a little NFL experience with the Cowboys, and it appears his recruiting ties would be with Texas and other Midwest states.  Not sure how that translates for the Terps, but I think everyone involved is happy to see Bradford and his historically bad defense leave the team.

First of all, I would like to apologize for not covering the Wake Forest game, we were sort of in a unique position last week as Chris was without a computer and I am living out of a suitcase up in Philadelphia while my son gets hospitalized for some treatments.  So the Wake game sort of came and went without any coverage from Turtledroppings.   But for those who missed it, the Terps did win, so yeah!!

Anyway, the news of the day is the Todd Bradford buyout, which became official today.  Sometimes news comes out of nowhere and sometimes you can see things coming from miles away.  This was the later.  Speculation was that Bradford would be bought out, so this should come to no one as a surprise, but more of  making something official.

No need to re-hash the Bradford era, he wasn’t a popular choice when hired, and we were even mocked (and rightfully so) by Southern Miss fans.  Bradford then proceeded to steer the program into it’s worst defensive effort of all time, ranking last in the ACC.  Under Bradford the Terps gave up 34.2 points a game, while teams wore themselves out amassing 457.2 yards per game.

It wasn’t entirely Bradford’s fault, there were plenty of injury issues, but after the NC State game, there was little to be said about retaining him, injuries or not.  So now it is time to move on to the speculation of who will be replacing Bradford.  I know Clemson’s DC just became available, but I can’t see him commanding much attention after that Orange Bowl debacle.  One name that won’t be brought up is PSU’s Larry  Johnson.  Though we would all love to have him, PSU is keeping him, so we can put that baby to bed right now.

The good news is that Maryland can’t do worse next year, so whoever comes in, will enter a position with a potential for a lengthy honeymoon period, so that has to be appealing.  Hopefully we can hire someone who can bring the buzz we generated locally by bringing back Mike Locksley.  That will remain to be seen, but I do find it a little bit more easy to be optimistic about Terp Football again.

So that’s good.

With basketball season about to go full bore with the start of the ACC schedule this weekend, there is some good news regarding the football team to announce.  Yeah, hard to believe the words “good news” and “Maryland Football” can be used in the same sentence, but last night on the Under Armour All-American game, Wes Brown committed to Maryland on ESPN.  You have to think we were in the mix for this kid from the beginning, but one can’t help but think Mike Locksley has his fingerprints all over this.

Brown is a 4 star running back rated # 9 overall at the position from Good Council.  He pretty much said he wanted to stay local so his Mom wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money to go watch him play.  In the end the Terps beat out.  His lift of offers is impressive.  I know he visited Vanderbilt as well, but he claims it was Maryland all along.

There is no secret that getting local kids like this is going to be very important in building this team.  The recruiting class has been underwhelming to this point, but if Edsall and Locks can bring in one or two more of the high profile locals left out there,  maybe the program get move on from last year and truly rebuild a little bit.  At any rate, this is good news, and with the lack of depth at the position heading into the fall, there is a pretty good chance he is going to get in there this year.

Boy, if I were good at math, this would probably be a lot of fun figuring out who is left and who is out.  But glancing at the spreadsheet just gives me a headache.  Here is what I do know, the maximum score that Forrest, LeAnne, Alex, and Laura can get is less than what Kristin currently has.  So it is safe to say you four are eliminated.  

Along that same theme, Chris can get 471, so if Kristin were to pick up 12 more points Chris is gone.  With the number of games left, I would imagine that Kristin and Chris share some same teams making Chris all but “Dead Man Walking”.  So where does that leave us? 

Right now, as you can guess from the above paragraph’s Kristin is still in the lead.  She is trying to take this thing wire to wire, but quickly running out of gas.  She can max out at 520 points so still has a little ammo left, but not as much as those chasing her.  

In second is J.  J may just be in the best spot, sitting just behind Kristin, but with still about 140 points left to make up the roughly 40 point difference.  Will Kristin be able to stiff arm J as she scampers to the end zone?  I don’t know, but it will be interesting.  

In third is myself.  I can still have a shot, but may not be able to make up the 40 points as I only have about 80 left in the tank.  Looks like the “House” will be paying out in this years competition.  

Robjd3 is also still in this, he is 11 points behind myself, but unlike me, has about 110 points that he could still win.  

Hanging around the top 5 is AK, who is almost 100 points off the pace, yet still has about 150 points left to collect, so anything is still possible. 

In Sixth is Forrest, but as mentioned above he is mathematically eliminated (though that is no reason to stop reading the website!!). 

In Seventh is the most intriguing entry of them all.  COMING ON THE OUTSIDE IS MARY H……  Will her strategy of picking the games in order pan out, or is there too much of a gap to overcome.   That is yet to be seen, but what we have seen is Mary pass 5 other “Horses” so far, so I wouldn’t bet against her.  Her max is 513 which would be second only to Kristin if they both finished out 100% perfect. 

And that is where we are.  Hopefully in the meantime, I will try to sit down and figure out who really has a chance and who doesn’t.  For example if J picks up 30 points on a win, but Kristin picks up 32, that would be a net loss for J, so instead of making up ground he would be losing it.  That is why you can’t rely too much on potential points, but I will include them anyway as it gives you somewhat of an idea about who can make a move, and who is going to be playing defense: 

Kristin                   460         (520)

J                             421         (559)

Bob                        413         (492)

Robjd3                  402         (511)

X-Forrest             366         (454)

AK                          365         (500)

Chris                      365         (471)

Mary                     353         (513)

X-Lee                    326         (416)

Justin                    263         (490)

X-Laura                 235         (372)

X-Alex                   224         (366) 

X= Mathematically eliminated. 

In the meantime, don’t forget the Terps take on Cornell tonight in their last pre-ACC match up.  Tip is at 8:00 on ESPN3.

Before I get into this, I had to post it prior to tonight’s Boise State game, yet it will go up after the Boise State-ASU game, so it isn’t 100% updated, but it’s pretty close…

As we anxiously await the Maryland Radford basketball game tomorrow night, I thought I would hold everyone over with a Bowl Pick’em Update.  The contest saw its biggest game of the Bowl Season conclude with the TCU Horned Frogs just barely getting past Louisiana Tech.  This was a result that everyone in the contest was happy to see, as all 12 of us had TCU winning.  

However, some of us believed in TCU a little bit more than others. LeAnne had 27 points riding on TCU, Robjd3 had 30, AK had 31, Kristin had 33, J had 34, and both Chris and I had this as our 35 point game.  Bullet Dodged.  This obviously shakes up the standings quite a bit, as some of you (not to call anyone out…cough….Robjd3…cough) had 97% of your point total for this game.  So those who truly believe in TCU moved up, while those with less faith stood still. 

Kristin now sits atop the leader board with a comfortable 17 point lead, but with Boise on the schedule for tonight, look for things to shake up again.  Eight contestants have Boise at 31 points or higher.  Lee, Kristin, and AK all have it as their 35 point game, while Chris and I have it as our 34 point game.  Laura on the other hand, stands to make up 6 points on the field if the Bronco’s stumble, as she is the only contestant to have any faith in ASU (They will be partying at Lake Havasu tonight she says).  

So here is how we look, at least for the next few hours.  

Name                    Points

Kristin                   80

LeAnne                63

Bob                        53

AK                          47 (AK-47…very nice!)

Chris                      41

J                              37

Rodjd3                  31

Forrest                 17

Justin                    14

Mary H                 11

Alex                       11

Laura                     11          

It’s Official, Mike Locksley is our new Offensive Coordinator.  This could have been called the world’s worst secret, if it wasn’t for the fact that no one was really trying to keep it a secret.  Coach Locksley returns to Maryland.  It is yet to be seen how this will affect our success on the field, but most people seem to be in solid agreement that this will sure up some recruiting ties in the local area.

Locksley, though not very successful as a head coach has had some degree of success as an Offensive Coordinator at Illinois, where he took that offense from 86^th in the Nation to 19^thin the span of 4 years.  On the recruiting trail he has two top 10 classes under his belt while serving as the recruiting coordinator at Florida.  He his native to DC and still has plenty of connections to the area.

But this may not be the biggest news of the day.  The Baltimore Sun is reporting (via text messaging) that Todd Bradford could be on the outs.  Again this would not be a surprise as the Terps defense struggled mightily in 2011, but at the same time it would be shocking based on where we are financially as an Athletic Department.  My take is that there would not be many residents of Terp Nation who would oppose this move.

I do feel bad for Bradford in that he had to deal with a lot of injuries this year, but then again, all programs have years like that, and the Terps were a complete defensive disaster.  By the time of the NC State collapse, once the lead was down to 21, most fans could see the writing on the wall and knew we were going to lose.  That isn’t the sign of a healthy defense!

So stay tuned for further developments with the Defensive Coordinator spot.  Any chance Don Brown wants to return?

First there was a basketball game last night.  Not a very good one, but a win.  I think as long as they don’t lose any of these games before conference play, we will all be happy.  There are some things to take from this game.

• When Terrell Stoglin was out with the foul trouble, the offense actually looked ok.  It was shaky ball handling, but once they got settled down, they were able to get some decent shots.  Sure FIU wasn’t huge inside, but it was nice to see Pankey and even Weis score inside.
• What happened to James Padgett?  He seemed to be really coming along and last night  he was not really a factor.  I was hoping we were starting to see a consistent effort and game from James, but last night showed he is still a work in progress.
• Sean Mosley seemed to lose his shooting touch before our eyes last night.  He was hot early, and then quickly cooled off.  The problem was his misses were bad.  Very bad.  Let’s hope that was just a minor setback and he will get his shot back soon.
• The defense is still a work in progress.  I will say there was one made three pointer that was pretty well defended, and you just have to tip your cap, but there were still quite a few open looks from three, some of which were misses, that a better team is not going to miss.
• I am getting really excited to see Pe’Shon back out there.  The ball handling was very bad in the first half.  I am really expecting things to get back under control when he is on the floor.  I don’t care if he doesn’t score to be quite honest.  We need his ability to get the team moving and cutting down on turnovers.

Those are some quick mental notes I made watching the game.  The bottom line is they didn’t lose.  And to be honest, they should have.  It was great to see them pull it out.  I just wasn’t really ready for that to be a game that came down to the final possession like it did.

An ACC basketball note here.  Next season all teams will play 18 conference games.  No real story of how this will impact the schedule yet, but it likely means one less home non-conference game.  After the attendance last night, I think the fans have spoken on watching those games!  I think the reality of the change is due to the pending expansion to 14 teams, and just incase they somehow get out of the Big East early, this will help them with the transition.

Now on to football.  No official word on the Locksley hiring yet, but there was a pretty interesting Randy Edsall interview in the Washington Post with Eric Prisbell.  If you have the time, read the entire transcript.  It will take you a while.  It is interesting.

I still think there are some things he doesn’t get, but you can see he opened up a little bit.  He admitted he needed to handle somethings differently.  He stuck to his reasons for doing things the way he did, but he did say there are some things that are going to be done differently.  Like having the coordinators available to the media on Wednesday’s this season.  If he had done something like this prior to the season, some people may have been willing to give him a little more of a Leach  leash (I left that in there to show you where my mind was).  Anyway, I feel only slightly better about where this team is going after reading that.  I still think he has a long way to go, and some of his reasons for doing things are a little over the top, but you can begin to see a little method to the madness.

That interview in no way changed my mind about him.  I still don’t think he was or is Maryland’s best option.  The truth is we are going to have him for a while, and he admits somethings to need to change.  If they indeed do this season, I might let myself get a little more warm and fuzzy with the thought of him as our coach.

So there you have it.  A post all over the Maryland sports landscape.  A couple of quick thoughts on the basketball team.  A couple of thoughts on Randy Edsall’s lengthy interview with the post.  Kind of a lot to cover considering we are in exam time in College Park.  So if any of you are students reading this, good luck with finals!  Sell those books back and have fun with the cash!  I know I did.  Also, don’t forget to get your Bowl Pick’em picks in soon.  Here is the 2011 TD Bowl Pick’em Contest so you don’t have to go back and find it.  Good luck!