The University of Maryland Terrapins have established themselves as a legitimate football team over the last few years, but things might be changing in the near future. For the last few seasons, Maryland’s only real competition for the automatic BCS bid was Florida State, a team that has fallen off recently, but perennial power Miami has moved from the Big East to the ACC, and they have to be considered the early favorite to win the conference. Maryland has won ten games in each of the last three seasons, and they absolutely destroyed West Virginia in last year’s Gator Bowl, so they’ll make an early appearance in my pre-season rankings at the #21 spot.

Maryland has lost 13 starters to graduation and must find a way to piece together a team capable of making a run in the new and improved ACC conference. QB Scott McBrien is one of the players departed and his likely replacement Joel Statham threw three interceptions in the spring game. Statham hasn’t won the job yet, but he’s still the likely quarterback on opening day. RB Josh Allen will be the standout in the backfield this season after a 2003 year where he finished with 922 yards and eight scores. Guard C.J. Brooks is one of the nation’s best linemen and has started every game since joining the Maryland team. Linebacker D’Qwell Jackson reminds many of former star linebacker E.J. Henderson and DB Domonique Foxworth is a senior who led the team with three interceptions last year, returning one for a score. He was second team All-ACC last year after making the first team in 2002. The Terrapins have the good fortune of avoiding the injury bug in the off-season as they don’t have any serious injuries to players to worry about heading into the season. They will search for the best way to get the ball in the hands of Allen out of the backfield, and receivers Steve Suter and Jo Jo Walker will have to step up and present themselves as big targets to Statham or whoever wins the starting QB job.

The Terrapins were fortunate to avoid Miami this year, and so their two biggest games of the season will probably be against Florida State and North Carolina State. The NC State game is October 16 th and Maryland will be hosting. Both teams have a legitimate chance to be undefeated at the time of the game so it could be huge for both squads. The Florida State game is also at Maryland which could be a huge factor in the outcome of the game. Maryland had never had much of a tradition or an expectation to win before Coach Ralph Friedgen showed up as coach but now the team believes they can compete with any team in the country. As a direct result of how the players feel, the fans get behind the team and believe that their team will be victorious on any given night.

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