Maryland (6-6) vs. Oregon State (8-4)
Dec. 28, 8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
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2007 Emerald Bowl History, Each Team's Best Bowl Moments, & More
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|
National
Rankings |
|
Oregon State |
Maryland |
|
Total Offense |
|
77th 370.67 ypg |
88th 350.58 ypg |
|
Total Defense |
|
12th 313 ypg |
42nd 355.92 ypg |
|
Scoring Offense |
|
56th 28.42 ppg |
77th 24.92 ppg |
|
Scoring Defense |
|
35th 23.33 ppg |
28th 21.58 ppg |
|
Run Offense |
|
43rd 166.58 ypg |
65th 147.33 ypg |
|
Run Defense |
|
2nd 74.92 ypg |
45th 136.67 ypg |
|
Pass Offense |
|
76th 204.08 ypg |
78th 203.25 ypg |
|
Pass Defense |
|
75th 238.08 ypg |
47th 219.25 ypg |
|
Turnover Margin |
|
47th 0.08 |
24th 0.58 |
|
Oregon State
Utah
W 24-7
at Cincinnati
L 34-3
Idaho State
W 61-10
at Ariz St L 44-32
UCLA
L 40-14
Arizona
W 31-16
at
California W 31-28
Stanford
W 23-6
at
USC L 24-3
Washington
W 29-23
at
Wash St W 52-17
at Oreg W 38-31 OT |
Maryland
Villanova
W 31-14
at FIU
W 26-10
West
Va
L 31-14
at Wake For
L 31-24 OT
at
Rutgers W 34-24
Ga Tech
W 28-26
Virginia
L 18-17
Clemson
L 30-17
at N Car.
L 16-13
Boston Coll W 42-35
at Florida St L 24-16
at NC State
W 37-0 |
|
Position
Ratings
relative to each
other |
|
OSU |
5
highest
1 lowest |
M |
|
3 |
Quarterbacks |
3 |
|
4 |
RBs |
4 |
|
3 |
Receivers |
3.5 |
|
4 |
O
Line |
3.5 |
|
4.5 |
D
Line |
3.5 |
|
4 |
Linebackers |
4 |
|
3.5 |
Secondary |
3.5 |
|
3 |
Spec
Teams |
3 |
|
3.5 |
Coaching |
4 |
|
Maryland and Oregon State have
combined for ten losses, lack
any national star power, and
sport vanilla offenses. This is
for hardcore college football
fans, but it could be more
entertaining than the rest of
the sports world will give it
credit for.
Although both schools endured
plenty of debilitating injuries
throughout the season, Oregon
State survived rather nicely,
finishing on a 6-1 roll that
propelled the program into third
place of the Pac-10 behind USC
and Arizona State. The only
reason that the higher-profile
Sun Bowl selected Oregon over
the Beavers was that it didn’t
want the same team in El Paso
two years in a row.
Even when OSU was without
starting QB Sean Canfield and
star RB Yvenson Bernard for
extended periods of time, it
flourished on the strength of a
veteran defense that generated
pressure into the backfield on a
consistent basis as well anyone
in the country. Bernard had
minor knee surgery in November
and Canfield injured his
throwing shoulder, but both are
hoping to be in the lineup at
the end of the month.
The heart of that stingy Beaver
defense lies on the front seven,
which is crammed with
upperclassmen who can get after
the quarterback and create
turnovers. Derrick Doggett
leads a trio of linebackers that
filled out the All-Pac-10 second
team, and ends Victor Butler,
Slade Norris, and Victor Butler
all have at least six sacks. If
Maryland hopes to finish the
year over .500, it’ll have to
find a way to win a few battles
at the line of scrimmage.
At 4-2, the Terrapins were
attracting attention as a
possible sleeper candidate to
win the ACC championship. That
was before the casualties
mounted, and the wheels came off
of a program that had trouble
winning close games. Still,
with a postseason berth at
stake, Maryland showed up in the
regular season finale, ambushing
NC State, 37-0, in Raleigh. The
Terps have had a habit of
playing well when it’s least
expected under Ralph Friedgen,
and only lost two games, West
Virginia and Clemson, all year
by more than eight points.
Faced with uncertainty at
quarterback, Maryland will lean
heavily on Keon Lattimore and
Lance Ball, one of the more
underrated backfield tandems in
the nation. Seniors that shared
the workload this fall, they
combined for 1,552 yards rushing
and 25 touchdowns, better
numbers than Clemson’s heralded
duo of James Davis and C.J.
Spiller. Few backs have had
much success against Oregon
State’s No. 2 run defense. The
Terps are counting on the potent
one-two punch of Lattimore and
Ball to buck the 2007 trend.
Players to watch:
Can an offensive lineman have a
profound impact on a team’s
fortunes? One as talented as
Maryland OG Andrew Crummey
certainly can. An All-America
candidate before the season
began, he’s one of those
embattled Terps that missed
significant time this season
with a broken leg. However, he
worked his way back for the NC
State game, which, not
coincidentally, was one of
Maryland’s most complete
offensive games of 2007.
Crummey’s presence and senior
leadership will be huge against
the Oregon State front.
The star of the Maryland defense
is LB Erin Henderson, who
leads the ACC with 122 tackles,
and is weighing whether or not
to return for his senior year or
test NFL waters. An instinctive
defender that really brings the
payload, he’ll get plenty of
chances for double-digit stops
versus the run-first Beavers.
There’s no doubt Oregon State
would like to have Bernard, its
leading rusher, back at 100%,
but if he’s not ready to go at
full tilt, head coach Mike Riley
is confident giving the ball to
Matt Sieverson, a
fullback in a tailback’s role.
In the Beavers’ Dec. 1 overtime
win against Oregon, he bailed
out the offense, rushing for 142
yards and a touchdown on 27
carries.
The return of OG Jeremy Perry
for the Civil War, after being
banged up late in the year, gave
the Oregon State running game a
boost that rivaled Crummey’s in
College Park. Throughout his
career in Corvallis, Doggett has
made it a happen to be
everywhere for the Beaver D.
Whether filling lanes on running
plays or dropping back into
coverage, he’s a playmaker
that’s going to be a nuisance
for young Maryland QB Chris
Turner.
Maryland will win if...
it gets the running game
cranking, like it did in upsets
of Rutgers and Boston College.
Turner is not going to beat
Oregon State single-handedly,
meaning it’s up to Lattimore and
Ball to control the clock, move
the chains, and punch the ball
into the end zone when the Terps
get deep into Beaver territory.
In play-action, Turner has grown
enough over the last eight games
to make the occasional big
hook-up with sophomore WR
Darrius Heyward-Bey. On third
and long, however, the seasoned
Oregon State defense will pin
its ears back, and make Turner
look like he’s a rookie.
Oregon State will win
if... continues playing
mistake-free football. The
Beavers’ fortunes began to turn
when they stopped throwing five
and six interceptions a game.
Remember, this is the same
program that threw 17
interceptions during a rocky
first-half start, and just three
picks over the torrid, six-game
stretch run. Whether it’s
Canfield or Lyle Moevao dropping
back, the Oregon State
quarterbacks must be careful
throwing the ball into the teeth
of one of the most athletic
defenses they’ll face this
season.
What will happen:
Winning bowl games is beginning
to become a habit for Friedgen,
who beat Tennessee in 2002, West
Virginia in 2003, and Purdue in
2006 by an average margin of 26
points, while yielding a total
of only 17 points. With time to
prepare, few coaches in America
are better at exploiting
weaknesses and developing a
winning gameplan, the edge
Maryland needs in a game it
probably shouldn’t win. The
Terps will get a great effort
from the speedy defense, icing
the game on the ground with Ball
and Lattimore.
Line: Oregon State -4.5
... CFN Prediction:
Maryland 27 ... Oregon State
20
2007 Emerald Bowl History, Each
Team's Best Bowl Moments, & More