Instant Analysis: Maryland-Clemson

Clemson's season-opening loss to Alabama dashed any dreams of a national title for Tommy Bowden's boys. That setback aside, however, few could have imagined that the Tigers would relinquish control of the ACC before the end of September. But it has happened. Again. In the kind of result that's become mind-numbingly familiar, another talented Clemson crew spit the bit at home against Maryland.

While the Ralph Friedgen redemption tour just gained some significant momentum for the Terps, the first, last and most significant story of this Saturday surprise has to be the latest in a series of chronic collapses by a Clemson program that now finds itself behind the eight-ball in its attempt to win the first ACC division championship (let alone the first conference crown) of the much-maligned Tommy Bowden era. It's one thing to lose an occasional conference game; it's quite another to do so on an annual basis, at least to the extent that eminently winnable conference championships pass by the boards, claimed by other programs such as Wake Forest, who now enjoys an extra degree of leverage in the ACC Atlantic.

This huge setback for Clemson could, in an immediate sense, be connected to three turnovers and a game-changing 76-yard run by Maryland's dazzling receiver, Darrius Heyward-Bey. But on a larger level, this result can be attributed to nothing more than the unclean air pervading the Clemson program. The lungs of Tiger players just aren't liberated--no one on that nervous sideline in Death Valley knows how to breathe freely. The pressure of having to live up to expectations once again choked a talented roster that's long on ability but short on championship poise. When the same train wreck keeps taking place at the same point on the tracks, year after year, there's only so much that remains to be said. This senior-dominated group was supposed to have had the experience--and the memory of sobering sequences of setbacks suffered in past seasons--needed to finally put all the pieces together this year... at least to the extent that the ACC would be conquered by Clemson in 2008. That could still happen, mind you, but the odds now favor Jim Grobe's Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem.

Clemson fans have more reason to gripe than any other fan base in college football. Their team has now lost two straight home games to Maryland, and has scored a grand total of just 29 points in its last three home games against the Terrapins. Those stats alone do a good job of showing how far short the Tigers have fallen in this decade of ACC agony.

The Chicago Cubs might finally break their 100-year World Series drought, but in the state of South Carolina, no relief appears to be in sight for those who cheer for the Clemson Tigers.