Instant Analysis: Wake Forest-Maryland

The Maryland Terrapins have spent all of 2008 trying to figure out their identity. Coach Ralph Friedgen can only hope that Saturday’s smackdown of Wake Forest will be an indicator for the second half of his team’s season.

Few college football clubs have been more up-and-down unpredictable than Maryland, who has miffed and mesmerized with performances both baffling and brilliant this Autumn. The Terps barely defeated Delaware, lost to lowly Middle Tennessee, and were vanquished by Virginia. On the other hand, the kids from College Park conquered Clemson and crushed Cal. Up against Wake Forest—the leader in the ACC Atlantic Division and one of the more consistent teams in the conference—no one knew which Maryland team would show up. Thankfully for Friedgen, the angel on the right shoulder prevailed over the devil on the left, as the Demon Deacons were terrorized by the tough and tenacious Turtles.

In a weird but real way, Maryland is temporarily grateful that the Terps can be viewed as a less predictable team than Jim Grobe’s Wake Forest squad. After this 26-0 spanking at Byrd Stadium, the wounded Deacons—and not their Jekyll-and-Hyde opponent—represent the ACC outfit that can be pegged with far more certitude.

While Maryland will try to put two solid games together next week, Wake Forest has been quite the consistent club in its past four games. The problem for Grobe, one of the better coaches in all of college football, is that Wake’s consistency has acquired dubious dimensions. Saturday’s shutout loss means that the Deacs—in their last 16 quarters of football—have scored three total touchdowns (two of consequence; a late touchdown in a loss to Navy could have been considered a garbage touchdown), while committing eight turnovers and missing seven field goals. Wake Forest’s offense has become thoroughly impotent, as good drive starts and quality field position—provided by a defense that has done its job throughout this 2008 campaign—have not translated into points. This major meltdown against Maryland represented a perfect case in point.

The first half of this contest—which would prove to be decisive—featured four failures for the Forest in Maryland territory. Twice, Wake’s defense held up its end of the bargain by recovering a Terp fumble inside the Maryland 31. On both of those occasions, however, Wake’s offense went three-and-out, only to then miss a field goal on fourth down. On two other offensive series, Wake punted inside the Maryland 45 on fourth and short (4th and 2 in one instance, 4th and 1 in the other). After a first-drive touchdown, Maryland didn’t find the end zone again until late in the fourth quarter, but by that time, the outcome had already been decided despite the ability of Wake’s defense to frustrate the Terps in red-zone situations. A parade of field goals—while representing missed Maryland opportunities in the short run—increased the total for the Turtles in the long run. With Wake’s impotent attack, three-point clusters only helped the home team in a relatively easy victory.

The ACC Atlantic is going to involve a crowded field in the second half of this season, since Wake Forest has shown that it’s not ready to break away from the pack. Maryland is one of those teams who could snatch the division from the Demon Deacons, but before Ralph Friedgen’s boys get ahead of themselves, they’d just like to develop a positive form of consistency on the road to a winning season. At 5-2, that winning season is now that much more of a possibility.