The Maryland Mystery

I spent much of this past Saturday night suspended in mid-air, counting loudly as I flew, my eyes glued to the scoreboard to see how much longer I would be afloat. I was, you see, being "pushed up" for each point Maryland scored, and on this particular night the Terps put up 42 on eighth-ranked Boston College. For a team that lost 16-13 to a barely-mediocre UNC team the previous week and slipped to 4-5 on the year, Maryland played well enough to surprise not only Boston College, but also its own fans. And we were surprised. Pleasantly.

The truth is that we needed this win. We needed it to help us remain bowl-eligible, sure, but we needed a hell of a lot more than that. We needed a reason to believe. We needed to feel like the team was hungry for victory. We needed to feel for once this season like Ralph Friedgen was doing his part. After all, we were doing ours. Week in and week out, at home and on the road, we were showing up. After a while, we started wondering why they weren't.

When a team puts up a combined 76 points in two games against top-ten teams (BC and Rutgers) and then gives up late leads to UVA, UNC, and Wake Forest, you begin to wonder if they're actually giving it their all every time. Clearly they can win. But why aren't they? Are they only playing just as hard as they think they have to? Is their coach is only trying to score as much as he thinks they need to? This, dear readers, is the Maryland Mystery. It's the eternal question of why our teams beat the best teams and lose to the worst, year in and year out. It's why we went 6-0 against all North Carolina teams last year in basketball and then lost to Miami twice. It's why we rarely blow teams out and are rarely blown out. We play to the level of the competition.

Originally, I was going to use this post to try to solve the Maryland Mystery. I can't. I'd be wasting my time and yours trying to BS my way through an explanation. The truth is that I have no idea what it is about all Terp teams that make them try only as hard as they think they need to that day. There's clearly something in the water in College Park. For someone who hasn't watched Maryland football or basketball consistently over the years, you might think I'm exaggerating or speaking out of frustration. I'm not. I'm speaking from experience. There's only so many times you can watch the Terps Bball team beat up on Duke and then lose to Florida State or watch Ralph Friedgen run the ball on third-and-long in a losing game before you become convinced that our teams aren't always in it to win it. I'm not saying we want to lose. I'm saying we don't do everything we can to win. And for a University that likes to consider itself among the top sports programs in the country, that is simply inexcusable.

On Saturday, Maryland crushed Matt Ryan's hopes for the Heisman and took Boston College out of contention. Funny. We usually only do that to ourselves.