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Maryland-Rutgers Gameday Guide

Ben Broman — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:38:13 -0000

3 months ago: Maryland running back Da'Rel Scott (23) rushes against James Madison defensive tackle Ronnell Brown, second from right, during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, in College Park, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

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What: Maryland and Rutgers battle in a game that will likely decide the course of both teams' season.

Where: Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium, College Park

When: 3:30

Where to Watch: Fire up the ol' PC - ESPN360 only for this one.

In a Nutshell

Rutgers' Offense vs. Maryland's Defense - Rutgers is led by talented true freshman quarterback Tom Savage, who took over for Domenic Natale in the third quarter of the Scarlet Knights' blowout loss to Cincinnati. Savage, however, was injured against FAU, and is a game-time decision. If he's not in, Natale, who has interception issues, will start, much to the Terps' delight. Regardless, RU is a running team, featuring Joe Martinek and Jourdan Brooks in the backfield. Maryland's defensive line will have to come up big to stop the powerful ground attack.

Maryland's Offense vs. Rutgers Defense - The Scarlet Knights' defense hasn't done too well this year, after being picked apart by Cincinnati and not putting away FIU. Led by middle linebacker and leading tackler Ryan D'Imperio, they've said they're now playing with a chip on their shoulders after not showing up in the first game. They tend to be more vulnerable through the air; Tony Pike and Rusty Smith both had big days in their games. Hopefully, Maryland will try to air it out more than usual; Chris Turner, Torrey Smith, and Adrian Cannon should all have big days.

Players to Watch

Tom Savage, QB, Rutgers - As mentioned above, Savage is one of the leaders of the offense. Natale looked downright terrible against Cincinnati, so if Savage doesn't take the field, Maryland has a much better shot at winning this one.

Joe Lefeged, S, Rutgers - By now, you've probably heard the name. Lefeged, a Germantown native, is the guy who put Jordan Steffy out of commission two years ago with a helmet-to-helmet hit Ralph thought was malicious. He's now a starter and one of the better players on the Scarlet Knights' defense.

Torrey Smith, WR, Maryland - I almost feel like this is cheating - Torrey Smith could be a player to watch every single week. But it's especially true this week, as James Franklin is realizing his potential and Rutgers' pass defense isn't a strength. Could be a breakout game for the NCAA leader in all-purpose yardage.

Alex Wujciak, LB, Maryland - Wujciak is playing against his home state, and his performance will be vital. Rutgers will look to run a lot against the Terps, and usually up the middle - in other words, right at Wujciak. That's what he eats up; he might not be great at pursuit, but he's the best Terps LB against the run. I'd probably be surprised if he doesn't have a double-digit tackle day.

Gameday Reading

Questions about age getting old for Terps - Washington Times
"We've played in three games," quarterback Chris Turner said. "That's plenty of experience as far as I'm concerned. It's time to just start playing like a mature team and start winning football games. The whole young thing is not an excuse anymore."

Beware of hungry, hungry Terps - Daily Targum
"It’s easy to push Maryland aside as a joke of a football team despite playing in a BCS conference.

"That’s a mistake.

"As badly as this team has played — and it’s been really poor — it still has the three biggest tools needed to win games against better opponents. It will not be more apparent for the Terrapins than this weekend against Rutgers."

There's a lot at stake for Terps - The Capital
'"I wouldn't say it's now or never, but we want to win every game we can and that needs to start now," wide receiver Torrey Smith said. "Being a young team, it would definitely be a confidence-booster (to win)."'

Desperate Times - The Diamondback
'"We need this win for a lot of reasons," Terp wide receiver Torrey Smith said. "For ourselves as far as confidence goes, for our fans to not jump off the bandwagon. The biggest thing for us that we need to do is just fix our mistakes."

'"We’ve been facing some hard luck. Sometimes you’ve got to change your luck and make your luck," Friedgen said. "I think this team really needs to have a coming out."

'"I think for both teams, for us and Rutgers, it’s a game to see really where we’re at, to see really where we’re going to go from here," Terp quarterback Chris Turner said. "I think on paper we’re pretty evenly matched, and we’ll just have to see what happens."'

Loss of Carroll has been tough on Terps -- Sun
'But Nolan Carroll's loss has been felt since, and in a variety of ways.

"That's my roommate. I was upset," starting safety Terrell Skinner said when asked this week about Carroll's season-ending tibia fracture, which occurred when a teammate kicked him while making a tackle. Wide receiver and kick returner Torrey Smith pointed to his eyes when asked about Carroll several days ago. He said he had decided to wear eye-black strips on game days bearing his friend's name.'

Scouting Report: Rutgers at Maryland - Press of Atlantic City
Susan Lulgjuraj's pick: Rutgers 30, Maryland 27 (Season record 3-0)

Rutgers' best-case scenario: Quarterback Tom Savage will show no residual effects from the hit he took in last week's game.

Rutgers' worst-case scenario: Losing to a team whose only win is against a Football Championship Subdivision team (formerly Division I-AA).

A Look Ahead to Maryland-Rutgers

Ben Broman — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:39:44 -0000

After looking at Rutgers in some semblance of depth, I think it's safe to say this is one of the few games left you can safely say is a toss-up for Maryland. The Scarlet Knights aren't nearly as good as a lot of people ranked them to be before the season. They were killed by Cincinnati nearly as bad as Maryland was killed by Cal, and, after handling Howard 45-7, had some trouble late against FAU; they would ultimately get the win, 23-15.

No, Rutgers isn't top 25-worthy. But that resume is still better than Maryland's. Unlike most other teams remaining on Maryland's schedule, however, it's not significantly better, meaning this game is actually winnable.

Actually, this game is a must-win for both teams. Maryland needs something positive to cling to, a turning point that can right the season after an awful start. Rutgers needs the win to re-assert themselves against a major opponent after the ugly Cincy loss. Emotions should be running high for both teams on Saturday, and both should have a sense of urgency.

As for the actual team, here's what to expect from the Scarlet Knights

Offense

Coming into the year, fifth-year senior Dominic Natale was the starter at QB. Then they saw him play, and that changed fast. After two quarters against Cincy, he was promptly benched in favor of talented true freshman Tom Savage. Savage fared much better; he actually, y'know, scored. He was also impressive against Howard and FIU - granted, it's Howard and FIU, but the kid can play and looks like the future at QB for the Scarlet Knights.

There is reason for hope, though: he was injured late in the game last week, and may not be ready to go at 3:30. If he's not, we'll see a combination of running QB Jabu Lovelace and the aforementioned Natale. If either of those two see the field as starter, the Terps' chances at winning have to increase by at least 15%.

Rutgers has a variety of weapons on the ground, from bruising sophomore running back Joe Martinek to the to Germantown native Jourdan Brooks to talented true freshman De'Antwan Williams. Their running game is so strong they say they expect at least 200 yards rushing every game. While they haven't hit that mark yet, they've gotten close every time (averaging 192 a game) and Maryland is, on average, allowing just over 200 yards per game. This will easily be the biggest problem for Maryland to deal on Saturday.

To make matters worse, Rutgers has a pretty experienced offensive line. Though the results they've put up have been less than spectacular so far, they're capable of being very good, and what better time to break out than against Maryland's weak defensive line?

A good thing about Rutgers' offense is that they're relatively simply compared to JMU or MTSU, which were both spread teams that relied on the option to some degree. That's not an issue Don Brown has to worry about here.

Defense

Rutgers biggest weakness is their defense. After the blowout against Cincinnati, they were criticized for missing tackles, getting beaten deep, and not putting pressure on the QB. They did little to remedy this against Howard. Actually, before last week, they were last in defense in the Big East. I haven't checked the stats recently, so I don't know how much that improved, but it's still pretty telling. While they did look good against FIU, it's FIU, so it's hardly indicative of any real improvement.

They do have some good players - Joe Lefeged, the guy who put Jordan Steffy out of commission last time, returns, and they're also led by senior end George Johnson and tackling leader at linebacker Ryan D'Imperio. As a whole, though, they're not that impressive.

Cincinnati tore them up through the air, and Maryland should look to do the same. Turner is accurate in big games and there are too many big-time WRs for the Terps not to rely on what Rutgers has been least effective in stopping.

Prediction: Maryland keeps it close on the strength of two passing TDs, but Rutgers finds moving the ball on the ground too easy against Maryland's defense, which sees an influx of younger players in an attempt to light a fire. 31-24.

Big East terror alert level hits orange

Mike Rutherford — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:30:05 -0000

If the current state of Big East football were a movie character, it would be that poor first Germanian barbarian set on fire in the opening scene of Gladiator: certainly rendered incapable of ever living up to his full potential, but still existing in a condition too ambiguous to be irrefutably pronounced dead.

On the eve of the third weekend of the 2008 college football season, the conference lays claim to a 3-8 mark against FBS schools, and an 0-4 record against other teams from BCS conferences. In the latter category, the Big East has been outscored 153-50.

The latest blow came Thursday night when Rutgers, considered one of the hottest programs in the country as recently as a year ago, was stomped at home by a North Carolina squad picked to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack of the perhaps equally scorned Atlantic Coast Conference. Mike Teel looked like the same cluelessly talented freshman who tossed ten interceptions to just two touchdowns in 2005. The running back duo of Mason Robinson and Jourdan Brooks didn't look ready to start for Rice, let alone supplant Ray Rice. And a vaunted Scarlet Knight secondary led by two-time All-Big East performer Courtney Greene made Tar Heel signal caller TJ Yates look like Sammy Baugh.

The final score was 44-12, immediately joining the ranks of 30-10, 52-26 and, of course, 27-2.

The saddest thing about all of this is that it - ag least in their minds - validates the Big East detractors who haven't altered a line of their arguments since Utah shellacked Pitt in the '05 Fiesta Bowl. Never mind that the league had the best non-conference record in 2006, that it swept its five bowl games that postseason, or that it's the only conference to go undefeated in BCS games over the past three seasons. To many people, this young season is just another example of how the Big East sucks, has always sucked and will always suck.

It's hard to admit, but if you take out "always" and add "in the foreseeable future" to the end of that last claim, you might actually be making a point difficult to refute. This postseason's all-conference squads are on track to be disturbingly senior-laden. It's the collegiate swan song for quarterbacks Pat White, Hunter Cantwell, Teel, Dustin Grutza (a loss whose severity will be determined shortly) and Tyler Lorenzen. This is also the final year of eligibility for standouts like Scott McKillop, Mike Mickens, Tiquan Underwood, Eric Wood, Terrill Byrd and possibly for talented underclassmen like George Selvie and Kenny Britt.

The team appearing poised to best withstand the unavoidable graduation hit is South Florida, which also holds the distinction of being the Big East's lone representative in the current pair of top 25 polls. The Bulls are one of just two squads in the league who remain unscathed, a label in jeopardy of being falsified with No. 13 Kansas headed to Tampa for a clash this evening. If USF goes down, the torch is passed to Connecticut, who needed a second half comeback and an overtime period to beat Temple last weekend.

South Florida helped establish the reputation of their program and conference a year ago by going on the road and beating Auburn, and now a year later they'll be looking to protect both on their home field against the reigning Orange Bowl champions. For a Friday night non-conference game in mid-September, there's a great deal on the line.

Should the Bulls slip up, West Virginia will be looked upon to re-assume the role of redeemer. The Mountaineers have high-profile games remaining with Colorado and Auburn, a pair of victories which, coupled with a strong conference and postseason showing, would likely make outsiders forget about the giant egg they laid last weekend at East Carolina.

If USF goes down, WVU's Cardinal-esque fall from grace continues and the rest of the league stays true to their early form, then October through December becomes a bunch of teams who couldn't beat anyone else beating up on each other for the right to be beaten up by someone else in early January.

This is where the league gets recast as the page whose head was cut off and returned as a denial of peace.