SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2010
KLMNO College Football The region
FROMTERRAPINSINSIDER Military Bowlmay be next stop
Maryland’s 38-31 win over North Carolina State on
Saturday was the signature victory the Terrapins were looking for this season. Even with the win, the most likely destination for Maryland remains the Military Bowl at RFK Stadium on Dec. 29 against a Conference USA team. The Terrapins themselves clearly do not want to wind up there, but
playing in that bowl would certainly benefit the school financially because it would not take a loss. And, obviously, the folks at the bowl game would love to have Maryland
because of local appeal. Does Maryland deserve to play in a bowl game away from the area? I
don’t think there is any doubt about that.Will it happen? It may take some unforeseen circumstances. Is that fair? Of course not. But that’s college football (see BCS). On Saturday, the Terrapins did not get any help from Duke, as usual.
The Blue Devils fell to North Carolina, 24-19. Had Duke beaten the Tar Heels, Maryland would have had a two-game edge over North Carolina in the standings, and under ACC bowl-selection rules, could not have been picked below the Tar Heels for a bowl game.
—Eric Prisbell NEXT UP: Bowl game vs. TBD.
Beamer’s achievement Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer
had to pause for a moment and collect his thoughts.While he’d been quick to praise his team after it defeated rival Virginia for the seventh straight time on Saturday, this question was one Beamer said he never believed he’d be answering when he began his tenure in Blacksburg back in 1987. What does it feel like to pass
Woody Hayes for ninth place on college football’s all-time wins list? “It means you’re getting old,”
Beamer said to laughs following his 239th career victory.
—Mark Giannotto NEXT UP: Season complete. NEXT UP: Saturday vs. Fla. State. NEXT UP: Dec. 11 vs. Army.
FROM HOKIES JOURNAL
. FROM
CAVALIERS JOURNAL
Lazor returning to NFL?
CavsCorner.com reported Friday
that Virginia offensive coordinator Bill Lazor likely would begin to search for a return to the NFL ranks after Virginia’s season ended. “First of all, I don’t read them, so I
didn’t know until I was told” about the report by Coach Mike London, Lazor said. “I guess the only thing you can say about it is I thought it was a little bit funny, you can tell how on top of it whoever posted that is with the fact that they [NFL teams] are about 10 games into a 16-game season, so I don’t think it’s very valid. ” —Steve Yanda
FROMMIDSINSIDER Navy will have towait
In an unusual set of circumstances, Navy doesn’t
play again until Dec. 11, meaning the Midshipmen will have had three weeks off before their annual showdown with Army. So instead of the normal week of practice, Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo had his team conduct workouts only on Monday through Wednesday. In Navy’s case, it will be the first of
two long layoffs. After playing Army, the Midshipmen have nearly two more weeks off until their appearance in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 23.
“We’re going to let guys go home for
Thanksgiving, hopefully see their families and rejuvenate themselves physically, emotionally, spiritually, whatever it is, and come back ready to go, and then we’ll go those last two weeks like we normally do,” Niumatalolo said.
JONATHAN NEWTON/ THE WASHINGTON POST
EZ SU
D13
—GeneWang
Maryland quarterback Danny O’Brien threwfor a career-high 417 yards and completed 33 of 47 passes againstN.C. State.
O’Brien, Smith lift Terrapins over N.C. State
terrapins from D1
quarterback since Scott Milanovich in 1993. With 21 touchdown passes this season, he joins Milanovich as the only quarterbacks in school history to throw 20 or more in a single season. “One of the better performanc-
es I have seen from a quarter- back,” Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen said. The one caveat in Maryland’s
feel-good turnaround season had been the absence of a signature victory. On Friday, Friedgen chal- lenged his team by asking play- ers, “Are you tired of being disre- spected?” The answer was an inspired
effort byMaryland, which rallied froma 14-point first-quarter defi- cit with 24 unanswered points before a sparse crowd of 35,370 on a chilly, windy afternoon. De- spite rushing for minus-nine yards, Maryland won by forcing turnovers and taking advantage of N.C. State’s decision to play Smith in one-on-one coverage. After the game, Friedgen said
that even when Maryland won games this season, theperception was “you never beat anybody. Well, we beat somebody today.” Maryland ruined N.C. State’s
hopes of winning the ACC’s At- lantic Division title, which now belongs to Florida State. In doing
so, Maryland (8-4, 5-3) may have indeed earned more respect Sat- urday, but their postseason hopes remain the same: The Terrapins most likely will play in the Mili- tary Bowl at RFK Stadium on Dec. 29 against aConferenceUSA team, perhaps East Carolina. Several players said after the
game that they are hopeful to play in a warm-weather locale against a high-profile team. Friedgen said he believes Mary- land offers anattractive story line of a turnaround season. The bowl game that lands Maryland will also get a fast-emerging quarter- back who at times even wows his own head coach. Early in the fourth quarter,
O’Brien scrambled to his left and gathered his momentum enough to unleash an accurate right- handed throw toward the left side of the end zone, where Smith, who had a step on two defenders, plucked it out of the air for a 12-yard touchdown re- ception. When describing the throw, Friedgen lifted his hands and placed themone foot apart. “There was a window to throw
that about this big,”he said. “That was an unbelievable throw. I’m a coach, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ ” Maryland offensive coordina-
tor James Franklin said, “There are not many quarterbacks who can do that.” When O’Brien’s career is fin-
PHOTOS BY JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST Maryland wide receiver Torrey Smith catches one of his four touchdown passes.He finished with 14 receptions for 224 yards.
ished, Smith said, O’Brien will be regarded as one of the best ACC quarterbacks in some time. O’Briencompleted33 of 47passes Saturday. At the game’s start, however, it
looked like a showcase for N.C. State’s dynamic quarterback, RussellWilson,who led theWolf- pack (8-4, 5-3) on touchdown- scoring drives on his first two possessions. That’s when Fried- gen turned emotional and con- frontational on the sideline, yell- ing for defensive players to “get out of your fog!” Linebacker Alex Wujciak said
the defense “just told him to relax.” Don Brown,Maryland’s defen-
sive coordinator, said he then opted for more aggressive, “schoolyard” plays, in part to arouse the energy in his players. It worked. Safety Antwine Perez caused a fumble with a tenacious hit and recovered it, as well. SafetyEricFranklinintercepteda pass in the second quarter. And cornerback Cameron Chism blocked a field goal attempt in the finalminute of the half. After Maryland took a 38-17 lead in the fourth quarter, the
Wolfpack responded with two touchdowns.On the drive follow- ing the second,Marylanddecided to go for it on fourth and one from the N.C. State 32. D.J. Ad- ams plowed forward, and the ensuing measurement showed thatMaryland got the first down by no more than two inches. Fromthere, the Terrapins ran out the clock. “You don’t even want to know
what I was thinking,” Friedgen said about his nerves during the measurement. “You’re instigating right now. [The officials] did a wonderful job. It’s a wonderful
world.” When the official bowl an-
nouncement is made in one week, fans may not be pleased with Maryland’s destination if the Terrapins are relegated to playing a weekday afternoon bowl game 10miles fromcampus. But the fans who braved the weather to see outstanding per- formances by Smith and O’Brien can say they witnessed a defini- tive chapter in Maryland’s resur- gent season. As Wujciak said, “It’s been a
hell of a turnaround this season.”
prisbelle@washpost.com
Maryland’s seniors, large and small, go out on top with a win BY LIZ CLARKE There was no mistaking the
stars of Maryland’s triumphant season finale Saturday at Byrd Stadium: Freshman quarterback Danny O’Brien and junior wide receiver Torrey Smith, who com- bined for four touchdowns en route to a 38-31 toppling of 21st- ranked North Carolina State. Drawing far less notice on an
afternoon that capped the ACC’s most impressive one-season turnaround — withMaryland re- bounding from a 2-10 mark one year ago to finish this regular season at 8-4 — was the fact that 16 seniors were playing their final home game for the Terrapins. Only a fraction of the 35,370
spectators who would watch the game had found their seats when
each senior trotted out onto the field as his name was called and his picture appeared on the giant scoreboards. Each shared a hug with Coach Ralph Friedgen, then jogged over to join his family members at midfield. There were stars among them,
such as linebackers AlexWujciak and AdrianMoten, whose names have been called after spectacu- lar plays during nearly every Ter- rapins game this season. But there were unheralded members of the practice squad, too, such as Mike Salvatico of Marlton, N.J., and Joey McQueeney of Kent Island, Md., players who received zero fanfare but have pushed their teammates to overachieve during practice the last four years. Offensive lineman Paul Pine- gar has been a member of both
camps during his time at Mary- land. Ignored by college recruit- ers as a defensive end at Sher- woodHigh, Pinegar wooedMary- land’s coaches, mailing DVDs of his best high school plays in hopes they would see something the team could use in the footage. Pinegar earned a spot on the
team as a walk-on—the fifth left tackle on the depth chart, with no scholarship to show for it. But in the years that followed, he made himself invaluable by sticking with it and proving adaptable, playing any role the Terrapins needed as one lineman after an- other was sidelined by injury. Pinegar finally got his football scholarship in 2009. Earlier this season, Friedgen called him the most valuable player on the team, given that he could play any position on the line and was
forced to switch yet again, from center to right tackle, after Pete DeSouza suffered season-ending injuries in a motor scooter acci- dent on campus. On Saturday, the 6-foot-4, 290-
pound Pinegar was the first play- er O’Brien sought out after every touchdown strike, racing over to his right tackle to leap in his arms in celebration. O’Brien’s career day at quarterback meant heavy lifting for Pinegar. Other seniors had memorable moments Saturday. Senior Travis Baltz kicked the
go-ahead field goal from 52 yards with 12 seconds remaining in the first half after missing from 37 yards earlier. And defensive end Drew
Gloster registered his first career sack, dropping North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson
for a 21-yard loss on a critical late-game drive. It came on a new scheme Maryland’s coaches had installed called “schoolyard,” in which the defensive linemen look as if they’re walking aimlessly around when the ball is snapped. Gloster took a terrific angle, Wil- son frantically retreated and Gloster grabbed him at the waist and flung him to the ground. “It has been a lot of ups and
downs,” Gloster said of his time with the Terrapins, “but I’ve learned a lot the last four years. I’m just happy to go out, not necessarily on top but as a winner inmy last game.” Pinegar’s name wasn’t cited on
the stat sheet on Saturday, but that’s the largely anonymous na- ture of offensive linemen. They’re never the stars of the game. They’re more like snowplows —
ungainly beasts who make it pos- sible for the finely tuned machin- ery around them to function. But no statistic, after all, could
capturewhat the victorymeantto the player who willed his way onto the Terrapins’ squad. Nor could it capture what the last years have meant. “This past week was a huge
week of reflection, looking back at all the great memories,” Pine- gar said afterward. “I’ve been saying ever since we started win- ter workouts last year, ‘It’smy last winter workout.’ Or: ‘It’s the last spring workout. The last Red- and-White Game. The last week of regular-season practice. The last home game.’ “I wouldn’t trade it for the
world. This has beenmy life. This has beenmy second family.”
clarkel@washpost.com
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