Maryland hoping to avoid late season woes of past
In three of his five years in College Park, Alex Wujciak has reached this point — Maryland at 6-2 overall, 3-1 in the ACC and thinking conference championship.
But November has not been kind to the Wujciak and the Terrapins, who are still seeking their first trip to the ACC Championship Game.
To the senior linebacker, something feels different about 2010, however. Maryland is coming off its most dominant ACC performance in his five seasons, a 62-14 destruction of Wake Forest, and the schedule sets up favorably.
“We’ve never had a blowout win like that against another ACC team,” Wujciak said. “When you put together a game like that — offense, defense, special teams — it shows us we can beat a lot of teams.”
When Maryland travels to Miami (5-3, 3-2) on Saturday, it will face a battered Hurricanes squad down to its fourth-string quarterback and missing its top rusher, Damien Berry.
After that, the Terps will play at Virginia (4-4, 1-3), then return home for games against Atlantic Division rivals Florida State (6-2, 4-1) and N.C. State (6-2, 3-1), which will likely decide who advances to the conference title game Dec. 4 in Charlotte, N.C.
The schedule is such that the Terps can consider exceeding what they thought was possible following last year’s 2-10 collapse.
“Our only preseason goal was to get to seven wins,” said safety Antwine Perez, repeating the baseline former athletic director Debbie Yow established in December, when she announced coach Ralph Friedgen would return for his 10th year.
“There’s only so many bowls we can go to,” Friedgen said. “We’ve got the minimum now. We want the maximum.”
In 2006, Maryland’s ACC hopes died when it lost its last two games, including the season finale to Atlantic Division champion Wake Forest. In 2008, the Terps lost three of four games in November, including the season finale to division winner Boston College.
This November push begins against a Miami squad coming off a deflating 24-19 loss at Virginia in which quarterback Jacory Harris (concussion) was knocked out in the first half and coach Randy Shannon was forced to employ freshman Stephen Morris, who he had wanted to redshirt.
Morris led a late comeback against Virginia, completing nine of 22 passes for 162 yards, but his two interceptions were costly. Morris is slated to start Saturday. But Friedgen said on Tuesday he wouldn’t be surprised if Harris was cleared to play.
