The Fridge

The Terps now hold the Coach of the Year award in both major sports with the Fridge being announced as this year's football winner today. Things are darkest before the dawn, or so they say, and it couldn't get much worse than last year. The team went just 2-10, with a 24-21 win at home against eventual Atlantic Division champ Clemson being the only win in 11 tries against I-A opponents.

Things changed quite a bit this year. After squeaking by Navy in a thriller for the second time in the renewed series, the team did something different in absolutely demolishing Morgan State 62-3. Granted that Morgan is a bad, I-AA football team (they finished 4-7), but the Terps had rarely blown out even bad teams over the past few years. That game was also the dawn of the Danny O'Brien era. After playing one snap (and losing a fumble) in Week 1 against the Mids, O'Brien tossed 10 passes on the day in a backup role, with three of them going for scores.

After getting handled in Morgantown against rival West Virginia, things looked like they were headed south again. The next week saw a two TD win over eventual Sun Belt champ Florida International, a deceptively tough team that had given Texas A&M and Rutgers tough games (losing by a total of 12 points) in its first two contests.

Duke came to town for the first time in years the next week. After an epic tailgate, I can't really break down the game itself, but a late defensive stop sealed it, and at 4-1, many finally began to think the Terps might be bowl bound. A disheartening 31-7 loss to Clemson after a bye week showed the team wasn't quite as good as its early record, but they came back strong to win at Boston College which snapped a ten game losing streak on the road.

Danny O'Brien was officially on his way to a nice season. He threw for three scores again at BC which followed up a turnover marred 300 yard day against Clemson. The next game against Wake was the best yet, a 62-14 homecoming win which sealed the team's bowl eligibility and established themselves as a divisional contender going into the season's last month. O'Brien had four scores and the Terps tied the school record for most points in an ACC game, scoring 60+ in a game for just the fifth time since joining the league.

A late loss to a freshman-QB led Miami team was disappointing though promising considering how highly the Canes were thought of and the fact that it was a road game. After three quarters of a back and forth game in Charlottesville, the Terps scored three late touchdowns to win going away and position themselves for a chance to win the ACC Atlantic with a win in each of its final two weeks.

That was not to be with a loss to Florida State in a game where the team was driving with less than a minute to go before a pick deep in the drive sealed their fate. Even without a chance to win the division, the team bounced back strong behind 400 plus yards from DOB in the team's final home game.

The team is now 8-4 with its first winning conference record since 2006. After an offseason of what seemed like the entire fanbase wanting the Fridge (and James Franklin) tarred and feathered, he showed the fans he still had something left in the tank. I can't say that I would have been especially broken up to see Fridge voluntarily retire last year, but the way the fans turned on an alum just a year removed from back to back bowls was pretty disheartening. He may or may not have deserved to keep his job, but he at least deserved some respect.

His job is no longer in jeopardy, of course. Kevin Anderson announced several weeks ago that he would be back, and now with an 8 win season and a possible national ranking pending a bowl win, the only question is how long he's guaranteed to be here for after this season. The most exciting thing is the youth of the team with DOB, unsurprisingly, being named the league's ROY. He threw for 21 touchdowns despite starting just nine games on the season. Given that pace and given that he is, of course, a freshman, he's well on his way to owning every single school record. The only real question is where he ends up in the conference record book. Phillip Rivers is the freshman (25) and all-time (95) TD leader. The first mark probably won't be eclipsed by O'Brien while the latter could certainly fall.

Vets Torrey Smith, Kenny Tate, Alex Wujciak and Tony Logan made the All-ACC first team. Joe Vellano made the second team, and Paul Pinegar made the honorable mention list. Smith in particular had a monster game against NC State with over 200 yards receiving and may have played his last game at Byrd Stadium. As much hype as DHB got during his time here, his actual production pales in comparison to what Torrey has done the past couple of seasons.

Now it's time for the bowl. Unfortunately, the destination sucks. The team gets rewarded for its 8-4 season by going to the Military Bowl, the destination for the league's eighth pick. The opponent is even worse, 6-6 East Carolina from Conference USA, a decidedly not-at-all-sexy opponent. So for improving by six wins and finishing over .500, the team gets to go five miles down the road to play in freezing weather against a team that may be one of the worst three or four teams to make a bowl this season.

Of course Virginia Tech is going to the Orange Bowl, and naturally the Peach Bowl selected Florida State, a team that finished as the conference's runner-up and which probably has the most passionate fanbase in the country. After that, things got weird. The Champs Sports Bowl took NC State despite its late loss to Maryland to wrap the season up. The Terps were then passed over for the Sun Bowl for 7-5 Miami to set up a "dream" match between the Canes and Notre Dame, despite Miami struggling to end the season and firing its coach. Scandal ridden North Carolina got taken by the Music City Bowl to face Tennessee and 6-6 Clemson, another team that finished weakly, got selected to play in Charlotte and 6-6 Georgia Tech went to the Independence Bowl as the seventh selection, one that the Terps apparently had little interest in.

It really sucks that the team might finished ranked but got no respect in the bowl selections, but either way, it shouldn't diminish an awesome turnaround season. With almost all the key players returning next year (pending early departures by Smith and/or Tate), a big win and a top 25 ranking would go a long way to building momentum and fan interest (which was sorely lacking this season) for 2011.