It’s almost July, so there’s enough preseason college football conjecture out there to draw some way-too-early 2009 conclusions. As previously reported on Terrapin Trail, the initial verdict on this year’s Terps is not so hot — across the board.
Let’s run down six 2009 Terps’ preseason national/conference rankings:
- Rivals.com: No. 59 nationally
- Athlon: No. 57 nationally, last in ACC Atlantic Division
- New York Times “The Quad”: No. 66 nationally
- Phil Steele: Last in ACC Atlantic Division
- Lindy’s: Last in ACC Atlantic Division
- Sporting News: Fifth in ACC Atlantic Division (Hey, improvement!)
You get the point. According to the prognosticators, the Terps will be severely lacking this season. (A couple do still predict bowl eligible seasons despite their less-than-stellar overall assessments.) The most often cited factors for these predictions of doom and gloom:
- Experience: Only 10 starters return — the second fewest amount in Ralph Friedgen’s coaching tenure. The team also returns the fewest lettermen of any non-service academy.
- Offensive line: Inexperienced, untested and potentially lacking in depth.
- Schedule: The Terps start the season at Cal, a program which many are saying (not me, for the record) could challenge USC for the Pac-10 title. Either way, that’s an extremely difficult opening game. A better-than-people-realize Rutgers squad comes to College Park on Sept. 26. Then the ACC games start. The Terps will face Clemson and Virginia Tech at home, but have to travel to Florida State and N.C. State. The Terps will be underdogs in all four contests.
But how do you, the fan, feel about this team? Is this inexperience factor being overblown? Is there enough young talent in the wide receiver and linebacker units to garner another eight-win season? Or are this year’s Terps really going to fall as far as predicted? Is missing a bowl game (gasp!) out of the question?
Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com.
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