The banter began early. After all, the standing bet is breakfast in bed.
For Larry Devitt, a West Virginia graduate, and his wife, Katie, a Maryland alumnae, plenty was riding on the result of Thursday’s nationally televised game between the Terrapins and fourth-ranked Moutaineeers.
“My dad and I usually start making fun of my mom,” said Robby Devitt, 13, Larry’s son. “She thinks we’re serious and gets mad, then we apologize.”
The family from Ellicott City splits their allegiances along school and gender lines — eldest daughter, Mary Beth, is a diehard Maryland fan, Robby cheers the Mountaineers while their six-year old son hasn’t yet made his choice — and in the parking lot outside Byrd Stadium, flags from each school adorned their SUV, a fitting symbol for the ties that bind the two schools together and have made their border rivalry one of the best in college football.
The closeness extends to the field itself, where West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez and Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen entered the game with equivalent career records of 52-24. The Terps also had a chance to even the overall series between the teams after the Mountaineers took the lead, 22-21-2, with last year’s win in Morgantown.
The teams played every year since 1980, but they won’t meet again until 2010. West Virginia has lined up a two-game series with Colorado, while Maryland will play twice against California.
“It’ll be sad when it goes away,” said Keith Michael, a West Virginia graduate from Martinsburg, W.Va. “First they took Virginia Tech from us, now Maryland. But on the plus side, when it comes back, it could be that much bigger.”
Legions of Mountaineers fans arrived along with Terps fans when the lots around College Park opened at four in the afternoon.
“I couldn’t believe all the flags and supporters we saw on 70 and 270,” said Olen Brake, a Maryland supporter from Hagerstown.
Despite their team’s national ranking and a three-game winning streak against the Terrapins, the Mountaineers supporters were markedly humble, preferring to look back at the Terrapins’ victories in the previous four games, including the New Year’s Day 2004 Gator Bowl.
“There’s a little more swagger this year,” said Michael. “But we consider Maryland our equal. This game is a barometer for our season.”
