Watching West Virginia’s Tavon Austin torch Maryland again was painful for fans of the Terrapins in a 31-21 loss. In the Mountaineers’ wins over the Terps the last three years, the wide receiver has caught 31 passes for 407 yards and five touchdowns.
Austin, from Dunbar High in Baltimore, would have looked nice in a Terps uniform. His talent is such that he might have reversed the outcome of those games.
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But Saturday in Morgantown was not about the in-state recruit who got away. It was about a freshman quarterback who is making shocking strides, a freshman wideout who has become the Terps’ version of Austin and a maligned coach who is showing what he can do when his players are on his side.
On a day when he had every reason to fold up after he was fleeced for a fumble-return touchdown, Perry Hills shook off the error and completed 20 of 29 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns.
Sure, Austin had a career day. But Terps freshman Stefon Diggs answered with touchdown catches of 56 and 42 yards. Diggs is the kind of transformational talent — like Austin, like Derrick Harvey, like Derrick Williams, like Joe Haden, and like Jelani Jenkins — who never felt a pull to College Park before Randy Edsall arrived.
Maryland fans who still want Edsall gone need to ask themselves this: Would you rather have Ralph Friedgen on the sidelines, Danny O’Brien (now benched in Wisconsin) at quarterback and Diggs making an impact somewhere else?
– Kevin Dunleavy
