The University of Maryland football team has been here before. On Saturday, the Terps will play on the road in a hostile stadium against a top 20 team for the second time in three games.
This weekend?s game, the Terps? Atlantic Coast Conference opener at Georgia Tech?s Bobby Dodd Stadium, will feature an environment that should be eerily similar to that of Milan Puskar Stadium, where the Terps were embarrassed by West Virginia on national television nearly three weeks ago. The 45-24 loss still lingers with the Terps (3-1), but it is the valuable lessons from that debacle that Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen wants his players to focus on.
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“I am hoping they learn you can?t turn the ball over five times,” Friedgen said.
Limiting mistakes and winning the turnover battle against Georgia Tech will be tough. The Yellow Jackets (4-1) sport a plus 4 turnover ration, compared to the Terps? minus 6. Playing in front of an energized opposing crowd won?t make those goals any easier. Still, Friedgen said he feels his team gained a lot in that regard from the West Virginia game.
“We have been there; we have done that,” Friedgen said. “We have got to deal with crowd noise. It is part of college football. It is part of why we play. It is what makes it exciting.”
The Terps best defense against a boisterous crowd is to take the fans out of the game by taking an early lead. That will require the Terps offense, which is averaging 22.3 points per game, to outduel a Georgia Tech unit averaging 29 per contest.
Maryland junior linebacker Wesley Jefferson said the Terps can learn from the similarities between West Virginia and Georgia Tech even though the teams run different offensive schemes.
“It is based on the same thing,” Jefferson said. “They have a running quarterback [Reggie Ball] and a fast guy [Calvin Johnson].”
Maryland senior cornerback Josh Wilson is glad that the four-game non-conference tune-up is over. He has experience playing in big games on the road but said that the West Virginia game was crucial in giving the younger players that experience.
“We are hoping they got past the shell-shocked stage,” Wilson said. “We are in the ACC schedule, and we are playing with the big boys.”
Quarterback Sam Hollenbach said he believes the Terps? experience in Morgantown prepared the team to face Georgia Tech.
“We did not come out with a win, but we did play in a tough environment,” Hollenbach said. “That is something we can take to Georgia Tech, and we can get over that quickly and just focus on what we do.”
