Perception was reality for the Maryland football team in 2006.
The Terrapins began the year with just eight votes in the USA Today poll, a precarious position that left the door wide open for them to fall out of the rankings after their first loss.
Maryland is battling a similar outlook in 2007: The Terps begin the season outside of the rankings and know that even if they hammer Villanova in Saturday’s season opener and Florida International the following week, they might stay there.
“I really think that people already have their opinions about us formed,” said linebacker Erin Henderson. “Everybody already thinks Maryland is going to do this or Maryland is going to be that. Regardless of what we go out and do in the first two games, it doesn’t matter.”
When the Terrapins suffered their first loss last season at West Virginia, any negligible gains from their first two games against negligible opponents were erased.
By the time they rebounded to win seven of their last nine games, it was too late to garner any national attention.
“I think there was a perception that we weren’t as good as what I thought we would be,” said Terrapins head coach Ralph Friedgen. “I think in the end, once we won the bowl game, I think we deserved to be a Top 25 team. Because of that perception, I think that it hurt us at the end of the year even more so than at the beginning of the year.”
