Terrapins desperate for a win

By Eric Prisbell

The Washington Post

November 07, 2009

While the winner of Saturday's Maryland-North Carolina State game faces an uncertain fate the rest of the season, the ramifications for the loser are clear: It will be the first ACC team eliminated from bowl contention and, at least for now, will earn the title as the conference's worst team.

No teams in the conference have struggled as mightily as the two that will collide at Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Neither has won a game in more than a month. They have a combined 2-11 record against division I-A teams. Narrow and not-so-narrow defeats, plus injuries, have left both grasping for signs of hope.

'There was a rainbow today,' Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen said after Thursday's practice. 'I am looking for any kind of omen, guys. You laugh. It's not funny. I am looking for Dorothy.'

A matchup between two teams with a combined 1-7 conference record finds itself in rarefied company. The game is one of only two featuring a Bowl Championship Series conference team -- Baylor-Missouri the other -- that will not be televised anywhere. (Maryland-N.C. State can be seen only on the Internet via ESPN360.com.)

'I don't think either one of us thought we would be where we are right now,' Friedgen said.

The Wolfpack (3-5, 0-4) was a trendy preseason pick to win the ACC Atlantic Division. Maryland (2-6, 1-3) was at least expected to approach bowl eligibility. But instead of reaching those expectations, both head coaches are navigating the final month of the regular season talking about heavy doses of bad luck and yet another opportunity to break through with a victory.

'This week, both teams are in the same situation,' Maryland linebacker Alex Wujciak said. 'We are playing for the same thing.'

Both teams are playing for a chance to keep playing for a chance to reach a bowl game. Both need to win out to gain bowl eligibility. (N.C. State needs seven overall wins because only one is allowed to come against a division I-AA opponent.)

'We all keep waiting for a break,' North Carolina State Coach Tom O'Brien said of his team. 'Something good is going to have to happen to us at some time. We can't keep going south forever. We just have to hang in there.'

Friedgen has echoed the same sentiment almost every week, adding Thursday, 'This has been a real strange year.'

In addition to inexperience, injuries have taken their toll on the Terrapins. Cornerback Nolan Carroll, one of four team captains, broke his leg in the second game. Running back Da'Rel Scott, a first-team all-ACC performer last season, broke his forearm on Oct. 3. Left tackle Bruce Campbell has been in and out of the lineup with knee and turf toe injuries.

Young players are also beginning to get banged up. Talented linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield, a redshirt freshman, will miss at least the next two games with a broken wrist. Redshirt freshman running back Gary Douglas (shoulder) is available to play Saturday but has looked tentative in practice. Freshman offensive lineman Bennett Fulper (shoulder) is out for the season.

N.C. State is even more battered. Twelve players have suffered season-ending injuries, including standout linebacker Nate Irving, who suffered a broken leg and collapsed lung in a June car accident. In the Wolfpack's last game, a 45-42 loss to Florida State last Saturday, guard R.J. Mattes, who had started all eight previous games, suffered a season-ending knee injury.

On Thursday, the school announced that wide receiver and kick returner T.J. Graham is out for the season with a stress fracture in his leg.

'I hope I am the next one hurt,' O'Brien said. 'I will take a hit for the team if it keeps somebody else healthy.'

If nothing else, the game promises to be entertaining because N.C. State's offense is as prolific as its defense is porous. A Wolfpack team that ranks 20th nationally in scoring offense will look to attack a Maryland defense that ranks 104th nationally in scoring defense. No ACC team has allowed more points than the Terrapins, who have given up 253.

But Maryland's offense, which has struggled to run the ball and convert in the red zone, may be able to keep pace because N.C. State's defense has allowed an average of 44 points in four ACC games.

'We hope we get better,' O'Brien said of his defense. 'We are going in with the same starting lineup we had against Florida State, which had not happened this year yet. That's a positive.'

It has already been a long year for both coaches. This week, Friedgen met with an undisclosed player in his office for an hour in part because the player was dealing with the death of his grandfather. But during the meeting, the player wound up giving his head coach an impromptu pep talk, asking Friedgen about his spirits.

'I am doing about as well as you could expect for a guy who is 2-6,' Friedgen said.

Maryland's coaches have spent the two weeks since

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