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With UM, expect the unexpected

David Steele

September 13, 2008

This could end up being just another classic Maryland football tease, you know.

The program is getting good at it, almost good enough for it to be its signature. There's no sane reason to believe that a team that just lost to Middle Tennessee State is now going to beat No.23 California.

Except that this is exactly what the Terps do, and have done over and over again, since the initial three-year burst of the Ralph Friedgen Era.

The Terps' faithful are in a foul mood post-Middle Tennessee, but it's really more of a lingering affliction. The more the Terps slip up against a seemingly inferior team, the more likely they are to shock a superior one. Conversely, the more they stun the world with an upset, the more likely they are to backslide almost immediately.

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So don't be surprised if the impossible happens this afternoon at Byrd Stadium. It's probably just another setup.

Feel free to get mad, though. Because more and more, this is what defines this program. It doesn't stink as badly as everyone has said it does this week, fresh off the debacle in Murfreesboro, Tenn., last week. But it never stays as good as it looks after it beats Boston College, Rutgers, Miami or Florida State.

It only appears to be as good, or as bad, as whomever it's playing that day. And that's a sign of a program going not downhill, not uphill, but in circles.

"You know," senior defensive tackle Jeremy Navarre said last week when presented with that theory, "honestly, the past three years, I think we've done that. It's kind of a flaw. We play teams like Delaware, good teams, and we want to come out and make a statement, and we only beat them by seven points. [Two years ago] against William and Mary, [last year] against Villanova, teams that are I-AA - but then we turn around and beat BC.

"If we want to be a good team, that's not something we want to do. We have to come and play up to our own level to be successful."

Clearly, that can be a high level, capable of beating the best. BC was eighth in the country when Maryland beat the Eagles last season; Rutgers was No.10 when Maryland went there to take the Scarlet Knights down. Does it even seem possible that the quarterback who led both wins, Chris Turner, is the same one who looked so horrendous last week?

Around here, sure it does.

Wild swings like this have dotted Maryland's schedule the past four seasons. It's like a three-month bait-and-switch. Or an eight-year bait-and-switch - because the promise of those first three years with Friedgen also have left everybody hungry for more (bowls, rankings, prestige) and only occasionally well-fed.

The bait is dangling again today. By all rights, Cal should spend 60 minutes playing Moe to Maryland's Curly. Yet there's just as good a chance the day will end with the goal posts coming down and Friedgen leading another rousing chorus of the fight song in front of the student section.

Friedgen's theme this week has been "character" - does his team have it, or not? He says it does. On Tuesday, he passed on drawing a connection between past teams and this one. He did say: "We're going to get tested [today]; we're playing against a very good football team. But I don't think we've played as well as we're capable, either. We'll play our best football and see what happens."

The Terps probably will. The results might be magnificent. Yet they'll also be nothing more than what they've produced every year lately.

A tease.

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