Passing the Hours Until Kickoff
Once again, I made it to the game by kickoff. I only had three hours to spare.
I spent a wonderful evening at the home of close, longtime friends, Gary and Evelyn Christopher, in Annapolis, and tooled through gorgeous, autumnal countryside to Highway 50 to catch the Beltway up to College Park. I’ve taken the route before, and I’m always reminded of the scene late in the iconic movie Diner, when Boogie, the Mickey Rouke character,drives out of dirty, grimy Baltimore into the countryside and gets dissed by the beautiful rich girl on the horse.
I look for her every time I drive down Highway 424 linking Highway 215 to
My traveling companion has been a book on C.D., Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow, about two rather eccentric brothers holed up against the ravages of modern life in what was, until they got through with it, a swanky four-story apartment on NYC’s Upper West Side. It’s good enough to hold my interest, and I plan to finish it on the ride home.
Sitting all alone in the press box at Byrd Stadium, I’m looking out over a field where Wake hopes to make what, in effect, could be its last stand of the 2010 season. A loss would be the Deacons’ sixth-straight, dropping them to 2-6 with four games to play. So only by running the table—beating BC and Clemson at home and N.C. State and Vandy on the road—could they still make a bowl. I recogniize there are many of you in the Peanut Gallery who have written off their chances, and I feel almost Pollyannish to even bring the subject up. But I’ve seen surprised so many times in my years of writing sports that I always try to leave open the possibility of being surprised again.
Having seen at Virginia Tech what Josh Harris can do, I’m anxious to see it again. Maryland is tough against the run—ranking fourth in the ACC in rush defense—but not as good as the Hokies defense that Harris gashed for 241 yards. The key today, in my mind, is the kid at quarterback, Tanner Price. If he plays like he played against Navy, I believe the Deacons will win. I’m impressed to see the Terps have won five of their first seven games, but not impressed with whom they have beaten—Navy, Morgan State, Florida International, Duke and BC. Frank Howard, the legendary coach-philosopher at Clemson all those years, once said the key to a great season is to find somebody you can beat and play them every Saturday. Ralph Friedgen has obviously taken the advice to heart. In the two games against teams (other than Navy) that should wind up in bowls, the Terps have lost to West Virginia 31-17 and Clemson 31-7, with both losses coming on the road.
Maryland has some tough sledding ahead, with games against Miami, Virginia, Florida State and N.C. State left to play. The Terps, with a victory today, would become bowl eligible and build momentum for the home stretch. They would also remain smack dab in the middle of contention for an Atlantic Division title, in a race that became ever more open with N.C. State’s Thursday night victory over the
Seminoles. I don’t really the Terps’ chances, but I’m sure there were those saying the same thing about Wake Forest four years ago when the Deacons were 2-1 after their first three ACC games.
Most of the games I’ve seen here have been over pretty early, like the Deacons;’ 26-0 loss two years ago in which Trey Bailey broke his ankle. But one game here I’ll long remember was the Kenny Moore game of 2006, when Moore took over at running back and powered Wake to a 38-24 victory that clinched the Division title.
The stakes will be different for Wake today, but they are stakes just the same.