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Chris DiIonno tackles questions about Maryland’s new recruiting class, Marcus Vick and Valentine’s Day.
There is only one thing that could make me write about anything other than the Super Bowl this week and surprisingly, it has nothing to do with Duke’s lucky wins over Boston College and Florida State. No, I’m talking about the greatest three words this side of New Years for any college fan, student, booster, mascot or Lee Corso: National Signing Day.
National Signing Day at DC Metro Sports is like Rex Manning day at Empire Records, except without the dancing and Liv Tyler. Today begins a three-month mini Mardi gras that leads into the NFL Draft before we all go into our summer depression funk.
Why so important? Well, although never been confirmed, I have a theory that this website was created all due to local boy Bryon Leftwich making good and going to the NFL. There is something prideful about watching a running back or a linebacker that you went to high school with, make it on the next level. And there is no bigger program closer to the D.C. area than the University of Maryland. With that in mind, I’ve decided to do a little Q & A about this seasons recruiting class in the attempt to make myself look very knowledgeable on the subject.
Who is Maryland’s prize recruit this year?
Melvin Alaeze, a defensive end/tackle out of Randallstown, MD. Good student, better football player, Alaeze had 18.5 sacks and 50 tackles – just as a senior! When he was a junior he was first team all metro, all division and all county and made second team all state. I’ve heard his name mentioned when talking about who will take the reigns as the next defensive stud following E.J. Henderson, Shawne Merriman, and D’Qwell Jackson.
Joe Montana and Dan Marino were both born in Pennsylvania. Any chance Jeremy Ricker lives up to that same pedigree?
Yikes. Nothing like starting the hype train early is there? Here’s the good news about Ricker (and I’ve never seen him play): he’s from Pennsylvania (where all quarterbacks are born and raised) and he’s the first very highly touted quarterback that Friedgen has been able to recruit…
…Wasn’t Jordan Steffy highly touted coming out of high school?
Yes, but he’s also highly injured. Anyway, ESPN has Ricker as the 9th rated quarterback in the nation and doesn’t really face a lot of competition in front of him on the depth chart. If he does well in summer practices, he might get a shot this year, but he should definitely be in control of the team by his sophomore year.
What’s the good news about this years recruiting class?
I was just getting to that. It’s not that Ricker himself is the good news, it’s the fact that Maryland was finally able to recruit a quarterback of his caliber. When Friedgen first came here he was known for his offensive genius since he had a history as a quarterbacks coach and as an offensive coordinator. The fact that he won 30 games in three years was just awe inspiring considering that these weren’t even his recruits! Maryland fans were just giddy with the thought of, “Imagine how good we’ll be when he recruits his style of quarterback!” So even though it took a couple more seasons then it should’ve, it looks like Friedgen is starting to put together the offense that we all dreamed we’d have when he came here.
Aren’t you glad Maryland didn’t get Marcus Vick a couple years ago?
Yes. Yes I am. Now let us never mention that ever again.
Who does Penn St. think they are? Get your own recruits!
About Penn St. “stealing” our recruits: What do you expect to happen when two teams who recruit from the same areas and one of them has recently gone to the Orange Bowl by playing some freshmen while the other concluded another losing season. If you’re a high school senior, which program are you going to?
It’s actually very amazing what Penn St. is doing right now. Remember a couple years ago, their program was supposedly on the slide because they couldn’t get top tier recruits to sign a commitment because no one knew how much longer Paterno was going to coach.
Besides Penn St., Maryland is also surrounded by top national programs such as Virginia Tech and West Virginia (who looks to compete for a national title next year). In terms of recruiting, is this good for Maryland or bad?
Bad for recruiting, good for the program, if that makes any sense. If there are nationally ranked prospects in the region, odds are that it’ll be pretty tough for Maryland to get any of them to commit to College Park if WVU, Tech and PSU are all chasing the same guy. On the flip side, competition only makes a team stronger. For example look at college basketball in the region. For the past couple years Maryland was the only school worth writing about. But now George Washington has become a top 10 team and Georgetown appears to be resurrecting their program.
In conclusion, for the short term, having other schools close by succeed will hurt Maryland but in the long run it’ll be better for the school.
Speaking of college basketball, have you noticed that anytime you write something good about Maryland basketball they start to suck, and every time you rip them they do well? Can you do us all a favor and either a) stop writing about them or b) write them off for dead now?
Point taken, and my sincere apologies to every Maryland fan out there. At first I was upset that they found a way to get blown out at home by North Carolina, but now I see that I indirectly caused it. My question now is, now that I know my power, if I knowingly write something bad about Maryland so that they’ll do well, will it backfire on me causing Maryland to lose even more? Should I keep writing negative articles assuming that fate doesn’t know that I know my power? Or should I just shut up and assume that Chris McCray’s departure is the real reason Maryland stinks and I really don’t have anything to do with this? I’ll go with the latter.
(By the way, everyone makes a big deal when we lose to Duke, or that we got swept by Clemson last year, but what about the streak we have with North Carolina? Doesn’t anybody know/care that we’ve lost to them four straight times? Does this bother anybody else but me? People tend to forget that in the mid 90’s, in the Vince Carter era at Carolina, it was UNC who was the big draw/rival for Maryland, not Duke. Does Gary Williams just expect me to casually accept losing to the Tar Heels now that they’re not one of main rivals? Honestly, I’m not sure if there is anything worse then losing to a team who wears that shade of blue.)
Maryland plays at Clemson on Valentine’s Day, and at the rate Maryland is going, it will probably be a must win for the Terps if they want to get into the tournament this year. Is there a way I can watch the game while still taking my girlfriend out?
Here’s how I see Maryland’s next couple of games breaking down: blowout loss at N.C. State followed by a narrow win over UVA at home to get Williams past Lefty Driesell on the all-time wins list at Maryland. A loss to Duke at home would put Maryland at 15-8 and 5-5 in the conference. The good news is that Maryland was on the bubble with 16 wins last year. The bad news is that the only ‘quality’ win we have is against an overrated Boston College team at home. So yes, the Clemson game will definitely qualify as a must win.
It would look bad if you took her to a restaurant with a T.V. because she’ll know you’re just trying to get an update on the game. She’d probably prefer you to just check another woman out than try to catch a glimpse of the game. And you can’t tape the game and watch it later because… well that never works. It’s one of the weird quirks of the world, whenever you’re trying hard not to know something; you end up finding out about it. If you tape the game it’s all but guaranteed that you’ll be leaving the restaurant and think you’re in the clear when the cabbie will mention casually, “Maryland lost on a buzzer-beater tonight, tough loss,” then you’re screwed.
This is the play: decide how much this girl means to you. If she’s a keeper, forget Maryland. Imagine if you don’t go out with her to watch the game, then Maryland loses. Then you have no girlfriend and your basketball team has no season. Not a good situation. With Maryland you know you’ll have a second chance next year, but this is your only shot with the girlfriend.
Though this leads to a bigger social question: Why do teams schedule games on Valentine’s Day? This has to be the leading cause of all breakups each year – some guy trying to find the score of the game instead of paying attention to his girlfriend. For the health of every relationship in this country we need to pass a law that says no sporting event can take place on February 14th. It’s the best for everyone involved, seriously.
You do a lot of complaining about the state of the Maryland basketball team, but did you know that the Women’s team is doing quite well? Where’s the love for the lady Terps?
Dear Brenda Frese,
Please do not blame any losses suffered on Tobacco Road on me.
Sincerely,
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U of Maryland 