North Carolina State University Athletics
Terps Stand In Pack's Way Once Again
11/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Game 12: NC State (6-5, 3-4 ACC) vs. Maryland (2-9, 1-6 ACC)
November 26, 2011 • 12:30 p.m. • ACC Network
Raleigh, N.C. • Carter-Finley Stadium (57,583)
TV: ACC Network | Radio: Wolfpack Sports Network | Gametracker
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Through all the injuries, through all the head-scratching inconsistency and through all the other obstacles it has faced this season, NC State (6-5, 3-4) still has a chance to qualify for a bowl game. But standing between the Wolfpack and a 13th game this season is an old, familiar nemesis: Maryland (2-9, 1-6).
They’re officially called the Maryland Terrapins. Many NC State followers know them as the Maryland party-poopers. The Terps have dashed many a Wolfpack dream over the last decade and will try to do so once again in spoiler fashion Saturday when the two teams face off in a Carter-Finley Stadium senior send-off starting at 12:30 p.m.
Radio coverage on the Wolfpack Sports Network begins at 11:30 a.m.
A win sends NC State bowling. A loss would keep the Wolfpack at home over the holidays. It seems as if we’ve witnessed this scenario before…many times.
Just 12 months ago, the Pack needed a season-ending victory at Maryland to secure the Atlantic Division title and a spot in the ACC Championship game. The Terps derailed those plans behind the hot passing of freshman quarterback Danny O’Brien in a 38-31 victory over State at Byrd Stadium.
“Last year was a heartbreaker,” said NC State safety Brandan Bishop. “It knocked us out of a chance to play for a conference title. We’ll remember that and we have a lot on the line this year, too. It’ll be a huge game.”
Games between Maryland and NC State always seem ‘huge.’ Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that 15 of the last 20 matchups in the series have been staged in the month of November. This will mark the third time in Tom O’Brien’s five years as the head coach at NC State that Maryland has been the last team on the Wolfpack’s regular season schedule. The Pack has also ended its season with games against Maryland in five of the last eight years.
Dramatic finishes abound over the last 11 years, with no less than nine of the games going right to the wire. During that stretch, which goes back to 2000, NC State has come up on the short end of numerous close shaves, the kind of losses that make bitterly cold winters feel even more frigid.
There was the double-overtime thriller in 2000, a game that was eventually won by the Terps, 35-28. The next year in Raleigh, quarterback Shaun Hill engineered a 61-yard drive in the final minute to lift Maryland to a 23-19 victory. In 2002, the Terps kicked a field goal with 34 seconds left to win 24-21. Prior to the 2003 contest, quarterback and all-time Wolfpack great Philip Rivers had his No. 17 jersey retired in an emotional ceremony before his last home game. But once again, Maryland spoiled the party by forcing a turnover with just over two-minutes left and kicking a field goal with 23 seconds remaining to win by two.
Current NC State players generally don’t pay attention to such nuggets of history, but the memory of the hurt they felt in the aftermath of last year’s loss still stings.
“Yes it does,” Wolfpack tailback James Washington said. “We were one game away from being in the ACC Championship Game. That’s still on our backs. We feel like we had a team that could win the ACC Championship last year. This year we have to come into this game and go all out because our postseason chances depend on this game. We have to win.”
Unlike many of the Maryland teams NC State has faced in recent years, this one seems less capable of inflicting as much damage as some of the more recent editions. In coach Randy Edsall’s first season as head coach in College Park, the Terrapins have suffered through many of the problems normally associated with programs that undergo a coaching change. Injuries have also been an issue, with as many as eight starters on defense being sidelined for at least three games. On offense, the same Danny O’Brien who passed for 417 yards and four touchdowns against NC State last season is out with a broken arm he suffered two weeks ago.
The Terrapins have dropped seven in a row heading into Saturday’s season finale. On Saturday, they’ll be trying to avoid their second 10-loss season in the last three years.
“I don’t want to see number 10 go up there,” said Edsall, who came to Maryland following a successful 12-year stint at Connecticut. “We’re going to try to do anything we possibly can to avoid that. Anything that possibly could go wrong this year has gone wrong. I don’t know what else could come up.”
One of the bright spots for Edsall has been the play of sophomore quarterback C.J. Brown, who unlike O’Brien, is a running quarterback. Brown has rushed for over 100 yards three times this season and averages 7.8 yards per carry.
With Danny O’Brien unavailable, NC State will likely get a steady diet of read option plays involving Brown and tailback Davin Meggett.
‘You try to study what he does and try to take away some of the things he does,” NC State head coach Tom O’Brien said of the speedy Brown. “Number one is containing him and keeping him in the pocket if we can do it because he causes all kinds of difficulties when he gets outside.”
At this stage, however, O’Brien has to feel very confident in an NC State defense that has emerged as a dominant unit in recent weeks. The Wolfpack has held its last three opponents – North Carolina, Boston College and Clemson – to an average of just 36.3 yards rushing per game. Now as healthy as it has been all season on defense, the Pack ranks second in the ACC in total defense (319 ypg.) and rushing defense (107.6) against league competition. State is No. 1 in the nation in interceptions (22), with cornerback David Amerson leading the way with 11. The sophomore needs one more pick this weekend set a new all-time ACC mark.
There could be a lot to celebrate on Saturday if everything falls into place, but, as is typically the case, Maryland stands in the way once again.
Twenty NC State seniors would dearly love to buck the trend of some of their predecessors and topple the Terps in their final home game. Not only would a win qualify the Wolfpack for a bowl, it would give the Pack a 6-1 record at Carter-Finley Stadium this season.
“Our fans really get into the game and we feed off of that emotion,” Bishop said. “It seems like the defense gets going, our crowd gets into the game and our offense feeds off our defense. There’s something really, really special about playing here at home that helps us.”
By Tony Haynes
