WVU Vs Maryland 9/17 - week 2 discussion

[BohBalmer]

#31 Terps in the spotlight once again on national television - on ESPN vs #19 West Virginia.

Going to be a tough one But i think this team has enough talent to get the job done at home.

Thoughts?

[Danielos38]

Not so sure about this one. I feel like it's all going to come down to defense. I think all of our redzone woes were unforced errors that are totally correctable. I'm not worried about that. I love the pace of our offense and I'm confident that they can put up a lot of points against most anybody. We're going to need to control their defense. If we can keep this from being an all out shootout, I think we win. If they're running all over us, we're going to lose.

[CSB Jack]

I think it's too soon to tell what we have. After today the coaches will have another game of film on WVU to study, which should give them a little edge. But while I am optimistic about the coaching staff, I don't really know about them, nor do I know how solidly the defense in particular knows their schemes and assignments. I have confidence in the offense's ability to move the ball and also put points on the board. As Daniel said, if it's not just a shootout but we get good solid defense we can and should win.

Special teams remains my biggest concern, particularly kick coverage.

I'll go into this game believing we can win, and won't consider it a major upset if we do. But it is an important game to win for the good of the program this year and for laying that foundation for the future as well.

[adamwolff11]

I think this would be a HUGE win for the program. They already beat Miami in prime time and were the talk of college football for a few days because of the jerseys. If they could beat a very respectable WVU team, it just completely legitimizes the team.

That said, it's going to be on the defense. I'm very confident in O'Brien going up against anyone, but the defense..not so much. It's hard to know exactly what we have after 1 game, though. I'm going to go into this game thinking we have a shot, but obviously are not the favorites. I'll be happy, but not shocked if we win, and unhappy, but not devastated if we lose.

[Tony-OH]

I think this would be a HUGE win for the program. They already beat Miami in prime time and were the talk of college football for a few days because of the jerseys. If they could beat a very respectable WVU team, it just completely legitimizes the team.

That said, it's going to be on the defense. I'm very confident in O'Brien going up against anyone, but the defense..not so much. It's hard to know exactly what we have after 1 game, though. I'm going to go into this game thinking we have a shot, but obviously are not the favorites. I'll be happy, but not shocked if we win, and unhappy, but not devastated if we lose.

I have to agree with this. If the Terps can beat a ranked West Virginia they will show people they are more than just a bold jersey and helmet.

[CT203]

Being from Connecticut and following UConn sports....

WVU owns Edsall. Its not even funny. WVU will be prepared for anything Maryland wants to do defensively. Edsall will still be dumbfounded on how to stop/slow down WVU on offense.

[Danielos38]

Being from Connecticut and following UConn sports....

WVU owns Edsall. Its not even funny. WVU will be prepared for anything Maryland wants to do defensively. Edsall will still be dumbfounded on how to stop/slow down WVU on offense.

Being a UConn fan, do you have any other insights about Edsall that we might not know?

[Tony-OH]

Being from Connecticut and following UConn sports....

WVU owns Edsall. Its not even funny. WVU will be prepared for anything Maryland wants to do defensively. Edsall will still be dumbfounded on how to stop/slow down WVU on offense.

He'll have better athletes to work with though with Maryland. West Virginia always has speed and that's probably part of the reason why you guys were stomped by them more than some poor coaching from Edsall. Guess we'll find out.

[CT203]

Being a UConn fan, do you have any other insights about Edsall that we might not know?

Defense is his specialty and he coaches up his players great. Gets the most out of them.

He is too conservative for my liking but he is also going to make sure his team does not make mistakes (his teams usually commit few penalties and the defense would bend and not break).

He is an awful evaluator of QB talent. In his 10 years he failed to recruit/bring in any QB that was serviceable. Dan Orlovsky was from CT and went to UConn for that reason. He fell into Edsall's lap.

[CT203]

He'll have better athletes to work with though with Maryland. West Virginia always has speed and that's probably part of the reason why you guys were stomped by them more than some poor coaching from Edsall. Guess we'll find out.

We will see. Just seemed no matter what adjustments they made year in and out WVU had Edsall's number

[Flosman]

We will see. Just seemed no matter what adjustments they made year in and out WVU had Edsall's number

WVU has had extremely talented teams over the past ten years or so. They have consistently failed to avoid a couple games a season where they lose to teams with lesser talent. Edsell had an inferior roster in every matchup he every had against WVU, IMO. Unfortunately he faces the same thing this week. WVU has a great strength program and I expect them to push the Terps around up front this week. I hope I am wrong but I suspect our hopes for a win are getting in a shootout that we just outscore WVU.

[JohnD]

The good thing Maryland has done is work to get faster, which is the only way you beat WVU. Like Jimmy Johnson's Miami teams from the 80s, you're seeing the Terps move LBs to the d-line, and d-backs to linebacker, in the name of speed. It gives them a better shot now than they had in some years past. Maybe they won't pull it off this year, but they're getting closer. They're doing some good things, and they've got a chance this weekend. May not win, but they have a chance. This is one of the more talented teams in recent years, and the coaching staff figured out how to neutralize the speed difference with Miami, even if they didn't do much to rush the passer.

The party starts early in 9B this weekend.

[commish]

I think this would be a HUGE win for the program. They already beat Miami in prime time and were the talk of college football for a few days because of the jerseys. If they could beat a very respectable WVU team, it just completely legitimizes the team.

That said, it's going to be on the defense. I'm very confident in O'Brien going up against anyone, but the defense..not so much. It's hard to know exactly what we have after 1 game, though. I'm going to go into this game thinking we have a shot, but obviously are not the favorites. I'll be happy, but not shocked if we win, and unhappy, but not devastated if we lose.

I agree that WVU is the favorite, but was surprised to see that Vegas has MD as -1 favorites.

[Birds of B'more]

I agree that WVU is the favorite, but was surprised to see that Vegas has MD as -1 favorites.

Part of that is probably due to the fact that WV has not been tested yet and has looked sluggish at times against inferior opponents. They weren't all that impressive in beating Marshall in a game that featured a long weather delay, and they were losing to Norfolk St at halftime before finally waking up. That said, I'm still surprised by that line and would expect it to move towards WV as the bets are placed this week.....but the guys in Vegas usually know what they're doing.

[paulcoates]

Part of that is probably due to the fact that WV has not been tested yet and has looked sluggish at times against inferior opponents. They weren't all that impressive in beating Marshall in a game that featured a long weather delay' date=' and they were losing to Norfolk St at halftime before finally waking up. That said, I'm still surprised by that line and would expect it to move towards WV as the bets are placed this week.....but the guys in Vegas usually know what they're doing.[/quote']

They know what they are far as getting money on each team 50/50