“I told them that I expect to be back. But if I am not then I wanted to tell them how much I love them and have appreciated their effort this whole year. Sometimes when things happen you don’t get that opportunity.”
–Ralph Friedgen
Well, it’s over. The season that just couldn’t go right ended with another sour note, a 19-17 loss to Boston College that gave the Terps their first ever 10-loss season. Too many turnovers, penalties, and miscues happened too many times, and the results were a disastrous season. The year ends with Ralph Friedgen and plenty of his staff wondering whether they’ll return.
That being said, there are still glimmers of hope. Later this week, I’ll be writing a more comprehensive look back at the season, at what went wrong and what things we can look forward to in the future.
For now, though, for the last time, a look at some things from the final game of the season:
This whole game, of course, revolved around Ralph:
I’ve been talking about it for weeks, obviously. The big storyline coming into this game is whether Friedgen will be brought back next year. If not, this final game was a tough one and this final season was even worse. As I mentioned last week, he deserves better. Let’s ope he’s given the chance. It’s not like James Franklin offers a real hopeful alternative.
Penalties and miscues don’t help a team win:
The Terps finished with eight penalties for 65 yards, which is about eight too many for a team starving for a win. There were also simple miscues, plenty of missed tackles, and all-around sloppy play. Unfortunately, play like that is typical at this point.
More fourth-down controversy:
It seems that every week now, some NFL or college game has a questionable decision to go for it on fourth down. With less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Terps were facing fourth and one from their own 29. Instead of punting, they elected to go for it, and Jamarr Robinson was stopped short.
Fans weren’t happy and Friedgen said later that he wished he had punted, but I applaud the decision. It’s been a year of misery-what do you have to lose by taking a shot?
It was nice to see Turner–and Robinson:
He didn’t do much-which wasn’t his fault considering he was barely 70%-but it was still nice to see Chris Turner out there once more. Sad to see his final year end so poorly. We’ll miss you Chris.
On the flipside, Robinson had his moments, despite also playing hurt. With less than two minutes to go, he threw a beautiful touchdown pass to Torrey Smith to cap a great drive and bring the Terps within two points of Boston College. The Eagles, however, recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.