always good to win. nice to see green and cannon get a chance and contribute. md got lucky when nev. qb got hurt. could have been a different game with him healthy and able to run. entertaining game to watch.

Nice win...frustrating season. The announcer (cant recall his name) was on point recognizing the inconsistency of this team. It had so much potential. We have a decent foundation in place for next year. Im curious to see if Heyward Bey comes back. I know its doubtful, but he has done little to help his stock in the last couple of weeks.

Obi Egekeze has to go. He is one of the worst college kickers I have ever seen. That kickoff WAS his fault. His eye was on the ball...when he sees it move like that he needs to put on the brakes. He also missed an extra point. I need to check but if he's not graduating, he needs to be replaced

Can someone explain to me why our corners consistently play 5 yards off of the receiver? They constantly leave the receiver wide open along the side line and they pick up the first down. It's absolutely maddening.

Cereal Blogger:

I'll agree with you that Ekegeze was wildly inconsistent throughout his now concluded career--which is more a tribute to Nick Novak's and others predecessors' success--but he was one of, if not the top-rated, kickers coming out of high school when recruited by Friedgen and considered a real solid recruiting "get" at the time. As far as the kick-off, very much like a golfer during his downswing, it is virtually impossible to stop yourself even when you see or know something is out-of-sorts. That's simply what happened to Ekegeze yesterday. Unfortunate and slightly embarrassing, yes, but completely understandable.

Overall, Ekegeze was a generally good kicker who never really developed a clutch reputation. While part of that may be attributed to his inability to beat out a walk-on kicker in his first 2 years, it remains somewhat ironic as he did make some important kicks over the past couple of years to win or solidify games for the Terps. Unlike Novak's 46-yard FG against Ga Tech, however, none of these kicks had the distance, drama or media exposure of same.

They have Nick Ferreira (sp?) coming in next year. By all reports, he appears to have the talent to hopefully establish himself as Maryland's kicker for the next 4 years.

to cereal blogger the kicker graduates

to terps fan the db's probably play off teh receivers because that's where the coaches tell them to play.

Cereal Blogger -

I was wondering who it was that had the game-winning kicks late in regulation to earn Maryland its Final 2 wins in the regular season?

Obi is a great kid but not a great kicker. Probably average at best compared to all Div1 kickers.
Yes, he kicked the winning FGs late in the games vs NCSU and UNC but shouldnt he make 20 and 26 yd FGs? (dont forget Obi missed a 39yd FG attempt against NCSU earlier in the 4th quarter)
What concerned and worried fans coming into the season was that while he ended his junior year well, he wasnt consistently dependable and his bad start (0-5) didnt help.
The missed 37yd FG against MTSU that could have put us within a score in the 3rd Q and returned the momentum in the game to the Terps when in fact it ended up being a huge boost to MTSU.
He could have salted away the CAL game but missed a 27yd FG late in the 4th Q.
Should we talk about the muffed/missed onside kickoff attempt to start the 2nd half of the UVA game?

Dont get me wrong - I love the kid - he's a Terp - and I'm sure he worked hard and gave us everything he had, but I remember watching him from the time he got to CP and noticed that while he had a very strong leg, he seemed to lack basic kicking fundamentals and/or a somewhat unorthodox style and most importantly consistency.

The problem with the whiffed kickoff in the bowl game is that he hasnt yet mastered the Tiger Woods ability to stop without warning before contact.

Our corners for the past several years are usually 5-10 yds off receivers... someone just noticing that NOW??

Hopefully when RF hires a new DC, we'll change our defensive strategy back to being more aggressive rather than generally passive and reactionary. I think a few of the DL recruits we have coming in in 09 may help that too.