Granted, the bottom part I have already written, but I made the same mistake as I have made with a couple other of my articles. I cleary wrote my original article too early. Well, the irony in this past statement comes back to bite me in the tail, as I am sitting here writing another college football article in March, the season of madness.
What is it about college football that forces us Americans to crawl out from the depths of our houses in early fall? What is it that we love so much about college football?
Do we love obtaining bragging rights, a simple title your team has gained for one week before it loses it in dramatic fashion at the hands of unranked schools, over co-workers and classmates.
Is it the ability to root on our alma mater alongside 70,000+ other fans who cry and scream with the same compassion and glory as you do everytime your players celebrate in the endzone?
Well, being a Maryland fan in Georgia, you are not as easily titled to "bragging rights" as your Bulldog neighbors may be because if you're a Maryland fan, your team is too busy losing to Oregon State to have to worry about playing an over-hyped, record-breaking QB in a BCS Bowl.
Here at Maryland, you can not scream and chant in passion as long you are losing at home to rival West Virginia 31-14.
Not to mention that Byrd Stadium only holds around 50,000 people. This isn't University of Michigan or University of Texas you know. Football is a sport, not a religion.
But things will change for the better. As I am about to tell you, Maryland has hired an unheard of offensive coordinator. So what? Well, hopefully you can understand my train of thought in a little bit.
The aura of spring is swept throughout my proximity as I think of the Terrapin future. With spring practice already here, the regular season won't be too far behind, I hope.
So, let's get to the effects of an offensive coordinatior on a stressed-out coach:
Maryland may not have brought in a recruiting class like Miami, or had all 22 starters return from last year, but they did something very close that will bode well for them. They hired an offensive coordinator.
People take things as big as the offensive coordinator for granted, and you don't know how much people do it everyday. Maryland picked up Kansas State's former offensive coordinator James Franklin.
He, in fact, was with Maryland in 2000-2004 as the wide receivers coach, and was promoted to recruiting coordinator in 2003. After bringing in back-to-back prospects ranked nationally in the Top 25, he left in 2005 to be the receivers coach at Green Bay. Being on the same side line as the eminent Brett Favre, you might have thought he learned something.
Well, his most famous and recent stunt came last year at Kansas State. No, he didn't have that much of an impact, except having KSU ranked 20th nationally in passing offense and 21st nationally in scoring offense. He also had this minor milestone of helping KSU have their first 3,000 yard passer, 1,500 yard receiver, 1,000 rusher in the same season. That's nothing, right?
Now tell me this, what has Maryland struggled with that past three years or so? If you said offensive production, you would be correct! Congratulations on your knowledge of the mediocre football school I support every year.
For example, they put up less than 30 points against Villanova and Florida International, but scored more than 30 against Boston College. Who knows what inconsistency means? Can anyone explain that to me? If your name isn't God, don't answer that question.
I blame the stress level of head coach Ralph Friedgen. It's tough work being a head coach, but when you have to be the offensive coordinator too, it's like taking a ride in a blender. With the extravagant return of the Frankster, Ralphie has been relieved of some of his duty with a guy who just landed in the KSU record books. Not a bad move, huh Ralphie?
If you don't believe this is what this desperate football team needs, look at it this way from my perspective of being surrounded by UGA fans: Mark Richt isn't doing too good as the head coach and offensive coordinator for UGA a couple years ago.
He's sitting at 6-4, something that is unheard of for a power-house school like UGA. Well, Mark looks a little stressed. Let's relieve him of offensive coordinator duties and promote Mike Bobo to offensive coordinator.
After that, UGA started along their path and didn't look back, as they closed the season beating three straight ranked teams: No. 5 Auburn, No. 16 Georgia Tech, and No. 14 Virginia Tech. What a turn of events!
And what happened this year? They finished the regular season ranked No. 4. Not bad, bulldogs.
So, my point is don't underestimate the evil geniuses on the sidelines, especially if you have more than one of them. People today need to realize that, although some positions may be higher ranked in value, difficulty, and public appearance, every position is important.
And in order to win games, every position needs to fulfill its requirements and achieve its goals and then and only then will victory be obtained. So, other Maryland fans, hang around and let's see what good can come of this Franklin guy.
comments (0) write a comment »
write a new comment
This article has no comments.