Maryland-Nevada: Terps Hit Roady's Humanitarian Bowl Running

MARYLAND 42, Nevada (Wolf Pack, 11,962 students, Reno, NV) 35

Evidently it was too cold to play defense...

Talk about incentive. What say we play a little better next year so we get invited to a bowl game where the weather is a wee bit warmer? Who’s with me?

Yesterday’s Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl on the Smurf Turf in Boise, Idaho was played in temperatures in the high thirties. By way of comparison, the temp at game time in Tampa, FL was a balmy 72 degrees...

Having said that, host Boise State must have left some of their mojo on the field, as the Terps and Wolf Pack generated 77 points and 940 yards of offense. Giddyup!

Now mind you, had the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl been played in a warmer, more exotic location than Boise, who knows how many Terps would have jumped curfew, gotten busted, and been subsequently benched like starting running back Da’Rel Scott? Even in Boise, Scott (No. 23) and six other potato lovers found the temptations of Idaho just too much to bear.

Terp coach Ralph Friedgen declined to specify exactly what the players did, but indicated the players had sneaked out a couple of nights before the game. "Five percent of guys thought they didn't need to listen to me, that they could get bed checked and sneak out," Coach Fridge said. "This isn't my first rodeo.”

Nor was it his first hospitality banquet, which players, no doubt, were hoping would serve as sufficient distraction for their chicanery.

Scott was benched for two-and-a-half quarters for his curfew violation, and then blew up the final 20 minutes of the contest. The newly-inspired and freshly humbled Scott carried 14 times for 174 yards and scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Expanded out over a 60-minute game, that’s 42 carries, 522 yards, and six touchdowns. Here at T.A.H. we haven’t memorized the Humanitarian Bowl record book, but we wager all of those would have been records.

"I just felt as though I had to run with a purpose," Scott said.

Colin Kaepernick and Nevada's potent "pistol" offense almost kept up with the torched Terps, but Kaepernick played the second half with a sprained right ankle. In spite of a brief third quarter benching to “refocus,” Kaepernick finished 24-for-47 for a bowl-record 370 yards and three touchdowns, and added a 15-yard scoring run that pulled the Wolf Pack within a touchdown late in the game.

(Photos by AP Photos/Matt Cilley)