Maryland Football In Deep Trouble, Including the Future

It is obvious that there are problems with the Terps football squad right now. At 2-6, the team is one loss away from being non-bowl-eligible, which look likely with their remaining schedule including ranked Virginia Tech plus a road game against Florida State. A loss to Duke last Saturday was the ultimate lowpoint, but the whole season has been a nightmare for Maryland.

The backups don't even look good. A number of young players have had to start. At the skill positions, like running back and wide receiver, the Terps look fine for the future, but at others, like the linemen, the team looks very poor. It is not helped that the backups lost a game against Fork Union this past week.

It is hard to see what can be done in the long term, but some things can be done in the short term to try to help. Part of the problem is that it is hard to see where you should try new things; the Terps have two road games but one of the home games is against Virginia Tech, the toughest game left on the schedule. The coaching staff is in place; nothing anyone can do about that. The school would need to spend around six to seven million plus to fire the whole staff; money which the athletic department does not have.

Sometime in the rest of the schedule Jamarr Robinson should play at quarterback. He is almost guaranteed to be the front runner next year, so he should be the one playing some time, plus you don't want to burn Danny O'Brien's redshirt right now. At running back, play Caleb Porzel. He looks better than Davin Meggett and Gary Douglas, but allow Da'Rel Scott some time if he is healthy. But Porzel is the best healthy back right now with his good speed.

For other positions, play some people that do not have redshirts to burn. Let's see some new linemen play, or some new linebackers, just to see what they can do. Nothing to lose in some cases. But it is important to save some of the freshmen. One of the reasons some teams have been so good is that they can save their freshmen until later.

Enjoy the bye week, NC State is in two weeks.

(Photo credit: McClatchy-Tribune)