Boston College Gets First 2011 ACC Win
This has been a tough season for Boston College. No doubt about it. After going bowling last year, Boston College traveled to College Park to take on a Maryland team that has been only slightly better this year. This made-for-radio battle between two struggling teams was Boston College’s best remaining chance for a win over an FBS school and a conference win. To its credit, Boston College rose to the occasion and beat Maryland, 28-17.
In fairness, Boston College has been playing without standout running back, Montel Harris. Harris had nearly 3,600 rushing yards coming into this season. Today’s win was fueled by 243 yards of rushing from sophomore Rolandan Finch. Finch nearly doubled his season rushing output in this one game.
With the weather inclement, Boston College was unable to mount any type of passing game. Boston College attempted 12 passes for only 32 yards. That is not a misprint–32 yards of passing! This Boston College run was all about the running game. With Finch and Andre Williams combining for more than 300 yards of rushing.
For Maryland, the season just gets worse. Maryland drops to 2-6 overall, with wins against a suspension-depleted Miami team opening week and FCS Towson. This was the fourth straight conference loss for the Terrapins. Of course, the first three losses were against unbeaten Clemson, highly ranked Georgia Tech, and Florida St. But today’s loss got the much-easier final stretch of games off to a poor start.
In fact, it will be interesting to see what the fan reaction to Randy Edsall will be. Working in Edsall’s favor is the fact that Maryland was 2-10 in 2009. However, sandwiched around that season were bowl games. This is not a historically bad season, as was the case with Rich Rodriguez in Michigan, who never could recover the confidence of the fan base after a very poor first year. But Maryland was 9-4 last year and went bowling. The fan base has a basis to argue that the cupboard could not have been THAT bare. Should be interesting times in College Park as the season winds down.
The Confidential 