Maryland Runs Past East Carolina, 51-20, in Military Bowl

WASHINGTON, DC – – It was a day of farewells for the Maryland Terrapins. Ralph Friedgen coached his last game with the Terps, Torrey Smith played his last game at Maryland, and a bevy of seniors who have had tremendous impacts on this program all suited up in Terrapin reds for the last time. Through all that emotion, Maryland found a dominating performance, defeating the East Carolina Pirates, 51-20, in the Military Bowl.

D.J. Adams scored four rushing touchdowns, Da’Rel Scott rushed for 200 yards with two long touchdown runs, and Davin Meggett finished with 112 total yards in a game dominated by Maryland’s running backs.

The Terps were simply the better team, from start to finish. Maryland got an early lead from a beautiful fade route that turned into a 45-yard touchdown pass from Danny O’Brien to Kevin Dorsey. Adams scored on four different goal line carries, and Scott’s touchdown runs were pictures of beauty. The first one, a 61-yarder, came off a draw up the middle where he simply outran the defense. The second, a 91-yarder, was an I-Form run up the middle where he simply outran the defense again.

Maryland held the vaunted ECU offense to 20 points and 343 yards of total offense, both figures well below their averages for the year. Dominique Davis, one of the top quarterbacks in Conference-USA, was starkingly inefficient – the Boston College transfer was 35 of 57 for 268 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Safety Eric Franklin and linebacker David Mackall were the two recipients of the interceptions, and Mackall returned his 34 yards to the ECU one-yard line.

After the game, superstar wideout Torrey Smith made an expected announcement – he will forgo his senior year and enter the NFL draft. Smith had a very quiet game, catching two passes for 10 yards and returning three kicks for 74 yards, but after his performance against NC State and the job he’s done all year, it’s hard to complain.

Danny O’Brien struggled for much of the game, too, completing 13 of 22 passes for 181 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The two interceptions were both bombs down the field that actually served as long punts for the Terps, and he led the team to victory, which is all you can really ask for.

Let’s do a statistical rundown for some of the other seniors:

• LaQuan Williams caught one pass for three yards but did his usual dominate-on-special-teams routine, including one tackle.
• Travis Baltz had three punts for a 36.7 average, with a long of 48 and two inside the 20. He made a 23-yard field goal, missed a 25-yarder, and made six of seven extra points (one was blocked).
• Antwine Perez had eight tackles (seven solo), including two for a loss.
• Alex Wujciak had five tackles (one solo) with a pass breakup.
• Adrian Moten had five tackles (none solo) with half a tackle for a loss and a fumble recovery.
• Michael Carter had two tackles (one solo) with a pass breakup.

We’ll do a post later on in the week about the NFL hopes of Maryland’s seniors. What were your guys’ thoughts on the game? Was it the proper end to Friedgen’s tenure?