Maryland’s Loss is Maryland’s Gain

ATLANTA —  On Tuesday, Maryland Coach Ron Vanderlinden expressed concern that his team couldn’t play with No. 9 Georgia Tech, saying, “I’m not sure this will be a true barometer of our progress.”

And minutes before Thursday night’s game, Athletic Director Debbie Yow expressed concern for redshirt freshman quarterback Calvin McCall, who was playing only the fourth game of his college career.

Those concerns were valid.

But Maryland--scrappy, resourceful, thrill-a-minute Maryland--presented a surprisingly appealing picture to restless alumni and curious recruits watching the 49-31 loss on ESPN.

Never mind that Tech quarterback Joe Hamilton set a school record for total offense. Never mind that receiver Dez White caught five passes for 215 yards against a defense that had allowed only 10 points in its first three victories.

The Terps might not be ready to compete with national powers, but no longer are they the pushovers that they were in Vanderlinden’s first two seasons and under Mark Duffner and Joe Krivak in previous years.

This is a program that hasn’t produced more than six wins since 1985. But Maryland (3-1) already has matched its victory total from last season. And last night was a positive step when it could have been an outright embarrassment.

The 31 points were the most scored by Maryland at Bobby Dodd Stadium. And the Terps played about as well as Vanderlinden could have imagined, recording four take-aways, giving Tech fits into the fourth quarter.

Tailback LaMont Jordan rushed a career-high 27 times for 79 yards, produced a career-high 61 yards receiving and even threw a 68-yard touchdown pass.

McCall looked predictably inexperienced at times, and true freshman Latrez Harrison still is probably the long-term answer at quarterback. But who can argue when McCall completed better than 50 percent of his passes and didn’t throw his first two interceptions of the season until the fourth quarter?

“I’m certainly going down there hoping we play well, but they’re a legitimate Top 10 program,” Vanderlinden said beforehand. “For us to say we’re ready for that, that’s hard to say.”

This wasn’t Temple, West Carolina or even West Virginia. Georgia Tech scored 35 points and produced 501 yards total offense in a Sept. 11 loss to No. 1 Florida State in Tallahassee. Georgia Tech has won 13 of its past 15 games, with its only two losses coming to the Seminoles.

But Georgia Tech struggled at home against Maryland.

The Terps never stopped, rebounding from two one-play touchdown “drives” by Tech to take a 17-14 lead late in the second quarter, then from a 28-17 halftime deficit to produce an 11-play, 80-yard touchdown drive at the start of the third quarter.

Hamilton threw for a school-record 257 yards against the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense in the first half, including touchdown passes of 80, 29 and 30 yards. The Yellow Jackets finished with more than 500 yards of total offense, and needed all of them to subdue Maryland.

The first half, in particular, was a riot of action. Giulian Gary set up Maryland’s first touchdown with an 84-yard kick return after Tech took a 7-0 lead. Lewis Sanders recorded his fourth interception - and the first thrown by Hamilton this season - with Tech ahead 14-7.

And that was only the start.

Sanders and Erwyn Light recovered fumbles for a Maryland team that entered last night No. 1 in the nation in turnover margin. Jordan rushed for two touchdowns. McCall settled down after failing to complete a pass or record a first down in his first three series.

Heck, the Terps even worked a gadget play to near-perfection, with wide receiver Doug Patterson taking a lateral from McCall and throwing a 28-yard completion to Jermaine Arrington.

It was breathtaking while it lasted. But it didn’t last.

Hamilton threw two touchdown passes in the final 1:26 before halftime, giving Tech a 28-17 lead. And Hamilton ran for a 41-yard touchdown to push the lead back to 11 after Maryland scored on the opening drive of the second half.

The Terps never got closer, but they never stopped attacking, either.

They were 2-9 and 3-8 in Vanderlinden’s first two seasons, and still aren’t close to fulfilling their coach’s bold proclamation from his introductory news conference--”Our standard for success will be the ACC championship.”

Still, Thursday night’s game made it clear that those first three victories were not flukes and that Vanderlinden’s program finally might be working at Maryland.

“We just needed time to nurture it,” Vanderlinden said. “I don’t think we’re there yet. But we have a chance to have a decent year, maybe a breakthrough year. And I expect us to be better the next year and the year after.

“Right now, we’re starting to do the things I hoped would come along. We still need more depth. We’re still patching things together here and there. We’re going to hit a few bumps. Hopefully, they’re not going to derail us.”