Maryland was on the wrong side of the second biggest comeback ever in a game featuring two ACC teams after giving up 42 unanswered points in 21 minutes against North Carolina State on Saturday.
As a result, the Terrapins (2-10, 1-7 ACC) became the first team from a major conference in college football history to sandwich two 10-loss seasons around a winning season.
The immediate questions are whether prominent underclassmen will transfer and whether first-year Coach Randy Edsall will make changes to his staff. When asked just that after Maryland’s 56-41 loss to North Carolina State, Edsall said:
“We’re going to sit back and evaluate the season, take a look at the season. I am going to be heading out recruiting tomorrow. We’re going to have a team meeting tomorrow night and then I am going recruiting. In due time, I will sit down and evaluate the whole season and work from there.
“Comments like that — and I don’t mind the question — but the emotion of the game and the season, we’re going to sit down and evaluate everything and how we are going to get better. I know there are things already that I know I want to do that we’re going to get better from a team standpoint. We’ll talk about that tomorrow. We’ll work to have more competition in our offseason program, work to continually develop leadership for our team. And continue to do those things that we want these young men to do. And that’s where we’ll go.”
The few players made available to reporters afterward understandably appeared devastated after the loss.
“Definitely one of the worst feelings I have ever had as an athlete,” linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield said.
Quarterback C.J. Brown just shook his head when asked about the second-half swing and said: “You see ’em on TV, but this one hurts. This one hurts big time.”
Defensive lineman Joe Vellano held the statistical box score for several minutes, as if trying to make sense what had just occurred.
“Craziness, really,” Vellano said.
