Maryland says they can "take over" the Big Ten (in football!)
Maryland, a team that went 6-7 last year and 3-9 the year before that, feels pretty good about their chances in the conference this year and the future. Too confident? You be the judge.
Three-star Maryland WR recruit Brian Cobbs said this:
"Now people are starting to notice DMV football is just as good as the schools down South as far as getting offers," Cobbs said. "DeMatha does a great job of that, too, getting kids to Maryland. If we can keep those kids around, the Virginia Beach kids, the kids from Maryland, we could really compete in the Big Ten. We could take over the Big Ten."
Echoed by this guy from "Saturday Tradition":
Durkin’s expedited success is hard evidence that Maryland can evolve into a player in the B1G, too. If his effort on the recruiting trail is any indication, it won’t be long before the Terrapins are competing with Meyer’s Buckeyes and Harbaugh’s Wolverines.
Durkin has notched commitments from six recruits with a four-star rating according to 247 Sports. Maryland is on the verge of locking up its highest-ranked recruiting class since such records have been kept. Currently the Terrapins’ 2017 class is No. 15 in the country and third in the B1G.
That’s a good formula for the sustainability of a program.
Various commentary from here, here, and here:
D.J. Durkin loves to brag about his program. The academics surpass every other university in the conference. In fact, the class standing of the Big Ten across the board rose eighteen percentage points just by adding Maryland. The Terps claim to have more Academic All-Americans than any team in the Big Ten East.
But it's not just about academics. Maryland is even crushing division rivals Ohio State and Michigan in revenue increases to the football program. In just two years, Durkin's Terps have ushered in a forty-five percent growth, more than most of college football's heavyweights.
Skeptics might say that this is simply due to renewed season ticket sales which fell dramatically during Randy Edsall's final season, while others could point to the continued investment by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank as the screen that covers most of the money going into the Maryland program. Durkin likes to say it's because Maryland is simply becoming "The Class of the Big Ten."
No other Big Ten university has a donor like Plank. Clearly his contributions through Under Armour, which include numerous uniform variations, have piqued the interests of the nation's top recruits.
Could this signal an era where Maryland's stellar recruiting takes over the division? Alumni certainly think so. A recent poll by Maryland's athletic department indicates that 79 percent of alumni believe D.J. Durkin will eventually surpass Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Michigan State's Mark Dantonio as the winningest and highest paid coach in the division, second only to OSU's Meyer.
Maryland's D.J. Durkin's high energy and recruiting prowess give the Terps the best chance at becoming a football powerhouse in college football's toughest division.
He is more likable than Jim Harbaugh, who seems to attract more eye-rolls from the national media than any other college football coach, and is more ethical than Penn State's James Franklin, who shepherds a program that lucked its way into the conference championship game.
While Durkin has a long way to go in becoming as proven as Ohio State's Urban Meyer, it's easy to see Maryland rising to the top of the division if Durkin continues the strides he's making in recruiting.
Team to Watch: Maryland. You talk to any Terrapin coach, player, alumnus, or fan and they'll all tell you the same thing - Maryland is on the rise and could take over the Big Ten. While it may be difficult to see the Terps overtaking Urban Meyer, James Franklin, or Jim Harbaugh in 2017, don't rule it out. DMV recruits are buying what D.J. Durkin is selling.
The Washington D.C. area is home to some of the best recruits in the entire nation, and Durkin has the inside track. If Maryland can keep the talent home and convince these great prospects to play for the Terps, the sky is the limit for Durkin's program. Every year he pulls in more DMV players, the Big Ten East looks more winnable.
Who is better, Jim Harbaugh or D.J. Durkin?
Edge to Harbaugh right now, but give D.J. time.
Harbaugh may have the Super Bowl resume (even though he never actually won one), but he has failed to win even his own division. D.J. Durkin is a younger version of Harbaugh, but more energetic, more likable, and a better recruiter. Don't be surprised to see Michigan fall off the map once Harbaugh takes an NFL job, and Maryland steps into its slot.
Maryland has the toughest schedule in college football this year, should they really be taunting their divisional rivals?
Sources:
http://www.umterps.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=29700&ATCLID=211659113
http://maryland.247sports.com/Institution/Maryland-Terrapins-24012/Feeds
https://maryland.forums.rivals.com/forums/terps-insider-premium-forum.1…
I'm pretty sure they got this wrong:
D.J. Durkin loves to brag about his program. The academics surpass every other university in the conference.
If you took away Michigan...
And Northwestern...
And probably Ohio State...
And maybe Purdue...
Yeah, he could be on to something.
Wisconsin too
Don't forget MSU. Wait. Nevermind.
None of your links actually go to the article or post that says any of these things.
Plus, Philadelphia is only a 3-hour drive from the campus. If they can keep enough talent home, I can see them fighting for third place most years with an outside shot at Indy when they get us and PSU at home. They're still a few years away for that though. And this is with the expectation that Durkin is still there.
It's in our best interest for them to have at least a pulse. It drains some talent away from Penn State.
At the end of the day, most recruits still wind up going to school within 3 hours from home. For those recruits that want to do that in the DMV, we want them split up among Maryland, Penn State, Virginia, VT, and even Temple and Rutgers.
Brady Hoke recruited pretty well too and we all saw how that disaster turned out. Let's see what kind of product Durkin can put on the field after two to three years.
I will say this for Maryland though. If they were to ever "dominate" or "own" the Big Ten, it'd be a welcome relief from it being a foregone conclusion that OSU is going to lay waste to the whole conference every year.
0su hasn't even won the East since Harbaugh has been at Michigan...
I'd like us to be the actual reason next time it happens.
No thanks whatsoever to Michigan. Penn State and MSU have done their part and taken down the giant, but in the two years Harbaugh has been here:
1) We got our asses kicked up and down the field by OSU in 2015
2) We shat the bed and couldn't pick up a single first down in the 4th quarter in 2016. Getting just one would've iced the game and sent us to Indy.
Sorry pal but your argument is horseshit. OSU has proven you don't even need to win your division to make the playoffs, much less the damn conference.
August 7th, 2017 at 10:48 PM ^
A big part of the reason we couldn't get a single first down in the fourth quarter was because the refs allowed OSU to mug the Michigan recievers in the fourth quarter. The B1G even apologized for that in one case, but there were plenty just like it.
Sorry, pal, but your argument is bullshit.
every bottom dweller thinks their new hyper coach will lead them to the promised land. ev en though the program has never really ever done anything. maryland is really going to just leapfrog all the powers because they made a few upgrades, got a couple of good recruiting classes, and instilled the power of positive thinking?
its hard enough for michigan to rise back to the top after a few bad years. but for some reason maryland, rutgers, and the minnys of the world are just going to figure everything out.
I mean none of the comments are saying they are going to be competing next year and the DMV is solid recruiting if you can keep kids home. Last year alone the state of Maryland had over 20 kids that signed to power 5 schools and 10 4 stars. For comparison if you don't include the kids who went from western to Minnesota with Fleck the state of Michigan had about 25 kids who went to power 5 schools and 10 4 stars. If you include DC thats another 3 4 stars 12 more guys who signed with power 5 schools. Shit if you include Josh Kaindoh who grew up in MD before transferring to IMG his senior year MD/DC had 3 5 star top 3 guys in Kaindoh, Chase Young, and Calvin Ashley. Its a leap to keep all the top guys home but there is enough talent in dc/md/va to keep a program pretty damn good if you have the recruiting chops to keep them home.
Same thing goes for rutgers but they are laughably bad at generating in state interest or state pride while MD has Kevin Plank trying to turn them into the next Oregon by flooding money into the program for facility upgrades.
LOL. I went to the game @Maryland 2 years ago and granted DJ Durkin wasn't their coach, but the stadium was 50% Michigan fans.
Also, PSU will end up 3rd in the Big Ten East. Durkin will do well and then leave for a better gig in 2 years anyway, so who cares?
If I only have a dollar and then I find a dollar on the sidewalk, I've grown my money 100%!
Whoo Hoo!!
But I still only have two dollars.
That's Maryland. On the upswing from dreadful to ordinary.
Awww, they still think Oakland (Las Vegas?) is in play.
Do you have some gripe with Maryland? You seem to have spent a lot of time pulling quotes about them basically saying they are confident they can eventually compete at the top of the B10. What school doesn't say that in the off season? If you don't believe that, you shouldn't even be playing. Is the point just to collect all these quotes so when they go 7-6 you can say "HAHAHA look how stupid you were 5 months ago".
August 7th, 2017 at 10:55 PM ^
Two years (2011 and 2012) since we are counting.
I watched the PSU-Maryland game last year. That was when Penn State was still trying to figure things out after the Michigan beatdown. Barkley & McSorley went nuts on Durkin's defense. Maryland defense looked hopeless. Just standing around getting read-optioned to death.
Until I see better than that, Maryland is an afterthought. They only played 6 games against teams better than .500, going 0-6: PSU, Minn, Michigan, OSU, Nebraska beat them by a combined score of 218-37, and then they lost to friggin' Boston College in Detroit's Quick Lane Bowl.
Congrats on your 6 wins (Howard, FIU, UCF, Purdue, MSU & Rutgers). But you sucked.
Nobody in the B1G is an afterthought. That is how you end up losing games you are strongly favored to win.
Will Maryland get better in 2017? You would sure hope so if you were a Maryland fan. Aside from the losses and wins you listed, they were 96th in F/+ last year. For perspective these are some other teams in that range -
- Eastern Michigan (82)
- Army (88)
- Ball State (91)
- Central Michigan (100)
- Hawaii (105)
Their wins came against these oppenents with F/+ rankings -
- Howard (FCS NR)
- FIU (123)
- UCF (67)
- Purdue (110)
- MSU (62)
- Rutgers (117)
Signature win is against a team that lost 9 games. Thats not good, Bob.
59-3
Champions of Life.
Also, Durkin will be gone sooner rather than later.
If their revenues are increasing, it is only because their stadium is now 60% full with Michigan, OSU and PSU fans traveling to see another beat down.
Fine with me.
The addition of Maryland and Rutgers was not about bringing those teams into the Big Ten. It was about bringing the Big Ten into NYC / NJ / DC / MD / VA.
And in that respect it has succeeded, no matter what happens with cable subscriptions.
These talent-rich areas are now solid Big Ten country.
It has certainly benefited us.
Sure, their revenues are increasing dramatically because they went from a shitty ACC TV contract to an incredible B1G TV contract. If you measure it by percentages, of course they're increasing faster than Michigan or Ohio State, because we've always had the top TV contract in the nation. But anyone who looks at that and concludes that soon Maryland will be a heavyweight in football is an idiot.
August 7th, 2017 at 10:57 PM ^
I cannot stand the ignorant fools who give Jim shit for not winning the division in TWO FUCKING YEARS as the coach. It takes time, especially for the shitty mess he inherited. Considering the state of the program and team he inherited, I'd say he has done a fantastic job. The guy will win some titles. It's only a matter of time. He wasn't the luckiest guy in football like Meyer was, walking into a loaded team with a very talented (albeit raw at the time) and perfect for his type of offense quarterback.
Hoke wasn't a great coach and the PR around the program was a mess because Brandon was an idiot but Hoke left behind a roster that just had a program record for kids drafted in a single year. Its not exactly like the cupboard was left bare. The program was a mess, the roster was good.
The cupboard was bare, four of those kids at best get drafted if Hoke is still the coach.
What an asinine take. I'm sure Mattison can't coach up defensive players and its not like Hoke's entire coaching career shows the one thing he can do is coach up d-line players. The only two players I don't think would have been drafted would be Darboh and Chesson. You really Michigan was an overachieving scrappy underdog last year who had less talent than an average football team?
Ben Gedeon, Jeremy Clark, Channing Stribling, Delano Hill didn't do squat until Harbaugh came. I know this is your shtick and all, but Harbaugh inherited a team that went 5-7 to cap off a four year decline. That's not a loaded cupboard, no matter how much you want it to be so you can continue to diminish what Harbaugh is accomplishing.
August 7th, 2017 at 10:52 PM ^
I'll give you that the roster was good on defense for the most part in terms of upper-classmen, however after that the current staff has had to paper over major holes/missess in the last couple Hoke classes - hence why we have so many young guys playing this year, particularly the DB's.
The offense on the other hand.... wow, if you think what Hoke left on offense outside of 2-3 players was not cupboard bare then idk what is.
Leaving the cupboard bare is Dantanio is going to be doing to whoever takes over MSU next, not top 10 recruiting classes.
August 7th, 2017 at 10:40 PM ^