Category Archives: Sports
Terps Topple Tarheels!
The Terps pulled off an unexpected upset of the #1 North Carolina Tar Heels 82-80 on Caronlina’s home floor the Dean Smith Center. The Terps got a solid effort from their starting five lead by James Gist, Landon Milborne and Greivis Vasquez offensively and Boom Osby defensively. This is a huge win for the Terps who seem to be a bit of a jekyll and hyde team this year losing to Miami OH and American, but that’s what you’re going to get on a team with 6 freshman and 3 sophomore contributors where Gary Williams is still figuring out the right rotation and player rolls and the players are still learning the college (and now ACC) game. The Terps dropped to 0-2 back to back years in ACC play, but this year they bounced right back to 2-2… we’ll see if they can keep it going next weekend when they play another top 5 team in Duke this time at the comcast center.
Ravens Name John Harbaugh New Head Coach.
John Harbaugh was named by the Ravens as their new head coach likely offering him a four year contract in the process. The reaction from the fans was good and bad ranging from worries that he won’t be able to control the Ravens locker room drama and large ego vets like Ray Lewis, Jon Ogden, Derrick Mason and Trevor Pryce to the excitement of new blood coming in to breath some life into a team already laden with talent. Some fans have started using “its time for HAR-BALL!” in their signature lines on message boards (sorry no link, premium forum), which is somewhat ironic considering Harbaugh’s brother and current head coach at Stanford Jim Harbaugh was once the Ravens starting quarterback and I don’t remember the fans having nice taglines for him at the time. Player reaction so far has been positive which is a good thing, but I think the players are willing to give anyone a chance.. it’s more of a question of will Harbaugh be able to maintain respect and the ear of players in the locker room as the year(s) go on.
Lot’s of questions to be answered in the coming days… Who will be the coordinators and assistant coaches? Will the Ravens be able to lure Rex Ryan back as Defensive Coordinator? Will Jon Ogden retire? What does this mean for the draft? Are the Ravens reloading or rebuilding?
Terps get off the shnide
The Terps notched their first ACC victory last night by beating wake at the comcast center 71-64. They were beating wake handily, but managed to let them back into the game at the end to make things interesting. The win is a nice building block after having to recover from the demoralizing loss to Virginia Tech. The Terps schedule only gets tougher with the #1 Ranked Tarheels coming up this weekend and the following weekend a game against #5 Duke.
Eric Hayes is still missing from the Terps lineup, but freshman Adrian Bowie has filled in nicely. ACC play is going to be the true test for the six freshmen and three sophomores that the Terps are trying to groom. Hopefully they can mature sooner rather than later, because this weekend will be their first measuring stick type moment to see how good they are right now and how far they have to go to return the Terps to ACC elite status.
Garrett Offered Job, Leaves Town.
The rumors were swirling in Owings Mills today about the Ravens offering their head coaching job to Jason Garrett. After a day full of interviews and Jason Garrett’s wife Brill house hunting in the Baltimore area, Garrett spent some time in a private office at the Ravens practice facility (aka the castle) speaking with his agent and decided to continue with his job search instead of taking the Ravens job. Garrett is also a front runner for the Atlanta Falcons job, and according to ESPN Jerry Jones is also mucking up the waters by promising to match any offer that the Ravens give to Garrett if he remains their offensive coordinator.
With Jason Garrett leaving town without a contract, the Ravens spun the snub as merely the start of the second round of interviews. The Ravens see Garrett as a fresh new voice for the offense and they’re attracted by the possible coordinators he would bring with him which are rumored to include Cam Cameron and Dom Capers who he worked with in Miami. Marty Schottenheimer and Rex Ryan are still in the mix as well as the surprising John Harbaugh who impressed Ravens brass during the first round of interviews.
Hokies sneak by the Terps
The Terps were winning 66-61 with 1:46 remaining, but somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in losing 67-66. The “beatable” hokies managed to pull off a 6-0 run to close out the game when the Terps couldn’t hold onto the ball or make a shot. Eric Hayes didn’t play in the game, resting his sprained ankle, but the Terps were still in great position to win the game. Greivis Vasquez took a terrible off balance desperation shot with the clock at 3-4 seconds and bricked it off the back of the iron. It is possible he was under the impression that there was less time on the clock, but there was enough time for another pass or to move into position for a better shot. Oh well, the Terps start off the ACC 0-2 again…
Terps Go Gold In Win Over Holy Cross
The Terps won their final game before going into the ACC part of their schedule, beating Holy Cross 73-48. Holy Cross is usually a pretty good team coming out of the Patriot League, but clearly a team Maryland should have beaten. Then again that isn’t a given this year with the Terps and their youth considering a couple of weeks ago the Terps lost to American University who is also a member of the Patriot League. Maybe this means that the Terps have gotten their act together or found the right rotation of young players to be a better team. Holy Cross, which is usually the class of the Patriot League, beat Ohio University which is a team that beat Maryland earlier in the season. Also, the Terps main 3-point shooter Eric Hayes missed the game due to a sprained ankle, but they managed to shoot 50% from the field and Greivis Vasquez went 5-6 from behind the 3 point line.
Marty Ball?
Is it time for Marty Ball in Baltimore? It might be.. looking at all the
coaching candidates it looks like the Ravens are interviewing a bunch of young offensive minds and pursuing Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer behind the scenes. I’m not sure how well the young coaches would fare with the pain in the ass veterans the Ravens have in the locker room. Schottenheimer or Cowher are probably the best option to turn things around quickly for the Ravens with their current players. Rex Ryan is another good option, but can he be expected to change things around enough to make a difference considering how close he already is to the players and the organization? Maybe it would push JO over the edge to retirement to have to listen to some 30something know-it-all… then again maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing?
Ravens Finally Win
Two teams went at it on the final Sunday of the regular season, but it seemed more like a preseason game. Don’t get me wrong I still like to see the Steelers lose, but the only thing that was really exciting was to see second and third stringers take it to most of the first string #1 ranked Steelers defense.
Early in the season looking at the schedule that late game against the Steelers seemed like it would be a showdown for the division, but it turned into the moral victory bowl for the Ravens. I’m sure no one would have expected that the Ravens would have so many starters injured and the Steelers resting many of their own starters, but considering the Ravens were coming off of a 9 game losing streak and a drubbing at the hands of the Steelers earlier in the season so they would take a win anyway they could get it going into the off season.
As fans we can be proud of the Ravens recent record against the Steelers (4 out of 5 overall and 5 in a row at M & T), but in reality the win is not much to be proud of and too little too late for some players and coaches that won’t be back next year.
Billick Fired
After assurances from the front office, the Ravens fired Brian Billick and his whole staff. Owner Steven Bisciotti indicated that he just changed his mind after talking to some people in football circles.
I think this will end up being a big mistake for the Ravens. Unfortunately, the rumors that were circulating were that Billick had “lost the team” and that he would “never get them back”, so Bisciotti and Ozzie Newsome probably made the right decision to bring in someone with a new message and new approach to things.
Obviously the coach got a too much of the blame, and hopefully this will serve as a wakeup call to those players who have been dogs or whiners/complainers that they better show their worth to the new regime or they may be shown the door. Also, maybe the front office will have to take a little more of the blame for the deficiencies on offense because of the offensive players that haven’t panned out.
Terps Big Win Over BC!
Amazing the way the Terps played last night. They looked like a different team on offense with a wide open style and not afraid to go for the throat. The defense continued to play it’s “bend but don’t break” style, but they managed to get pressure on Matt Ryan for most of the game which is something no other team has been able to do with consistency. The Fridge took many shots down the field and has to be given credit for opening up the offense down the field to soften the BC defense for the run and mid range conversions on 3rd down. The same injuries that have ravaged the offensive line and defensive front 7 appears to have given some more playing time to new playmakers at the skilled positions on offense. Jason Goode, Da’Rel Scott, Chris Turner, and Lee-Odai all make huge contributions to the Terps upset win against BC and all were on the field because of injuries. Just last week I thought that the Terps season was over, but now with games against Florida State and NC State left they have an outside shot at going to a bowl game. I wish the Terps could have started playing like this earlier in the season….
Baltimore Sports Post 
