Shell Games

A Special Maryland-Navy Crab Bowl Preview From Maryland Resident Bruce Halloran

On September 3, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

Gimme another one. Gimme, like, four of ‘em. Hey, man, that’s the way I like it! I don’t even start pickin’ till’ I got like elebn, twelb crab in fronta me. Now, see, you reach down underneath ‘im, right, and you see this little thing here? Looks like a pull tab? That’s exactly what it is, bruther! Just pull on it, and then…WAIT WAIT! YOU’RE NOT DOIN IT RIGHT! YOU GOTTA PULL AND THEN REMOVE THE GILLS, THEN REMOVE THE LEGS, THEN BREAK IT IN HALF! THAT’S THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN DO IT! PUT THAT GAWDARN MALLET DOWN! PUT IT–

Oe, hey, buddy! Didn’t see yoo come in. Just enjoyin a little tailgaitin with my infant son here. Ryan, say helloe. We thought we’d get here a little early, right buddy? I took four days off from the hospital — let the other new-roe-surgeon handle the loed for a while. And Ryan and I, we left the ladies at hoeme to attend the first annuwul crab bowull. What better place too teach him about pickin CRAB?!?!

But it’s special for more than just that. This is the inaugural Crab Bowull event! Murland and Navy. Don’t get much more Murland than that, boy! Unless yoo make the trophy a big pyootur bowull of crabs. NOW WE’RE TALKIN!!!

It ain’t the moest natrul rivulry, that’s for sure. This is only the second time they’ve played since 1965. They played in oe-five and Murland won a cloese one. But now, it might be a more reguellur thing. The coaches and the ADs (the interim ones anyway) seem to favor more meetings. They’re in-state rivalry, and now there’s a trophy and all, but it still feels like a couple guys trying to make friends at a bar because there’s noe wun else to talk to. And I’ll tell ya, buddy, I been there!

But it’s still a real interesting matchup this year. On one side, you got Navy’s vaunted triple option offense. Lotta running. Lotta pitching. Lotta hoekus poekus! On the other side, you got Murland, which is, how should I put this, a legitimate D-1 football program.

Hey, I’m not hatin’ on Navy. They knoe this, man. They knoe it! Otherwise, why institute the razzul-dazzul? It’s like the little skinny kid in school who learns karate. It’s impressive, it’s flashy, maybe it levels the field a little. But at the end of the day, he’s still the little skinny kid.

Noe wun — NOE WUN — supports the troops more than me. But with football, being a militurry schoowul makes recrooting a real challenge. Navy knoes that. And heck, I did some research, right, and the average weight of their starting oe-lineman is 268 pounds. And that’s rounding up. For Murland, it’s 298. That says it all.

But still, they’re a good football team. Quarterback Ricky Dobbs is the best player they’ve had, at any position, since Roger Staubach. That was a long time agoe. So they’ll win some games in 2010. Just not this one. The Murland linebackers excel at stopping the run. They’ll stay disciplined and they’ll contain the triple option.

On the other side, Navy lost three linebackers and are also undersized. You should be able to run on ‘em. And loe and behowuld, Murland’s got some good backs back there. And a questionable Oe-line should be able to have success against Navy’s smaller 3-4 set.

So there yoo goe. Ryan, how bout another Natty Boe? It’s five o’clock somewhere, buddy. And I didn’t take time off to drink wooder. It’s gonna be a great game Monday, but the edge goes to Murland. GOE TURPS!

Prediction: Maryland 24, Navy 14.

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Maryland Basketball Schedule Released

On September 2, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

Tired of talking about football and the first game hasn’t even started yet great me too. Hey, just kidding. I love the pigskin.

Still, though, it’s a nice break to read the Terps’ basketball schedule, which was released today.

Highlights include:

– Pittsburgh, November 18
– @ Penn State, December 1
– @ Duke, January 9
– @ Georgia Tech, January 30 (only meeting this year)
– Duke, February 2
– Longwood Speed Bumps, February 9
– ACC Tourney, March 10-13 (that’s a little late this year)

In conference, they’ve got BC twice, Duke twice, Wake twice, Virginia twice, and Virginia Tech twice. Clemson, Miami, Florida State, NC State, and North Carolina we get once. That kinda sucks.

So there you have it. Goterps.

Tagged with: Basketball

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Navy’s Triple Option?

On September 1, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

It’s one of the most buzzed-about offensive schemes in college football. And it has the Naval Academy looking for its second straight 10-win season.

The Midshipmen upset Notre Dame in 2009 and lost a squeaker to Ohio State in the regular season finale en route to their seventh — SEVENTH! — consecutive bowl appearance. A lot of it is thanks to coach Ken Niumatalo, quarterback Ricky Dobbs, and their wild and wooly triple option offense.

The Navy version places a fullback behind the quarterback and then lines up two backs over either tackle position. There’s motion, and there’s misdirection. The quarterback has to be mobile and quick-thinking, as he must decide whether to tuck it under, hand off, or toss to one of the slotbacks. It’s a brilliant offense for taking advantage of selfless players — and compensating for the trouble the service academies have had in recruiting blue-chip talent.

Watch this video and just try to keep your eye on the ball (it’s a few years old, but you’ll get the idea). Plus, there’s a soundtrack by Three Doors Down! Get ready to rock.

Perhaps this is why Navy had the nation’s fourth-best rushing offense last year with 280 yards per game, and why Dobbs was — as a junior — the 33rd rusher in the nation. And not among quarterbacks, either. Fullback Vince Murray finished 60th.

So, how to stop it? Discipline, discipline, discipline. Don’t fall for the trickery. Don’t blow your assignment. Don’t freelance. Jeff Barker just kinda stole my thunder a little bit, but the Terps defense has been practicing without a ball, as a way of staying in your lane regardless of where the “real” action might be going. It will be tough with someone as good as Dobbs under center, as he can essentially play a sort of read-and-react mode, only he can use his arms and feet. From a style perspective, think Michael Vick crossed with Peyton Manning.

We’ll see if Don Brown’s ball-less practices help the Terps this Monday. I think Maryland has an all-around edge, but if they let the Navy offense rear up in all its triple-headed beastliness, it could be a serious battle.

Tagged with: Don Brown • Football • Ken Niumatalo • Navy • Ricky Dobbs • Triple Option

Shell Games is Going to the Crab Bowl!

On August 31, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

Welp, there’s no getting around it. It seems I must now turn my full attention to football.

With plenty of people (myself included) slotting Maryland in for one of those mediocre-if-they’re-lucky kinds of campaigns, the Terps could well be the bottom feeders in the ACC’s Atlantic Division. So maybe it’s fitting, then, that their first game is now semi-officially named for the most celebrated bottom feeder in the state. Oh, yes, it is. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Crab Bowl.

News comes by way of Testudo Times that (a) the Touchdown Club apparently has a chapter in Annapolis, and (b) they’ve commissioned a Crab Bowl Trophy that will, until the end of time immemorial, grace the cobwebby card table inside the garage of the coach lucky enough to lead his team to victory whenever Maryland and Navy decide they kinda sorta maybe want to play each other, they guess. No photos of the actual trophy seem to be available, but the Annapolis Capital described it as “a large pewter bowl overflowing with pewter replicas of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab…[that] sits atop an ebony-colored mahogony base.” Sounds…yep, sounds like a Crab Bowl.

So now that it’s the Crab Bowl, I figure I kind of have to go. So it’s on, baby…a Shell Games field trip to Ravens stadium in Baltimore. Or, as I like to call it, The City That Reads. Ever been to Fells Point or Water Street? Swarming with libraries. Lots of people always out, stumbling around…literally drunk from reading! They can’t seem to get enough. And the girls? You can almost smell the literacy on them. So I’m excited to return. Plus I’ve got some jerky friends from the old university days who are supposed to be joining me. They live in Delaware now. I hope they bring me something from the irregular sewing needle outlet market — dude, no sales tax, dude!

Should be a good time.

Tagged with: Football • Navy • The Crab Bowl

Maryland Women’s Soccer, Field Hockey Off To Perfect Starts

On August 30, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

Katie O'Donnell has come a long way for the Terps.

If you like Maryland, and you like championships, then you’ve got to be at least a passing fan of the Terp women’s teams, especially lacrosse, soccer, and field hockey. The latter two just got their seasons underway, and they’ve combined for a flawless 6-0 start.

First, field hockey. Behind Katie O’Donnell, a senior this year and the defending Honda Sports Award winner (field hockey’s Heisman), the no. 2 Terps easily won their first two contests this past weekend. I’m not Bobby Field Hockey, but I don’t believe it’s a stretch to call O’Donnell one of the best players in recent memory. Their only loss last year came in the final game, with ACC rival North Carolina squeaking out a 3-2 upset. A real test comes this Friday against Old Dominion. With three titles this decade, O’Donnell’s swan song, and coming up just short in 2009, methinks they’re setting up for another hardware run.

Maryland women’s soccer isn’t quite as gaudy, but this group still has a solid history of making postseasons and after a five-year tourney drought now seem to be heading in the right direction under head coach Brian Pensky. They’re currently ranked 14th in the nation and are riding a 4-0 start, highlighted by a win over two-time defending Big 12 champs Missouri. Last year, the Lady Terps finished 14-6-2 and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2004 before losing 1-0, also to eventual champion North Carolina. This team returns virtually every contributor from last year, including preseaon Hermann Trophy Watch Lister Jasmyne Spencer. They lose goalie Mary Casey to the pros, but seem cautiously optimistic about her replacement, Yewande Balogun, who has surrendered only three goals in four games thus far. UMTerps has a good season preview if you want more.

Hats off to both teams for their hot starts. Here’s hoping they can keep it going.

(Photo credit: SI.com)

Tagged with: Brian Pensky • field hockey • Jasmyne Spencer • Katie O'Donnell • Soccer • the ladies

University of Maryland Names Wallace Loh New President

On August 17, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

The Post says the university is going to name Iowa Provost Wallace Loh as its new president.

I’m not going to pretend like I follow the careers of the nation’s university administrators. So who exactly is this guy?

According to the university’s news release, he’s been an academic for decades, and has a doctorate in psychology from Michigan and a law degree from Yale. He was born in Shanghai but grew up in Peru…unusual combination. He worked with former Washington Governor Gary Locke (now U.S. Secretary of Commerce) to expand affordable access to higher education to thousands of low- and middle-income students in that state. He was provost at Iowa for only two years.

D1scourse offers a quick reaction, but in a nutshell: he’s starting November 1, he’s old (65), and he has a reputation for combating drinking on college campuses. Interesting.

From an athletics perspective, coming from Iowa, he has Big 10 pedigree. As you know, the Big 10 was purportedly interested in luring Maryland away from the ACC. Unlike former athletic director Debbie Yow, interim AD Randy Eaton has indicated a willingness to at least listen to such overtures. Loh will undoubtedly have a large hand in helping to hire Yow’s permanent replacement. Verrrry interesting.

We’ll keep an eye on it.

Tagged with: Debbie Yow • Randy Eaton • the University of Maryland • Wallace Loh

The Best Maryland Sports Blog Ever Is On Twitter

On August 16, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

And so is Shell Games. Oh ho! Ho! Ahhhh, that was clever. I haven’t seen misdirection like that since Steve Francis stole Troy Hudson’s soul. I heard he makes it get him hamburgers.

Mmmm…hamburgers.

I was saying something. Right, Shell Games is now on Twitter. You can follow us @terpsblog. I hope I did that right. We’ll be tweeting about all the Terps news of course, along with any other subject that catches our fancy in a 140-characters-or-less kind of way. New tweets will show up at the top of the blog there.

We hope you like it, and we thank you for your support.

Tagged with: Shameless self-promotion • Steve Francis • The Media • Twitter

Davin Meggett Angling For Bigger Role In Maryland Backfield

On August 16, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

Nobody ever wants to be the odd man out. The Ray Jackson. The Angelina. The Around The Horn. The third tenor whose name I can’t remember.

Heading into Maryland football’s summer practice season, Davin Meggett seemed poised to take a number at the back of that long and undistinguished line. With Da’rel Scott returning to form and redshirt freshman wrecking ball D.J. Adams winning fans and a role as the team’s touchdown vulture, fans and coaches unwittingly relegated Meggett to change-of-pace status.

But don’t break out the therapy couch just yet. Meggett isn’t going quietly into that good night, and is making his case to remain a major cog in the Maryland attack.

To be sure, things looked bleak after last season, in which Dave’s son eked out only 338 yards rushing — for a 3.4 yards-per-carry average — and 175 yards receiving on 14 receptions. In the five games Scott missed with injury, Meggett managed to average a scant 28 rushing and 17 receiving yards per game in very limited touches.

But so far this year, it’s been a different story for the junior out of nearby Clinton, Md. In a scrimmage this past weekend, he ran for two scores and earned rave reviews from coaches and observers for harder, more decisive running. In fact, Ralph Friedgen noted to Terrapins Insider that Meggett is playing the best ball of his college career, which is saying something if you remember his freshman year, when he ran for 457 yards and four touchdowns.

Meggett stands out for his pass-catching ability, but he has some power behind those legs, too. And he’s putting it to good use by hitting the holes quicker and harder. So far this summer, he is dancing less behind the line and more frequently in the end zone, and if he can put it all together once the proverbial bullets start flying, Meggett could be a major shot in the arm for the Terps, which ranked 105th in the nation in rushing offense last season.

Tagged with: D.J. Adams • Da'Rel Scott • Davin Meggett • Football

The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly on Eric Hayes

On August 12, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

See what I did with the headline? That took me seven hours.

From Maryland Basketball: Where Are They Now? comes a report that Eric Hayes has signed to play in Spain, or, as I like to call it, El Pais De Los Suenos. El Lugar Donde Los Suenos Estan Bailando En Las Calles. Ayyyyyyy. Muy bien.

If anyone out there has any Photoshop skills, please put a sombrero on this picture of Eric Hayes and send it back to me. Or, maybe you could add him into the Spanish Olympic team photo where they’re all making Chinese eyes. Thanks.

Eric will play for El Leche Rio Breogan, a team in the second-most-prestigious league in the entire nation. Now that bullfighting may be going the way of a bull after a bullfight, I need a new sport to patronize when I am in La Espana. Looks like I just found one.

Felicidades to Senor Hayes. As we have said many times before, a man can do a lot worse than spending his 20s playing basketball in Europe for six figures. A lot, LOT worse.

(Photo credit: ESPN980.com)

Tagged with: Basketball • Eric Hayes • Terps in the pros

Terrapins Rising Season Four: Episode Five Recap

On August 12, 2010, In Maryland sports, By Scott

So I missed another airing of Terrapins Rising. My bad. Luckily, I was able to catch one of the eleven thousand replays on Comcast SportsNet. Whew! And what would you have done without your weekly Terrapins Rising recap, Mom? Please send more money.

You know what, I like to kid, but in all seriousness, this was the best darn episode of the whole moneyfloggin’ season so far. Allow me to set the stage, if I may. Flashback to April 25. The spring game. Red. White. A game-style atmosphere. Literally tens of people in the stands. Can you picture it? It’s like you’re there, right?

Testudo Times published a good recap of the scrimmage, if you’re interested. If you care enough to read that recap, then you definitely care enough to catch a replay of this episode of TR. Only nine thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven replays left!!!!!!

One of my favorite parts was the Jamarr Robinson highlights, which included laying a perfect — and I’m talking perfect — ball on Torrey Smith’s fingertips in the back of the end zone. I’m not the world’s biggest Jamarr fan, but he looked good in those scrimmage highlights, boy. Maybe there’s hope after all.

All three of the top QBs got some nice face time in the episode. Danny O’Brien had some moments, leading White to a come-from-behind win, albeit against the reserves. I was actually pretty impressed with C.J. Brown’s sequence, in which he got a delay of game but was able to easily shake it off–good sign for a young guy. Shaking it off, not the penalty.

Perhaps the best part, though, was a sideline sequence that came after a D.J. Adams touchdown dive. In a very special Terrapins Rising moment, offensive coordinator James Franklin pulled Adams aside, and told him to have more confidence in himself. To play against the starters the way he had just done against the reserves. You have to have confidence, D.J.! Franklin said. You’re our future at running back! You’re a special young man! And not euphemism special, either…special special! And I want you to play like you’re special! You know what? He didn’t really say most of that. But it was similar. And you know what else? I got a little choked up. You can do it, D.J.! Yaaaay!

/Claps hands in unsynchronized fashion.

But really, it was a good pep talk. Franklin is clearly a heck of a motivator. And my helmet is off to him.

Until next week.

(Photo credit: The Baltimore Sun)

Tagged with: C.J. Brown • D.J. Adams • Danny O'Brien • Football • Jamarr Robinson • James Franklin • Terrapins Rising