As I’ve said many times, Labor Day weekend is my favorite weekend of the year.
I love everything about it. It’s fantasy football draft weekend. You know, the event that is the living embodiment of the iconic “dudes can literally just sit around and name old sports players and just have the best time” tweet. It is truly our high holy day as a sports fan. May Jared Goff last until Round 13 and may the bacon wrapped around your jalapeños be perfectly crisped.
With the Orioles being good in recent years, it’s also a line of demarcation. There is something particularly electric about meaningful baseball in your city on Labor Day weekend. However you got there, no matter how many of your pitchers are hurt, you’re there. It’s real. It’s happening. You’re in a playoff race.
Perhaps you don’t love the U.S. Open or tennis as much as I do. That’s OK. I’m sure you have other redeeming qualities. As we were reminded when Maryland’s own Frances Tiafoe made his run to the 2022 semifinals, there are few things in sport that provide the theater of prime time at the U.S. Open.
And of course Labor Day weekend provides us the start of college football season. It’s really interesting being a college football fan in Maryland. I follow Maryland and Navy. You’ll likely be able to find me at the Morgan-Towson game Sept. 7, too. I genuinely get irrationally excited for this weekend every year despite the fact that I know very well that there will never be a FBS national championship to celebrate in my lifetime. Even lesser goals might be at best few and far between.
Maryland’s 2001 ACC championship is one of the more meaningful sports memories of my life. The wild success Navy found the last 15 years with Keenan Reynolds and Malcolm Perry under center brought serious joy. But even those lofty heights are hard to replicate. Finding joy as a local college football requires an appropriate calibration of your expectations.
In the buildup to the start of Maryland’s 2024 season, I am exploring the idea of “taking the next step.” A foundation has been established by sixth-year head coach Michael Locksley. With three straight winning seasons and bowl victories against viable power conference teams (Virginia Tech, NC State and Auburn), the program has stabilized. That would be a low bar for many fans across the country, but they haven’t been through what Maryland fans have been through.
After establishing the foundation, where do the Terps go from here?
You see, it would unfortunately be fair, given the relative long-term malaise that has surrounded the Maryland football program, to ask if this might actually be the high-water mark. While Taulia Tagovailoa wasn’t a perfect prospect, the record-setting quarterback was unquestionably the best signal-caller Maryland has had in decades.
There are significant but reasonable hopes that four-star Archbishop Spalding quarterback Malik Washington might match if not exceed that level when he arrives in 2025. But Maryland doesn’t want to see its positive momentum dissipate as they await his arrival.
Optimism can be found for the 2024 season. Trench play can reasonably be imagined to be an emerging strength. Andre Roye (St. Frances), whom Maryland once coaxed into flipping from Penn State on Signing Day, has emerged and is expected to be a starter. Former Georgia offensive lineman Aliou Bah could help fortify things up front as well. The defensive line appears to be a significant strength. Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips is a certified freak.
Returning veterans at both running back (Roman Hemby) and wide receiver (Kaden Prather, Tai Felton, Octavian Smith) should help the adjustment for the team’s first-year starting quarterback.
That’s the tough part about writing a Maryland football preview column. Who is that quarterback? Perhaps we’ll know within hours. Perhaps that answer won’t come until after the UConn game has kicked off. The choices are far better than some quarterback battles that have existed in College Park in this millennium. For example, no linebacker is being considered to start under center. That’s called progress! Maybe there will be roles for both Billy Edwards and NC State transfer MJ Morris within this offense. We can be fairly sure that Edwards will be used even if he doesn’t start.
But what’s encouraging is that it doesn’t seem like Maryland needs this to come down to “either (INSERT QUARTERBACK’S NAME) is going to have a massive season or Maryland might be screwed.” The Terps will need strong quarterback play no matter what. But they might be capable of remaining competitive even if they don’t get spectacular play out of the quarterback position.
Not having to share a division with all of Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State should prove to be significant. The last time a Big Ten title game was played without one of those teams, the world hadn’t yet been introduced to “The Wolf of Wall Street.” A visit from USC won’t be easy and the trip to Oregon seems similarly perilous. But just mentally getting away from the daunting feeling of having to slay three separate dragons every season should provide a positive edge.
None of it means Maryland should be expected to compete for even a Big Ten title this year. That feels like an unreasonable “next step.” Going from seven regular-season wins to eight would be a tremendous next step, particularly as they look to replace Tagovailoa. That wouldn’t exactly ignite the fan base, but it would be measurable progress nonetheless. And it won’t be remotely easy. Simply not taking a truly bad step backward this season could be viewed as a “next step” given, particularly, the quarterback situation.
I know that internally the Terps have loftier goals. They should. Twelve teams make the playoff now. Why rule yourself out of the running on Day 0? Such loftier goals still feel unlikely, but stabilizing a program in the aftermath of tragedy, scandal and a pandemic was unlikely, too.
Michael Locksley has guided things back from disaster to respectability. We ought to continue to let him cook.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox