Guest Blog by homertuck: Maryland gets no respect from coaches in first poll

In a first for Beltway Sports Beat, today I have a guest blogger. Tuck is a friend of mine who loves to rant about sports and used to have a blog of his own. Today he GChat messaged me, angry over something sports-related (this is not rare) and said he was going to revive his blog just to talk about it. So I convinced him that instead he should write a guest blog post for Beltway Sports Beat. Another potential rival blogger nipped in the bud. --C. Stone

Today, in what is the start of the college football season, the USA Today Top 25 coaches' poll was released. Toping the list is USC, followed by LSU, Florida, Texas and Michigan. I don't really have a beef with the top 5 teams. You can honestly make a justification for why any of the top 5 teams could start the season at #1. I really wish USC didn't start at #1 for the simple reason that I don't want to hear John David Booty's 20 times a day. Why is it that he gets his full name mentioned every time we talk about USC? When people talk about Cal Ripken, they don't say "Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr." But I digress...

Image from PointedMagazine.com.

The rest of the top 25, in my opinion, isn't really that exciting. I was, however, shocked by one thing, which in my opinion helps prove how stupid the coaches' poll is and why it should have no role in deciding the national championship. First, my beloved Terps, coming off a 9-4 season in which they won the Champs Sports Bowl, didn't receive a single vote. Not one. Zippy. Granted, UMD is still deciding who their quarterback is going to be, but how can we receive NOTHING? Maryland has maybe the best receiver corps in the ACC, with the speedy Darrius Heyward-Bey (voted preseason All-ACC selection at WR and had 45 receptions, 694 yards, and 5 TDs as a freshman) and the great hands of tight end Joey Haynos (37 receptions, 369 yards, and 3 TDs last season).

Image from washingtonpost.com.

They also possess what has to be the best rushing attack in the ACC and one of the nation's best this year in the two headed monster of Lance Ball (855 rushing yards and 8 TDs last year) and Keon Lattimore (784 rushing yards and 3 TDs last year).

Also, Maryland isn't starting off the year with a walk on quarterback. Jordan Steffy and Josh Portis were both highly recruited out of high school. I'm sure either will do a great job as the Terps starting QB. And both are very capable of tucking the ball and running with it. I expect to see the return of the option play, something that has been lacking in the Friedgen offense that last several years, specifically since Scotty McBrien left.

Steffy and Portis will also get to tune up against Villanova and Florida International before going up against a real threat, which will be a Thursday night showdown against West Virginia.

Just remember folks ... these "expert" sports writers thought Maryland would be a bad team in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006 because we had a quarterback issue. What happened during those seasons? How about a 41-12 record, 4 bowl games, 3 straight bowl wins, an ACC championship and a trip to the Orange Bowl. Not to shabby.

On a side note, Duke's record last year was 0-12 and they are an annual staple on espn.com's "Bottom 10" rankings of worst football programs in the nation. CLEARLY they should be ranked above 80+ other D-1 football schools. I guess the person who voted for Duke thought this was the basketball poll...

--homertuck