Boston College at Maryland: 5 Big Questions with Terrapin Station

4. Much like the Eagles, after a few bad years, the Terps are back to bowl-eligibility. Broadly speaking, to what do you attribute the turnaround?

The turnaround for Maryland is largely attributable, amazingly enough, to being healthy. What’s unfortunate is that last year’s team would have been bowl eligible had we not been forced to play with a linebacker, a wide receiver, and a true freshman at quarterback for large swaths of the year. Winning games like that was next to impossible, and even though the team still tried, the games were almost sad to watch.

Say one thing about Maryland under Randy Edsall, the program is building some serious depth. We had our two best players (Stefon Diggs and Deon Long) break their legs in one game, our quarterback go out with a concussion and a jacked up shoulder that he hadn’t fully recovered from until last week, two offensive linemen go down or quit, an NFL-caliber corner trash his shoulder a couple games in, and I don’t need to go on. The point is, we’re still bowl eligible, and still have a chance to win eight (or nine) games this year.

Edsall preaches this “next man up” mentality all the time, and the players are buying into it. We’ll go out and play with whoever we have, and all that adversity only makes the team stronger. Of course, it helps having one of the best pass rushers in the nation in Marcus Whitfield.