Had a slow start this morning, but wanted to pass along a few notable numbers before breaking down the entirety of Saturday’s Maryland-James Madison game.
In the mean time, check out today’s dead-tree edition story on Nolan Carroll‘s injury and how it impacts the Terrapins.
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* Carroll’s injury, combined with Jamari McCollough‘s lingering ankle problems, means Maryland will probably wind up losing more starts in the secondary the last two seasons than primary starters in defensive backfield did in Friedgen’s first seven years.
A word on “primary starters”: A player who gets hurt and would have started if healthy is a primary starter (think Carroll or Kevin Barnes). A guy who simply lost a starting job after two games is not a primary starter.
Here’s a look at starts lost in the secondary since 2001, with subs in parentheses:
2001: 6 (Dennard Wilson 3, Domonique Foxworth 2, Rod Littles 1)
2002: 0
2003: 1 (Jamal Chance 1)
2004: 5 (Josh Wilson 4, Reuben Haigler 1)
2005: 2 (Isaiah Gardner 1, J.J. Justice 1)
2006: 2 (Kevin Barnes 1, J.J. Justice 1)
2007: 0
2008: 8 (Nolan Carroll 4, Jamari McCollough 2, Antwine Perez 2)
The 2009 total will jump to three this weekend, since Kenny Tate is already filling in for McCollough at safety.
* Maryland has yielded 240 rushing yards just 12 times in Ralph Friedgen‘s nine seasons as coach —- including in back-to-back games to start this season.
The Terps gave up 244 yards to California on the ground and 268 to James Madison. The last time was shredded like this in succession was in 2000:
Florida State: 260 (L, 59-7)
at Virginia: 263 (L, 31-23)
at Clemson: 278 (L, 35-14)
* The Terps are unsurprisingly poor when yielding 200+ yards rushing in the Friedgen era, since most teams generally don’t do well when the other team is running wild. The Terps are 4-15 in that situation, with the wins coming against Wake Forest (2003), Navy (2005), Clemson (2008) and James Madison (2009).
—- Patrick Stevens
