If you've read my blogs up to this point you already know where my fandom allegiances lie. If you're new, just assume it's around the DMV I'm probably interested.
So tonight (October 1st) the University of Maryland football team hosts the University of Iowa in a Friday night black out game. Both teams are undefeated, Iowa ranked up at #5 in the latest AP Polls, Maryland unranked. In a year full of chaos, this seems like the kind of spot where most people would predict Maryland to win.
Unless you've spent your entire life as a Terps fan.
I'll start by saying I'm going into this game cautiously optimistic, so I'm not being a total downer here. But I've seen this movie before. Just two years ago, in pre-covid times this exact scenario had come up:
Friday night, black out, undefeated Maryland, 12th ranked Penn State who I believe was also undefeated. This looked like the time Maryland could do it. They could upset a top 15 team and reach a level of relevancy in the Big Ten they had never gotten before. Hopes were high, the campus in college park was buzzing, fans of all ages couldn't wait to get into the game.
Kick off came, then the final whistle blew a few hours later and when you looked up at the scoreboard it read: Penn State - 59, Maryland - 0.
The game was even worse than what the scoreboard showed if I'm being totally honest too.
So this is why I'm writing this today, not because I expect Maryland to get the brakes beaten off of them again, there's a few factors that suggest that won't happen. The Terps roster is healthy overall, and lead by a dynamic offense. Also, Iowa is notorious for struggling when they get away from their home stadium, and their offense has been pretty sub pae this season. But those factors, along with others that would take too long to list, can turn into the world's most dangerous drug, hope.
See, unlike most fans, I'm not the type to blindly assume my teams are awesome and the best in the land, I've experienced too much heartbreak and mediocrity to really believe those sort of things anymore. But that said... I desperately do want to that feeling. The unmitigated joy and bliss of going into a game thinking "this is our game, this is our year" and largely being right about it. I want to elation of victory, and the crushing blow of an eventual defeat. I don't want to look at a loss and go "well that's about what I expected" as I've been doing for oh so many years. Hell, a few years back my Alma mater Towson University made it to the FCS football championship against juggernaut North Dakota State. It's a championship game so you would think I had some belief in their chances right? As much as I'd love to say I did, I knew the beat down was coming long before it even came.
Something about tonight feels different though. Like this feeling of anxiety I have in my stomach is making me feel more invested in this game than I've felt the majority of my adult life. Publicly, I have been expressing the sentiment that this is the perfect spot for Maryland to drop a total dud and break the hearts of Terrapin fans yet again.
I don't want that. I don't feel like that will happen. I want to be right. I so desperately want to be right, I just don't know how much I can believe it until I see it.
This is basically the sports version of a narcotic. I have hope for the first time in a long time. It's up to the team now if my high stays a high, or if I come crashing down hard.
As Scott Van Pelt often says "play the fight song, let's go to Bentley's"
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