Tag Archives: maryland terrapins

Big Ten, College Football, Huskers, Mike Riley

Sunday Evening Hot Takes: Maryland Edition

As an In-N-Out enthusiast, Mike Riley might be calling the Maryland game his coaching Double Double.

OK, probably not. But get a load of the ways the Huskers doubled up the Terrapins.

Total Yards
Nebraska 401
Maryland 207

Time of Possession
Nebraska 39:00
Maryland 21:00

If this recap is already dripping with all the excitement of an owner’s manual for an alarm clock, it’s because there isn’t much to work with on this one.

Outside of oohing and aahing like it was the 4th of July every time Ryker Fyfe completed one of his 23 passes, this was by far the most non-exciting game of the season. Even the vanilla Fresno State game had the newness of a season opener going for it and a 22 point 4th quarter to make sure everyone paid attention to end.

Not that there’s ever anything wrong with boring when the Huskers leave the field with a win AND hold their opponent to 11 yards rushing. The seniors got a great sendoff, a touching tribute was paid Sam Foltz, and the newest Husker Jack Johnson had the best day ever.

Meanwhile, 15 of Husker Nation’s finest rolled out of bed to make a 9am kickoff.

Before you label us a boring crowd of Husker fans, just know that we were saving our energy for the social event of the season- #IOWAHATEWEEK.

Mike Riley’s Balloon Watch
mike-riley-happy-balloon9a
Did you know one of HCMR’s nicknames is Ol’ Nine Balloons Riley?

Our Score Prediction

Had we known back in August that Ryker would be starting this one we certainly would have dialed down the offensive output a smidge.

NUMBERS TO IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS WITH

3: It was a career Senior Day for Terrell Newby as he found the end zone three times, setting a personal single game record. One more and he would have entered Al Bundy territory.

175: The yardage Terrell Newby needs to hit 1,000 on the ground for the season. Still not outside the realm of possibility.

.705: The Huskers are batting over .700 on 4th down, going 12 for 17 on the year so far.

9, 10, 11: As a college coach Mike Riley has hit the 9 win mark four times and got to 10 once back in 2006. He’s never had an 11 win season.

60/40: The run/pass split is currently a dead even 60/40. Last season it was 52/48.  This isn’t by any means a sexy statistic but keep in in your back pocket if Uncle Run the Ball Guy goes on a rant about the Huskers running less this season over Thanksgiving dinner. You’ll show him who’s boss.

6: This one is really going down the rabbit hole of extreme randomness but did you know that six different Huskers attempted a pass back in 2006? Zac Taylor, Joe Ganz, Dan Titchener, Maurice Purify, Marlon Lucky, and Jake Wesch?  Maybe you could win a bet with Uncle Run the Ball Guy with that useless nugget.

Oh the things you find skimming through seasons of stats when you’re trying to avoid writing about a boring game.


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Big Ten, College Football, Huskers

Say Hello to Maryland, the Huskers’ Next Victim

It seems like the season was just getting started and now the Maryland game is here.

By late afternoon, Memorial Stadium will fall silent. The Sea of Red won’t roar again in Lincoln until 2017.

The final home game of the season marks the very first time the Huskers will be squaring off against the mighty Terrapins. If the Big Red can somehow manage to beat a team that was also edged out by Ohio State 62-3, they will notch their ninth win of the season and finish with a perfect home record for the first time since 2012.

Will it be Tommy Armstrong Jr. who gets to lead the Huskers to victory one last time in front of the home crowd, or will it be Ryker Fyfe who gets to lead the Huskers to victory for the first time?

Since that question probably won’t be answered until kickoff, let’s focus on the week’s important drama for a moment.

What the hell happened to the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy?

Brandon Cavanaugh has a great breakdown of this travesty in the making on his site Eight Laces.  93.7 The Ticket all but confirmed it’s gone forever and a Change.org petition has been started to bring it back. You can add your name here.

It’s a total bummer to see the best trophy game in the Big Ten go away so unceremoniously. The biggest sign of all that it’s donezo is that there has been nary a peep from the Huskers’ Twitter account, which never passes up an opportunity for some sweet meme action. The ignore-it-and-hope-goes-away silence is deafening.

If the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy really is retired, why not at least auction it off and have the proceeds go to charity? That would make Nebraska’s budding rivalry with Minnesota really worth something. (Assuming the trophy hasn’t already been chucked in a dumpster in the dead of night.)

Alright, let’s get back to Maryland.

Look, the Terrapins don’t boast a 5-5 record due to an overabundance of skill.  Their players can’t even go on a BB gun rampage without getting arrested. You think those geniuses will be able to contain DPE? Heck no. If the Blackshirts can contain the turtles’ running game, they should be in good shape to get the win even with Larry the Cable Guy taking the snaps.

The Huskers’ game plan on offense should be to let the running backs take care of business and only throw the ball to seniors standing wide open in the end zone. Do you realize Brandon Reilly hasn’t caught a touchdown pass since hauling in the game winner against Michigan State last year? Let’s get him another one at home before he leaves us.

Huskers 45
Maryland 23

BONUS CONTENT: If you end up sitting next to a Maryland fan, here are some things to know about The Old Line State: 

Crab Cakes are basically Maryland’s corn and Runza rolled into one. Do not speak ill of Crab Cakes unless you’re itching to start a fight.

Six Marylands could fit comfortably within Nebraska’s borders. Its wacky shape helps hide the fact that it ranks #42 in land area, coming in just ahead of Hawaii.

On the flip side, Maryland’s population density is nearly 25 times higher than Nebraska’s. To put that into perspective, Nebraska’s population would have to swell to 46 million people to achieve the same density. That might help explain why everyone in The Wire was so angry all the time. There’s no breathing room.

Finally, the state motto of Maryland is “Fatti Maschii, Parole Femine” which literally translates from archaic Italian to mean “Manly Deeds, Womanly Words.” Extra bonus points for you if you can work that into a heckle.


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Big Ten, Husker Basketball, Huskers, View From the Boneyard

View from The Red Zone: Maryland

It was the biggest home game of the year. The Huskers men’s basketball team was taking on the fourth-ranked Maryland Terrapins at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Everyone was excited—especially me. Why? Because I had unfinished business with Melo Trimble.

Flashback to the Maryland game last year where I stood directly next to the Terrapins as they warmed up. I found the star then-freshman player to be the easy target of heckling. Everything from making jokes about what he was doing to picking on him as a person “The higher the hair the closer to God, am I right, Melo?” He was continually rolling his eyes at me as the stupid jokes kept coming out. Naturally, I was loving every second of it.

Melo Trimble
Maryland star Melo Trimble doing his best to ignore us during pre-game warm ups.

This year, however, he came in to PBA with an attitude that showed that he wasn’t about to listen to anyone yelling at him. But I was ready, I had done my research. It was only just beginning.

A thirty second Google search showed me that it was 21st birthday the day before, so a few of us had the brilliant idea to start yell-singing Happy Birthday to him every time he tried to do… Well… Anything. While unfazed during warm ups, it proved to be effective during free-throws (until the very end… Spoiler Alert!), in which he missed every one that we sang during.

MeloSelfieKinda
Selfie with Melo, kinda.

The only time he paid any attention to us this year was when I was joined by my good friend Ndamukong Stoos (aka Caitlin Stoos but I like my nickname for her more) in doing Maryland’s warmups with them. To be honest, we looked like complete idiots stretching and running around in the aisle, but as long as it made Trimble look over, it was worth it.

You could tell how much this game meant to Husker fans as it was completely deafening at tipoff. The energy and volume stayed high throughout the game, including when my roommate turned to me to say “gosh, I always forget how loud your voice can get.” Shoutout to my many years of theatre and broadcasting for that one.

The Huskers were able to keep up score-wise with Maryland throughout the entire game, but several missed opportunities caused the Huskers some trouble. But even though the Huskers had a difficult time capitalizing on turnovers and were shooting just 31.8 percent, it was still honestly a fun game to watch. Stressful, but fun.

You could tell how stressed I was watching the game solely by the foam finger I was holding throughout. Since I’m such a fidgeter, anything handed to me during a game that can be destroyed will be. By the end of the game, the foam finger didn’t even have a finger anymore, nor was it usable. Whoops.

Also probably doesn’t look good on me considering that they were given to us by my employer—Big Ten Network. Sorry guys.

Foam Finger.
This poor finger didn’t stand a chance.

The Huskers fell 70-65 to the Terrapins, but will be hosting Rutgers at home next. Honestly, if we lose to a team that has as many conference wins this season as I personally do, I’ll be concerned. Guess we’ll all just have to wait and see.

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