COLLEGE PARK, MD--Fans of Terrapins football inside the walls of Capital One at Byrd Stadium and those on the outside all exhaled simultaneously as an official emerged from the review booth and signaled that Clemson quarterback, Kyle Parker’s knee had not hit the ground before he lost control of the ball after Maryland’s Demetrius Hartfield sacked him with 27 seconds left in the game.

 

“Coach (Don) Brown called a blitz,” said the freshman Hartfield of the play. “And I was going against the tackle one-on-one and I made a move inside, and then came back outside and I was free.”

Although it sounds simple enough, the game was by no means easy to watch. Maryland was yet again plagued by penalties and turnovers that resulted in a very tired defense left to gut out a win in the waning seconds of the game.

“Our defense played well the whole game,” said Coach Ralph Friedgen, “especially at the end of the game when their backs were against the wall.”

That last, meaningful play of the game was a testament to Coach Friedgen’s statement.

From the opening drive, the Terps’ defense was able to contain both of Clemson’s most ferocious tigers in wide receiver Jacoby Ford and running back C.J. Spiller. The Terps were able to hold Ford to only 37 yards receiving and Spiller to zero offensive touchdowns, (Spiller did however convert a touchdown on a kick off return). With the exceptions of a 17-yard Ford touchdown on an end around running play in the first quarter and Spiller bouncing outside on a few running plays, the Terrapin defense was stout.

“This is by far the best four quarters we have played” said Hartfield. “I don’t think they had over a hundred yards rushing, and as a defense we just played our assignments and made plays.” This was extremely important to the defense as questions of their ability to capitalize on opponents’ mistakes in the young season had cause many of the players to press, and as a result there were many missed defensive assignments.

For a stretch late in the first quarter and early in the second, Clemson scored on three straight offensive possessions. From that point, the Maryland defense seemed to get on track despite the offense’s turnovers, bad field position, and a hot Clemson offense. Not only did the Terrapins rebound from the shaky start to regain the lead at 17-13 going into halftime, but they were able to do so in dominating fashion forcing the Tigers to either punt or turn the ball over four out of their eight possessions.

Both teams started the second half slowly offensively because both teams started the half so well defensively. Maryland broke the offensive stalemate when Clemson punter Dawson Zimmerman, kicked an awful 34-yard punt that Maryland punt returner Tony Logan capitalized on and returned to the Clemson one. On Maryland’s ensuing drive running back Davin Meggett was able to dash into the endzone after being stuffed on his first two attempts pushing Maryland’s lead to 24-13. Clemson was then able to pull to within three points after the Spiller kick off return and a successful two-point conversion.

The fourth quarter was painted with defense, but also marred with unforced penalties and mistakes. On a fourth and one from the Maryland 29-yard-line and under three minutes left, Coach Friedgen decided to go for the first down. At that point you could almost feel half of the 46,243 fans in the stands applauding the decision, while the other half squirmed in their seats.

“The fourth down probably wasn’t a smart call by me,” said Coach Friedgen. “I went over to Don Brown and he says ‘time to make a statement.’ I think he was aware we didn’t have Campbell. James (Franklin) wanted to go for it, the kids wanted to go for it and I knew the defense was tired so I went for it. I let my emotions get involved and not my brain.”

The attempt failed. Clemson took over and looked for a field goal to tie the game. If Friedgen didn’t like his prior coach’s decision, he loved his next one. After Clemson kicker Jackson booted the football through the uprights, the points were waved off because Maryland had called a timeout. The “icing of the kicker” worked as Jackson missed his next attempt. Coach Friedgen clearly got into the young kicker’s head as he attempted to ice him twice down the stretch and succeeded.

The Terps offense, however, could not move the ball on Clemson’s defense following Jackson’s final missed field goal and was forced to punt; giving Clemson new life, yet again, in good field position.  

”First of all, that defense held Boston College to 54 yards total offense,” said offensive coordinator James Franklin, in reference to questions posed of his offense’s lack of efficiency throughout the second half. “We were just going to try and be as patient as we could, run the ball down hill, get the ball out quick, try to help our line from a protection standpoint and try to play physical. The last two years, we've been able to score points and make plays when we needed to against them. I'm really proud of what we did. I think the coaches did a hell of a job of getting us in a situation to have a chance to be successful and our kids played hard. Although the scoring hasn't always reflected as such, we've improved every single week. And although there are still sometimes when we hurt ourselves, it was dramatically different than the last couple games.”

Clemson began to move the ball downfield and no one watching the game could imagine them being stopped for a fourth consecutive time in Maryland territory. No one except the Terrapins themselves and they went out and proved it to everyone else as Hartsfield sacked Parker and cause the quarterback to fumble the football; which Hartsfield then recovered for Maryland.

“I thought our kids played with tremendous heart today. I was praying we'd find a way to win this because of how hard they have worked. They needed to experience some success, and this was a good football team we played.”

The Terrapins will look to improve their record to 2-0 in the ACC next week in an away game against Wake Forest.