#67 Maryland

College Park, MD

SECU Stadium

September 15, 2023

Maryland 42 - Virginia 14 (ESPN Recap)

Started a Fri/Sat double-header of Big 10 teams hosting ACC teams with a trip to the beltway. Was a little too sweet with the logistics on this one, not giving myself enough time to manage the rare direct flight and less than one hour drive. Flight from PBI to BWI was delayed three times and I ended up arriving to the stadium as kickoff was occurring. Unfortunately, no time for tailgating or a prescheduled tour of the hoops facilities.

Work connection and Maryland baseball alum, Adam R, made a similar trip and we met up at the stadium.

It looked like the tailgating scene would have been pretty fun. The stadium is enormous which sort of makes sense (state school, large enrollment) and sort of doesn’t make sense since it has been that way for decades and the football team has never once filled it. Cool to catch a night game for a “black out”.

This was a weird game. Virginia raced out to a quick 14-0 lead before Maryland answered by returning the kickoff for a TD cutting it to 14-7. Maryland missed a 55-yd FG but was able to tie it up before halftime 14-14. Not quite good enough for my Maryland 1H -7 ticket. The Terps continued the comeback with a total of 42 unanswered, covering the original 16-pt spread at 42-14. The main highlights of the 2H were two nice interceptions by impressive defensive backs. Maryland loves their school flag.

Maryland’s QB is Tagovailoa, Tua’s little brother. He is not as good as Tua but he is a nice fit for this defensive-focused team.

The sideline dancing is one of my favorite parts of the passion in college football.

Road Rodg (@Rodger Sherman) was at this game as well and had the eagle eyes to spot me from all the way across the field, but he had to hit the road to backyard brawl and we didn’t connect.

Since we missed pre-game festivities, Adam and I decided to go for a walk through campus and get a bite to eat and drink after the game. UMD has the largest quad I have ever seen, which they call “The Mall.” There were kids swimming and drinking in the knee high-deep water as we walked by.

It was cute seeing Adam point out all the new structures and developments that were not there when he graduated before 9/11.

There were three or four bars that had very long lines but one we got in quickly that had a “you are clearly over 30 and don’t need your ID checked” lane. The bar area reminded me of Starkville, MS where 100% of the bar party takes place at 4-5 bars at one intersection. We grabbed a couple beers at RJ Bentley’s and met Rutgers student, future AE or CPA, John who hammers the Terps live-betting when they fall behind 14-0.

Then met non-Rutgers student Mike while eating our subs from Marathon Deli. Funny guys. In bed pretty early as Adam had an AM flight and I had a 3 hour drive up to Rutgers.

Feels good to hit the halfway mark at 67/134. I started the blog when I was at 26/129 in 2017. Added 41 stadiums in 5.5 years including COVID season.