TCY: Maryland - The Long, Hard Road

[CraigSca]

Ok, like many others out there, I bought TCY once it first became available. Unlike many others, I have yet to win a championship with any team. There have been a few games I've played where I brought a team to the cusp, but I was never able to get over the hump. Now that Bowl Bound is clearly only a few weeks from release, I figured it's about time I won a national championship with one of these teams. Soo....I've decided to start with Maryland (again) and hopefully I can bring a title not so much home to College Park, but to ME because I've spent a ton of time playing the game and it would be nice to actually win.

That being said, here are the details...

I've played on All-Star before and, though it is probably the most accurate, felt that I didn't have as much fun with the game. Therefore, I've decided to compromise and go with one step below all-star.

Conferences do NOT have random reputations, but the teams do (just to shake it up a little). To start off, I kept clicking new game until I could find Maryland as a slight middle of the road team.

[CraigSca]

ACC Preview, with national rankings in parentheses:

1) Florida State (#1)
2) Virginia (#4)
3) Virginia Tech (#6)
4) North Carolina (#9)
5) Miami Fl (#13)
6) Georgia Tech (#21)
7) Wake Forest (#23)
8) Clemson (#25)
9) Maryland
10) N.C. State
11) Duke

Gee, no competition here! Good Lord!

[CraigSca]

The College Years
2004 Maryland Schedule

Rival: Virginia
Stadium Capacity: 48,100
Season Tickets Sold: 45,900

Week Opponent Result Attendance Weather Television
2 NORTHERN ILLINOIS
3 TEMPLE
4 at (40) West Virginia
$$5 at Duke
$$7 (23) GEORGIA TECH
$$8 NORTH CAROLINA STATE
$$9 at (22) Clemson
$$10 (1) FLORIDA STATE
$$11 at (5) Virginia
$$13 at (7) Virginia Tech
$$14 (24) WAKE FOREST

Home Games in ALL CAPS
$$-Conference Games, ##-League Championship Games, **-Post-Season Games

[CraigSca]

Looking at the Roster

Offense

QBs - Jeffrey Hawthorne is a scrambling quarterback who can actually throw the ball. He's pretty damn talented, and I look forward to working with him the next couple years (he's a junior). The rest of the guys are middle of the road, and we have a freshman who's being red-shirted (Dan Dunn) but he'll never amount to Jeffrey's talent levels. Looks like recruiting a QB will need to be a priority.

RBs - Not a huge amount of talent here, but some depth. The starting job will probably be down to T.J. Denyer, Nathan DeWalters and redshirt freshman Rob Hite, who has the most impressive potential of the bunch. I'll give the early nod to Rob, but we'll see how it goes.

FB/TEs - Our FBs have a lot of potential, but they are very green (in experience, and in their ratings bars). We'll probably rotate between Steven Blythe, Mike Milam and Jorge Rivers (who looks more like a true RB than a FB). At TE, Travis Westbrook has a 3 years of eligibility left, and he looks like your prototypical Maryland TE - he can do it all.

WRs - Sophomore Lawrence Hastings and senior Ian Wells lead a very thin group. Will have to pay particular attention to WRs while recruiting.

OL - Senior center Jimmie Houston anchors and incredibly horrid offensive line. They're green and not very talented. Guards Clay Blankenship and Mo Brewer are adequate, but they're seniors and have very little upside. At tackle we're young, old and not realizing our potential. Must recruit the offensive line heavily, thank you very much!

Special Teams - Senior punter Drew Finley leads the way. The rest of the guys are merely adequate and should cost us a game or two :).

DL - At ends, Daniel Bidwell and Willie McKenzie should start, but they're not gonna grace the cover of Mid-Atlantic Defensive Lineman magazine any time soon. Fortunately, DT is a strong position for us - Edgar Ekuban is a stud. Flanking him will be the very serviceable Eugene Columbo along with fresh-off-the-redshirt Jose Nwokome. With the proper experience and tutelage, Nwokome could be a real force.

LBs - At ILB we have a number of guys who look like they played second string in high school. Paired with our stud DTs, we have therefore decided to go with a 4-3 defense. At OLB, senior D.J. Pritchett's name will be appearing a lot in our team's write-ups.

Secondary - Senior CB Kim Walton has the potential to be the next All-American. Unfortunately, he's already a senior and may never hit the top of his game while at Maryland. The rest of the cornerbacking corps will be a rotation of Buddy Durham, Butch Denman, Kenneth Ferguson and Martin Magnotta. At safety, the lone bright spot is Danny Meynardie, who has big-play written all over him (he's looking into getting it removed via laser surgery).

[CraigSca]

Starting the Recruiting Trail...

Priorities: QB (1), WR(2), G, T(2), DE, DT, ILB(2), OLB, CB, S

Looking in-state, there are only a few guys that catch my eye and we schedule a couple visits with them hoping to tie up these guys sooner rather than later.

We then make the resulting sweeps through the surrounding areas, hoping to find some nice fits. As is the bane in all recruiting, the guys I want seem to think they're better than me. Such is life.

[CraigSca]

The first of the season rolls by with exactly no games. We therefore re-hit the recruiting trail and then begin to prepare for the Northern Illinois Huskies.

We continue to hit our first round of recruits hard, and then spend the remaining part of the week focusing on some guys who want to get as far away from their hometown as possible. Hey, we've all been through that, haven't we? Find a home in Maryland, boys :)

[CraigSca]

Prepping for N. Illinois...

This version of the Huskies are downright horrible. The majority of the team is rated "poor" and their poll "ranking" is #115. If we have trouble with these guys, we might as well pack it in for the year.

Before the game I announce to the team that the Wing-T formation we ran all Spring is indeed not a joke and we intend to use it against the Huskies. In a surprise move, I announce that Rob Hite will be our starting running back. I know I'll have some tension there, but I have no reason to believe we're going to be able to do anything against the elite of our conference, so I am playing a little for next year. I tell both T.J. Denyer and Nathan DeWalters to be ready, because they will be seeing some action.

And, off we go...

[CraigSca]

N. Illinois (0-0) at Maryland (0-0) (-15)

We win the toss and start at our own 12 yard after an ill-conceived return 7 yards deep in our end zone. The Huskies open with an 8-man front, daring us to pass. Of course, our offensive coordinator scripted the first 15 plays and flexibility isn't his strong suit, so we run it up the gut (Denyers) for 1 yard. After an overthrow on second down, Hawthorne finds his big tight end, Travis Westbrook, open on 3rd and long for 16 yard gain! Eventually, our drive stalls on their side of the field. After seeing Denyers carry the ball non-stop and noticing that Rob Hite (our supposed starter) hasn't carried it once, I call our offensive coordinator over and realize I never told him of my bold plan. Oopsie!

At the end of the first quarter, we're up 14-0 (a 60+ yard TD pass from Hawthorne to Koldzik and a 1 yard TD run for Denyers). Ekuban is really dictating play on the line of scrimmage, allowing our ends to get at the QB - in fact, the first quarter just ended with a sack by Crocton, a fumble and a recovery by Ramirez. The blow-out is on...


Northern Illinois 0 0 7 0 - 7
Maryland 14 20 21 7 - 62

Team Statistics NILL MARY

First Downs 10 27

Total Rushes 21 47
Net Rushing Yards 108 183
Yards Per Carry 5.1 3.8
Rushing Yards 125 198
Tckld Loss/Yards 3-6 1-1
Sacked/Yards Lost 2-11 2-14

Pass Attempts 32 23
Completions 12 19
Passing Yards 76 351
Yards Per Attempt 2.3 15.2
Interceptions 1 0
Fumbles/Lost 2/2 0/0

Total Plays 53 70
Total Yards 184 534
Yards Per Play 3.4 7.6

3rd Down Plays 3/13 8/13

Penalties 7 10
Penalty Yards 38 79

Avg. Drive Start OWN 19 OWN 45
Time Of Possession 24:10 35:50

[CraigSca]

Unfortunately, it seems I've regressed in my lovely formatting :(.

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[CraigSca]

bump, because I will be adding to this.