SCHIMMEL: Football still has pride to play for

The Florida State game is over. It was a nightmare - the Terrapin football team was embarrassed on a national stage, and a spot in the ACC championship game is no longer a possibility.

But the Terps need to put the Blackout debacle behind them and move on.

Even more important than playing for a berth in a slightly better bowl game, the Terps are playing Saturday at Boston College to save some of their pride. They need to show up this week ready to play. If they mope through the week, only going through the motions, the Terps will likely be embarrassed by the Eagles, who will be hungry for their second consecutive Atlantic Division title.

An up-and-down season that has walked a fine line between being a success and a failure will inevitably be seen as a complete disappointment if the Terps roll over again Saturday.

The Terps are playing for respectability this week. While it's not all they hoped would be at stake, it should still be enough to motivate them to show up to play their best game.

"It's over. We missed an opportunity that we had," coach Ralph Friedgen said. "We can't do anything about what's happened. You better worry about what's in front of you, and we've got a heck of a challenge in front of us."

Terp players are saying that the main reason Saturday means a lot to them is that the result will determine where they are invited to play a bowl game.

A win would put the Terps' record at 8-4 for the regular season, and, while it wouldn't matter for conference championship implications, the Terps would be tied for first in the Atlantic Division.

Eight wins would separate the Terps from teams such as Wake Forest and Clemson and might make them more attractive to some of the bigger payout bowl games that take ACC teams.

But in the grand scheme of things, whether the Terps go to, say, the Champs Sports Bowl at 8-4 instead of the Meineke Car Care Bowl at 7-5 isn't going to leave a lasting impression.

And when a few players were pressed to actually say specifically which bowl game they might like to go to, none of them said he really had a preference among the mid-level games as long as the team got to go somewhere.

So, what really is at stake this week is a chance to step up and finish the regular season with a positive win instead of yet another disappointing performance.

"We really thought this could have been the Maryland team to go all the way," linebacker Moise Fokou said. "But coming into this week on Monday, we realized we still have a lot to play for. You kind of have to move on."

Whatever happens in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Saturday, the bitter taste last Saturday's game left will still be lingering in the Terps' mouths.

The Terps won't be going to Tampa, Fla., they won't be going to the Orange Bowl, and they will have fallen short of their ultimate goals.

But at least a win would soften that blow. "We definitely put last game behind us already, and we're looking forward to next week," tight end Dan Gronkowski said. "It's a big game for us."

It's not as big as it could have been, but it's still worth playing.

gschimmeldbk@gmail.cim