A (fan) baseless rep

Terrapins fans have a reputation throughout the ACC, even the nation. They're perceived as loud, hostile and oftentimes obnoxious. They can make visits to College Park incredibly difficult.

But after the turnout at Byrd Stadium on Saturday, you can't help but wonder whether they still really deserve that notoriety.

The official attendance was announced to be 29,945, but it was probably closer to 10,000. There were just a few dozen fans in the upper deck, and only the first few rows of the student section were filled. It looked like a D-III football game being played at a D-I stadium.

But it was snowing and raining! And the Terps are terrible — like 2-6 terrible! Why should we go?

Because that's what fans do.

It doesn't matter what the weather is like. It doesn't matter whether you think coach Randy Edsall was a bad hire. It doesn't matter that the Terps enter tomorrow's game against Virginia out of ACC contention and with bowl eligibility only a pipe dream. You support the team through thick and thin. You still go.

The Terps are fast becoming the Florida Marlins of the ACC. People tweeted photos of Byrd minutes before kickoff, laughing at the horrid attendance. It's hard to remember any sports stadium being quite that empty.

Yeah, the weather wasn't great on Saturday. But snow didn't stop 98,000 fans from filling Beaver Stadium for Penn State's game last weekend. So bring a blanket. Suck it up. This is football we're talking about, not a picnic.

"[The weather] was nasty, that's for sure. But I think, whenever you support a team or you have a team that you like, you support them regardless." Edsall said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. "There's only six or seven games a year you can get out and see. If you're going to be a fan, be a fan, and be out there all the time supporting them.

"I would just say, ‘Hey, sometimes it's not always going to be the way you want it. But just stick in there and support people and keep going.' I know this. I've been an Oriole fan, and it hasn't gone their way, but I haven't dropped off the bandwagon. And I think that's what true fans do."

Memories of a sold-out Byrd Stadium for the Miami game seem years ago. It wasn't hard for fans to turn out for the season's first game because there was all the motivation in the world: Labor Day night. A clean slate. A big-time opponent. High expectations for the year.

Even though those expectations haven't been met, the student section has been surprisingly full at times this year. But just as the Terps have gone downhill on the field, attendance has as well. And don't think the team hasn't noticed.

"I love our school. But, you know, if you're going to be a fan, you're going to be a fan. If you're going to have my back, you're going to have my back," defensive tackle Maurice Hampton said. "Just like I'll have your back anytime anything else happens. I'm not going to just leave you hanging just because things got bad.

"To deal with the fact that nobody was there last game, I mean, it was just another game where really, we were fighting for ourselves. And we saw that."

It isn't all that surprising. If Terps teams aren't good, students typically stop going. Even though this university is supposedly a basketball school, attendance was so bad last year, even during ACC play, that university alumnus and ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt ripped fans on Twitter and his radio show.

It's easy enough to fill Byrd Stadium on opening night for an ESPN-televised game or to chant "F— Duke" when the Terps are vying for a share of the ACC title. A fan base's true colors show when its team is struggling.

This season, the color most associated with this fan base shouldn't be red, black, white or gold. It should be gray, the color of the empty bleachers at Byrd Stadium.

No, there isn't enough of a pigskin history in College Park to make it a football school. But there isn't a good enough fan base to make it one, either. You think that people stop coming to The Swamp when the Gators struggle? You think Texas has empty seats at Texas Memorial Stadium during rough patches?

It seems like this fan base only wants to turn out for big-time opponents — the Dukes and North Carolinas. At real football schools, even the games against creampuff opponents are packed.

Football success isn't the only ingredient necessary for a football culture. You need passion. You need fans who go to the games even in down years. You need supporters who care more about the game than the tailgate before it. At this point, it seems like the fan base is content to spend more time complaining about Edsall that cheering on the home team.

Sadly, this phenomenon isn't limited to football. Students scanning and leaving to get points for the big games on the men's basketball schedule has been a problem for years, prompting the athletics department to look into ways to keep students at the game.

It'll be interesting to see how basketball games are attended this year if the team struggles as expected. People will want to come see first-year coach Mark Turgeon's first few games, but what about after that?