A tough sell

In a break from his normally even-keeled form, Randy Edsall made a rare admission after last weekend's 41-16 drubbing by Florida State.

"We just don't match up with the speed and athleticism of Clemson and Florida State," the Terrapins football coach said, "and that's what we're going to have to do from a recruiting standpoint."

It may sound obvious, especially after he saw the Terps get physically manhandled by the Tigers and the Seminoles in consecutive weeks.

And though Edsall made one thing clear — to compete with the best, you need the best talent — the problem for the first-year coach now becomes just how to sell a program that may well be on its way to missing a bowl for the second time in three seasons.

"To me, this is a great institution academically and you can come in here and get an education and a degree that has meaning to it," Edsall said. "You can come here and play in an offense that's going to work to get the ball to its playmakers in space and you're going to play on a defense that's going to be aggressive, and you're going to have opportunities because whoever's the best guys are going to play."

Still, it's no secret: The easiest way to sell a program is with wins.

With the Terps in a downward spiral after three consecutive losses, tomorrow's game against a scuffling Boston College squad presents them with an opportunity to get back on track.

They do have the advantage of sporting Under Armour's newest threads and the impending construction of a state-of-the-art indoor practice facility.

But considering the fact that any push the Terps' attention-grabbing Labor Day victory over Miami gave them in recruiting has since dwindled to next to nothing, Edsall and the Terps must now find a way to reignite some excitement around a program that hasn't beaten a ranked team since 2008 or competed for an ACC Championship in a decade.

"You see that young guys are playing early, and we haven't really hit where we can be yet," said quarterback Danny O'Brien, who's been heavily involved in recruiting, including the recruitment of freshman running back Justus Pickett. "Once we do that, it'll be a lot easier to sell. You've got to win to get good recruits, there's no secret to that.

"We just want to win, and all that stuff will take care of itself. Winning programs get better players and are seen in a more positive light than losing teams. That's just kind of the reality of sports, in general."

The Eagles, on paper, should give the Terps that opportunity. With their best player, running back Montel Harris, sidelined for the season, the Eagles are averaging an ACC-worst 18.7 points per game.

And while their defense is, as usual, physical — Luke Kuechly, one of the nation's best linebackers, leads the way — the Eagles (1-6, 0-4 ACC) have yet to beat an FCS opponent this season.

But as the Terps (2-5, 1-3) proved in an embarrassing 38-7 loss to Temple earlier this season, they simply aren't talented enough to take any opponent for granted.

"You can only look at Boston College," quarterback C.J. Brown said. "We only have one more win than they do, so there's not too much we can look past."

The first seven games of this season have been far from what Edsall would have hoped for in his first season in College Park, and the Terps' preseason goal of an Orange Bowl appearance has come and gone.

Bowl eligibility still remains plenty attainable for the Terps, but the rest of this season may have further-reaching implications down the road.

If they're able to win now, it could help thrust them into the ACC's upper echelon in the coming years.

"Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program," Edsall said. "I think what all these people have to understand is, just like in any profession, any business, every year, you're trying to upgrade your business or your organization.

"So, every year, I have the mindset that I want to try to recruit better and better every year. And that's not a knock on anybody that's here, because if I wasn't doing that, then they should fire me, they should get rid of me."

cwalsh@umdbk.com