Against Rutgers, mistakes buried Terps

When asked what the Terrapin football team can still accomplish this season, even after all that has already gone wrong, linebacker Alex Wujciak did not mince words.

"If we go undefeated the rest of the season, we get to go to the Orange Bowl," Wujciak said. "So if we win all our ACC games, we'll go to the Orange Bowl."

Technically, the Terps' leading tackler is correct. But with all the turnovers, penalties and general ugliness the Terps have displayed during their 1-3 start to the season — and after showing few  signs of improvement in Saturday's 34-13 loss against Rutgers — Wujciak's proclamation sounded more like a proud statement of defiance than a rational analysis of the Terps' current situation.

But the Terps know if they are going to win enough games to make the Orange Bowl, or even the five more games necessary to become bowl eligible, they are going to have to cut back on the crippling mistakes that have defined their season so far.

"My plan for this year, because I knew we had some new positions, was to not beat ourselves. That was the goal from the first day of camp," coach Ralph Friedgen said. "I can't tell you how much we work on it in practice."

The Terps are off to their first 1-3 start to a season since 1997, and the seemingly correctable turnovers and penalties are the major issues holding them back.

Through four games, the Terps have committed 13 turnovers and have forced just three. Their minus-10 turnover margin ranks 117th among the 120 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Only Miami (Ohio) has lost more turnovers than the Terps, and only Oregon has lost more fumbles than the Terps' eight.

"We gotta obviously fix the little things, the mistakes," wide receiver Torrey Smith said. "We should easily be 3-1."

In addition to the Terps' five turnovers against the Scarlet Knights, they committed a season-high 10 penalties for 85 yards.

The Terps' rank tied for 57th in the FBS in penalties committed per game, and they have already committed 26 penalties for 220 yards on the season.

Many of the infractions have come at inopportune times, and Friedgen said, "most of the penalties are stupid penalties."

"We're not giving ourselves a chance," Friedgen said. "Even if we were a good team right now, we wouldn't win."

The Terps' overall inexperience is perhaps a convenient excuse for the early-season struggles, yet not only did the situation get worse in the fourth game of the season, but many of the mistakes have been committed by veterans.

The Orange Bowl and most of the Terps' goals for this season are still theoretically within reach, but if the current trend continues, so is the worst season in Friedgen's nine-year tenure.

That leaves Wujciak's own teammates fighting creeping doubts about whether a turnaround is even possible.

"You know, maybe it does, but I can't show that," center Phil Costa said, when asked if it was getting hard to envision the Terps improving from here. "You have to be able to be strong at these points."

schimmel at umdbk dot com