Football blacking out memories of 2008

In late November 2008, then-high school senior Danny O'Brien did what most kids his age would in anticipation of celebration: He threw a party.

Inviting friends over to his Kernersville, N.C., home, the future Terrapin football quarterback hoped he could cap a night spent watching the Terps' ACC showdown with Florida State able to claim he was headed to a potential ACC champion the next year.

Then the Seminoles scored the game's first 24 points, Terp quarterback Chris Turner threw two interceptions and was sacked six times, and the team's Atlantic Division title hopes were unceremoniously ended in a 37-3 beatdown before 51,620 in College Park.

"It sucked," O'Brien said. "It sucked, dude."

Many of the stars entering the Terps' Saturday night battle against Florida State have changed. O'Brien is now the Terps' starting quarterback, not just one orally committed to the program. Florida State's star defensive end Everette Brown, who had 3.5 sacks against the Terps in the 2008 game, is now a member of the NFL's Carolina Panthers.

The stakes, though, aren't much different. A win will keep the Terps (7-3, 4-2 ACC) alive in the race for the Atlantic Division crown. A loss will leave them wondering what their postseason destination might be after next weekend's regular-season finale against N.C. State.

"It's like a tournament for us," wide receiver Torrey Smith said.

Said coach Ralph Friedgen: "Everybody knows what the score of the game is, so to speak."

Few players cared to talk about the score of their 2008 game, though.

And for good reason. After a breakthrough win at North Carolina the week before, the Terps stepped into their season's final home game facing considerable hype and pressure.

There were the ACC Championship implications they already knew about. But there was also a national television audience, a fan "blackout" with all-black Terp uniforms to match, and the pomp and ceremony of a Senior Night that recognized 30 Terps playing in their final game at Byrd Stadium.

If those intangibles helped to carry the team at all, they didn't last past the first quarter. After a scoreless first 15 minutes, the Seminoles scored three touchdowns in 14 minutes for a 21-0 halftime lead. Obi Egekeze's third-quarter field goal was the Terps' lone salvo in a storm of Florida State points.

"It was a tough loss for us," Smith said. "They beat us pretty good."

This year's Terp team, though, has seemingly divorced itself from that 2008 team — which went on to fall to Boston College the week after the loss before then begrudgingly accepting an invitation to the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho — as well as last year's 2-10 team.

When Smith spoke yesterday of the challenge of defeating a Florida State program that has long dominated the Terps, he seemed consciously oblivious to the team's own documented history.

"Our team, we never played UVA before [last Saturday's 42-23 win]," Smith said. "And this team's never played Florida State before. It's a new slate for us."

Vestiges of the 34-point rout still remain, however. Seminole quarterback Christian Ponder, who amassed 224 total yards and two touchdowns in 2008, is expected to start Saturday against the Terps. And Florida State's defense, even without Brown terrorizing backfields, is its normal scary self — the team is first in the nation in sacks per game (3.9).

But Saturday's game, much like 2008's, doesn't hold true to the win-and-they're-in atmosphere that has enveloped it. Two years ago, the Terps needed Boston College to lose for a shot at clinching the outright Alantic Division title against the Seminoles.

This year, they'll need to win against Florida State (7-3, 5-2) and then N.C. State the week after to punch their ticket to Charlotte, N.C., for the ACC Championship.

"We've been close before," Friedgen said, "but we've got to find a way to get there."

shaffer@umdbk.com