Maryland vs. Oregon State
By Bob W.
I warned you last year, and some of you didn’t listen, and then when Maryland rolled to victory in the Champs Sports Bowl over the Purdue Boilermakers, it wasn’t really interesting because we all knew the outcome beforehand. So if you want to be surprised on December 28th, stop reading now. This preview will still be there for you to look at on the 29th, so just be patient. However, if you are like most Americans who have the attention spans of fruit flies, and you just have to know what is going to happen right this very second, well buckle your seat belt because this is the most in-depth, accurate, and revealing look at the Emerald Bowl, this side of legitimate print media that is.
Much like last year, there are many factors we have to consider this year. Since we just about hit the nail on the head for the Champs Sports Bowl, I have kept many important variables, but this year we are also going to try and have a couple new things to look at this year. I figure in 5 more years, we should pretty much have this down to a science. So Let’s Begin!
National Championships (in sports that matter):
Oregon State: 0
Maryland: 2
Now Oregon State will be the first people to tell you that they have won the College World Series back-to-back, but unfortunately for them (and luckily for us), no one cares about College Baseball. Maryland on the other hand is one of the few schools who can claim a title in both Football and Basketball. Yeah Terps!!
Advantage: Maryland
All Time Football Records:
Oregon State: 469-518-50
Maryland- 586-511-43
Huh, never would have guessed we had a winning record, at least not from the 4 years I spent at school. If only we could throw out the years between 1986-2000 we’d really have something to be proud of. Oh well, even with that down period, we are still ahead of the Beavers. Sucks for them.
Advantage: Maryland
Famous
Alumni:
Oregon State: Hmmm, still looking, let me get back to you.
Maryland: Jim Henson, Larry David, Dominique Dawes, Bonnie Bernstein, Connie Chung, Tim Kurkjsan
Just like last year I tried to keep away from athletes unless the athlete brings a little more to the table than just playing a sport. For Oregon State I really couldn’t find any non athlete that anyone would recognize. There was AC Green for one, and they also listed among their famous as Mike Thurman, and noted that he was the pitcher that gave up Mark McGwire’s 69th Homerun…..go Beavers!!!!
Advantage: Maryland
Mascot:
Oregon
State: Beavers
Maryland: Terrapin
I
actually like Oregon State’s mascot, it isn’t generic like Wildcats or Tigers,
and it makes sense. I’ve never been to Oregon but I can certainly picture
Beavers living there. But I have to go with the Terrapins, I could see other
teams across the country with the nickname Beavers (Like Beaver Stadium for
example), but the Terrapin is only ours. I don’t even think there is a high
school team with that nickname. No other state can use the Terps without
someone saying, isn’t that Maryland’s mascot, but you can’t say that with the
nickname Beaver which I’m guessing at least 5 Pennsylvania High Schools are
probably using as we speak. Anyone notice I didn’t have one Beaver joke, just
because someone serves you a softball, it doesn’t mean you have to swing.
Advantage: Maryland
Run Defense:
Oregon State: 75 yards per game (2nd overall)
Maryland: 174.8 yards per game (102nd overall)
On paper this doesn’t look good for Lance Ball and Keon Lattimore, but on the other hand, Boston College was (and still is) ranked #1 in the country in run defense, and we all know how that turned out. However, in this case, OSU gets the call.
Advantage: Oregon State
Incoming Freshman GPA:
Oregon State: 3.46
Maryland: 3.89
I have to put this up because afterall academics is what it is all about, seriously though, I found this stat and found it interesting, so I threw it in there. It didn’t hurt that we rocked ‘em in it either. Another factoid that I found regarding this type of information is that 44% of kids who apply to Maryland get in right now. At Oregon that number is 92%! Astonishing really.
Advantage: Maryland
School Population:
Oregon State: 15,196 undergrads
Maryland: 24,590 undergrads
You would think with OSU’s “Loose” administrative policies they would have a lot more people going there, guess that isn’t the case. In any event, in case of a free for all breaking out, Maryland has the numbers.
Advantage: Maryland
Tuition:
Oregon State: In state $5,829 per year. Out of state $17,598
Maryland: In state $6,566 per year. Out of state $20,005
To no ones surprise OSU has the cheaper rates. Of course I like to think you get what you pay for. In either case it looks as though my kids will be doing their matriculating in state when the time comes. Unbelievable!
Advantage: Oregon State
Passing Offense:
Oregon State: 204 yards per game (76th overall)
Maryland: 203 yards per game (78th overall)
This is about as close as they come. We are just a yard behind OSU in yard passing per game. But one yard is one yard, chalk this one up to the Beavers.
Advantage: Oregon State
Pride of the NFL:
Oregon State: TJ Houshmanzadah, Chad Johnson, Derek Anderson, Steven Jackson
Maryland: Shawne Merriman, Kris Jenkins, Vernon Davis, EJ Henderson.
If you’re like me right now your saying to yourself “Hmm, I didn’t know that Chad Johnson went to college”. Overall OSU has 10 players currently in the league, Maryland has 16, though one of those was Bruce Perry who was released on January 7th this year, so technically we should have 15. I’ll give OSU the points here because they have bigger name players, but we beat them on quantity. We also should win for not having any Bengals!
Advantage: Oregon State
Pass Defense:
Oregon State: 238 yards per game (75th overall)
Maryland: 219 yards allowed per game (47th overall)
Finally a football related stat that we win. It appears we are a lot better than OSU in holding the passing game in check. This should make it easier on Turner, and hopefully as a result open up the running game.
Advantage: Maryland
School Colors:
Oregon State: Black and Orange
Maryland: Yellow, Black, Red and White
Wow
this is a tough one, everyone knows how much I love the Black and Orange (the
O’s and Flyers particularly) but come on, do those colors mean anything to
Oregon? Or did some stuffy professors sitting at a long oak table smoking pipes
with tweed patches on the elbows just throw them out there? Truth is, I don’t
know. The better truth is I don’t care, but it’s the assumption we have to be
left with. The Maryland Colors, now there is pride. The coat of arms of the
Calvert and Baltimore Families sewn together, they represent our history. The
Yellow and Black were the colors of the pro-union Marylanders, and the Red and
White Cross was the symbol for the Maryland Confederate Soliders, and the
combination of the two is a symbol of our coming together after the Civil War
(The real Civil War that nearly tore our country apart, not the stupid football
game that only degenerate east coast gamblers watch because there is nothing
else to bet on at that time of night .. oh and by the way thanks for covering
this year OSU!).
Advantage: Maryland
Turnover Margin:
Oregon State: +.08 (47th overall)
Maryland: +.58 (24th overall)
The ever important X-factor. It appears we have an edge here, but both teams are not too bad when it comes to taking the ball away.
Advantage: Maryland
Bowl Records:
Oregon State: 8-4
Maryland: 9-10-2
I hate to do it, but you’ve got to give this one to Oregon State, but you also have to admit, going to 21 bowls as opposed to going to 12 bowls should be our advantage, but the category is Bowl Records, not most bowls attended, so I have to stick with it.
Advantage: Oregon State
Stadium Capacity:
Oregon State: Reser Stadium 45,674
Maryland: Byrd Stadium 48,055 (51,000 with the bleachers which now seem to be permanent.
We don’t win this category much, but we do this time. In both situations neither school has a large stadium, but at the same time, neither school is Duke either. Terps win this one, and will hopefully pull away in this category once the Byrd Expansion goes through.
Total Offense:
Oregon State: 77th
Maryland: 88th
I knew our offense was good, but I didn’t know we were top 90 good! That’s quite an accomplishment. Luckily for us Oregon State isn’t that much better. In fact they have only gained 200 more yards on offense than we have in 2007, so it is basically a draw. But since draws are for wimps and indecisive people, I’ll give the nod to Oregon State. Though it does look like it will be up to the defenses to figure this one out.
Advantage: Oregon State
Total Defense:
Oregon State: 12th
Maryland: 42th
If our Offense is 88th and our defense is 42nd, maybe we should stop bashing Chris Cosh…on second thought, naaaa. Oregon State lives by their defense and they will probably look to do that again in San Francisco. Though the total offensive numbers were pretty close, I think the total defense category clearly favors Oregon State.
Advantage: Oregon State
Tailgating websites:
Oregon State: None
Maryland: A-game and D-7 Tailgate
I can’t say for absolute certainty that OSU doesn’t have a website dedicated to tailgating, but if they do they are not registered to the American Tailgating Association like we are! For those keeping score, we have two sites on their page, but Penn State has 6 giving them the most. Our fans have some work to do. As for Oregon, how can a school in the Northwest not have a website for everything? What other Northwest myths are false, they don’t all drink Starbucks and it is actually 80 and sunny everyday??
Advantage: Maryland
And Finally:
So there it is, the Terps take the categories 11-7. Oregon State did a little better in some of the football categories which worries me a little bit, but there are a lot more to bowl games than just football. So if we insert the numbers into the magic formula, we get our result. The winner of the 2007 Emerald Bowl is…..
Maryland 33 Oregon State 21
Happy Holidays Everyone!!
Go Terps!!