Terps Head To Death Valley To Take On #5 Tigers
10/9/2000 8:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 9, 2000
Maryland Weekly Football Release
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland football team will go back on the road this week - continuing its search for its first Atlantic Coast Conference victory - as it will face the fifth-ranked Clemson Tigers in Clemson, S.C. The Terps are coming off of a tough 31-23 loss at Virginia in a game where they fell behind 21-0 in the first quarter and nearly fought to overcome their largest first-quarter deficit since 1987 by outscoring the home team 23-10 the rest of the way.
Maryland will head to Death Valley with a 2-3 record (0-2, ACC), while the Tigers are off to their first 6-0 start (4-0, ACC) since 1987 and solidly entrenched in the national title hunt with Florida State still on the schedule.
It was announced Sunday that the game will be televised to a national television audience on espn2 at 6:00 p.m. EDT, and broadcast locally by WTEM (980 AM) and WBAL (1090 AM).
After narrowly missing beating Virginia for the first time since 1991, the Terrapins will now try to beat Clemson for the first time since `92 and attempt to beat a ranked team for the first time in a decade.
Despite missing some of the Virginia game with an injury and ultimately playing out the final quarter hurt, LaMont Jordan (Forestville, Md.) still was able to continue his assault on the ACC and Maryland record books.
With 76 yards rushing on 20 carries, the senior passed NC State's Tremayne Stephens and moved into 12th on the ACC career rushing chart. He is now just 88 yards from cracking the conference's all-time top 10 and 998 yards from the ACC's top spot.
Most encouraging of everything to come from the game at Charlottesville may have been the contributions of the defense. Despite giving up 485 yards (most of which came in the first half), the "D" stepped up to give the Terps a chance to win as it forced a number of timely Cavalier turnovers in the second half and gave the offense the ball in good field position.
The Jordan Watch
LaMont Jordan, a unanimous preseason first team All-American in preview magazines nationwide, rushed for a school-record 1,632 yards as a junior and against West Virginia this season officially became the leading rusher in school history. He trails only TCU's Ladainian Tomlinson among active NCAA career rushing leaders.
After leading the country in rushing over last year's final six games, he is 998 yards from becoming the ACC's all-time rushing leader.
Terp Coach Ron Vanderlinden
Terrapin head coach Ron Vanderlinden (Albion College `78) is in his fourth season at Maryland, guiding the re-shaping efforts from a run-and-shoot offense to a power run game and more balanced, physical attack. After helping rebuild struggling programs at Colorado (1983-91) and Northwestern (1992-96), Vanderlinden is 12-26 as a college head coach. He was named the Terps' field boss in December of 1996.
Vanderlinden, 44, arrived in College Park after a five-year stint as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator under Gary Barnett at Northwestern where the Wildcats won a pair of Big Ten championships and made a 1996 Rose Bowl appearance. As defensive line coach in nine seasons under Bill McCartney at CU, the Buffaloes won the 1990 national championship, three Big Eight titles, and six bowl games.
Counting two years at Michigan, Vanderlinden has coaching experience in 10 major bowl games.
Vanderlinden's teams at Maryland have been characterized by vast improvements made to the rushing game and the overall defense. In 1998, Maryland was the sixth-most improved rushing team in America, and among the top 15 most improved teams in the country in total, scoring and pass defense. Last season, the Terps completed a "worst-to-first" ascent among ACC rushing leaders, climbing to a league-best 231.4 yards per game after ranking ninth in 1997.
