Dec. 4, 2001
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland football team has been invited to be a participant in the 2001 FedEx Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla. The Terrapins, fresh off of their first Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1985, earned a spot in the BCS as the representative from the ACC with their 10-1 record and 7-1 ACC mark.
National Coach of the Year favorite Ralph Friedgen and the Terrapins wrapped up sole possession of the title with their season-ending 23-19 win at NC State. The victory came with the Terps trailing 9-3 at the half and after the Wolfpack had taken a 19-16 lead with just 3:59 left in the contest. Maryland's winning drive was a 10-play, 61-yard march which was orchestrated by Shaun Hill and ended with an eight-yard strike in the corner of the end zone to Guilian Gary with just :41 left.
The Terrapins are ranked No. 7 in the latest Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls. The Terps have been a constant in the national rankings since early October. The ranking is the Terrapins' highest since being ranked seventh at the start of the 1985 season and the third consecutive week they have been in the top 10 of both major polls.
Maryland moved up a spot in the latest Bowl Championship Series rankings, residing at No. 10. The Terps' highest ranking in the BCS was eighth which came in the rankings' first release.
GOIN' TO MIAMI
On December 4, the committee of the FedEx Orange Bowl announced that Maryland would play in their January 2, 2002, bowl game. The trip will be the Terrapins first to a bowl game since the 1990 Independence Bowl and their first to the Orange Bowl since 1956. It will mark the University of Maryland's third showing in the Orange.
This year will mark the first time since the Terps went to the Cotton Bowl in 1977 that the team played in a New Year's bowl game. It will mark the seventh time in school history that the Terrapins will play in a New Year's game (1948 Gator Bowl, Jan. 1, 1950 Gator Bowl, Jan. 2, 1952 Sugar Bowl, 1952, 1954 Orange Bowl, Jan. 1, 1956 Orange Bowl, Jan. 2, 1977 Cotton Bowl, Jan. 1).
The Terrapins are 6-9-2 all-time in bowl games and 0-2 in the Orange Bowl. Both losses in the "OB" came at the hands of Oklahoma.
AN ACCEPTIONAL SEASON
Maryland's win over NC State on November 17 marked another chapter in a storybook season for the Terps. The victory ensured the Terrapins of their first conference title since 1985 and also put this year's team in the class of some of the finest in school history in terms of accomplishment.
The win over the Wolfpack was Maryland's 10th of the season, marking the first time since 1976 that a Terp team has hit the 10-win plateau.
The Terrapins' seven Atlantic Coast Conference wins this season are the most in school history. The seven wins matches the combined total of the last four Maryland teams and betters the mark of four other teams (1974, 1983, 1984, 1985) that won six ACC games in a season.
In securing sole possession of the league title, Maryland becomes the first team other than Florida State to win the ACC outright since the Seminoles joined the conference in 1992 (the Seminoles have either owned or shared the crown every year since).
This year's team is the fifth in school history to win 10 games or more and the first ever to win seven games at home, besting the 6-0 mark at Byrd Stadium achieved by the 1976 team. Should the Terrapins win the Orange Bowl, this year's team would be just the second in school history to win 11 games, matching the 11-1 mark of the 1976 squad. That team's lone loss was in the Cotton Bowl, the last New Year's Bowl game in which a Maryland team played.
