Rivalry Series: Maryland

Part 1 of our rivalry series starts with Maryland.

Penn State and Maryland were never considered a rivalry until this past season. The Terps joined the Big Ten conference this past season and one of their goals was to make a name. On November 1st the Terps came into Happy Valley to face the Nittany Lions. According to witnesses Penn State players walked through the Maryland pre game practice, a small altercation ensued. Then at the coin toss, the Maryland captains refused to shake hands with the Penn State players, which resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and action from the B1G followed. Maryland would win 20-19 on a field goal with 50 seconds left.

The video of the Penn State players being rejected by the Terps captains has become popular on social media and Maryland fans find it so halirious and crack jokes like, ” no clean hands at Penn State, go take a shower like Sandusky” really classy guys. A caption on one of the tweets of the video said ” never forget”, in which Penn State WR Daesean Hamilton replied “We won’t”. Part 2 of this saga takes place on October 24th at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

So  let’s get the recruiting portion of this rivalry. For years, Penn State has dominated the DMV which stands for DC, Maryland, Virginia. Maryland has started something called  ” The Movement” or as I call it, ” The 2 star movement”. This means that Maryland is trying to get recruits from the area to stay home and play for Maryland, well in my opinion, it’s not working. The #1 player in Maryland Shane Simmons is the most out spoken commit in Penn State’s 2016 class, and his friend Ellison Jordan is also a Penn State commit and the #6 player in Maryland. Cornerback commit Zechariah McPhearson is the #10 player in the state.

The Movement was even more emphasized after QB Dwayne Haskins committed to Maryland over Penn  State and others. He promised to bring recruits to the Terps and build a championship roster. Well here are the splits for Penn State commits and Maryland commits since Haskins committed on May 15.

Penn State: 10 recruits 33 total stars

Maryland: 8 recruits 17 total stars

Hmmm sounds like that hasn’t gone as planned.

This social media fight will only get better as recruits that Maryland and Penn state are fighting for a set to commit.

A big part of getting a recruit to commit is to show that your school provides an atmosphere that any kid would love to take the field surrounded by. Nobody does that better than Penn State, averaged 101,000 fans in 2014 while Maryland only averaged 50,000. Penn State is on the rise and primed to win 10 games this year while Maryland is projected to be the second worst team in the B1G.

The two programs have met 38 times in their history and Penn State leads the series 35-2-1, including 6 shutouts and a 57-0 victory in the first ever meeting in 1917, so Maryland  you have a lot of catching up to do if you want this to still be considered a rivalry a year from now. I look forward to seeing the coin toss on October 24th……

Part 2: Pitt- Thursday.