Like Captain Morgan, the Atlantic Division's Maryland Terrapins are reportedly "calling all captains". From OrangeBloods.com:
Mike Leach is going to be the next head coach at Maryland, a key Big 12 source told Orangebloods.com.
Why Chip Brown, OB and a key "Big 12" source are all over this story, I'm not exactly sure. But OrangeBloods has been the king of the college football rumor the past year and was all over the college expansion rumors earlier this year. So this sounds a bit more solid than if the report came from, say, Bleacher Report.
If true, this move will likely shake up the balance of power in the ACC Atlantic.
I've always felt like Maryland was the Atlantic Division's sleeping giant. With the conference's second-largest undergraduate enrollment, playing in a Top 10 TV market, Terrapin football seems like it has the potential to be very, very good in the ACC for a long time.
As it turns out though, Friedgen never really proved that he could get the Terps over the hump in the post-expansion ACC. Fridge's record pre-ACC expansion stands at 36-14 (22-10 ACC). Post expansion? Just 33-36 (21-27), including a 2-4 record against BC.
Sure, there was a marked turnaround this season (a change of six wins), but consider that four of those five ACC victories came against the bottom four teams in the conference -- Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia, BC. Fridge couldn't get Terrapin fans to show up to a newly renovated Byrd Stadium. With Maryland's coach-in-waiting bolting for ... Vanderbilt, taking some key assistants with him, it seemed like as good a time as any to dump Friedgen for the Captain.
If this report is true, Maryland gets an accomplished coach in Mike Leach. As for the rest of the division, Florida State has already won the division in coach Jimbo Fisher's first season. Yet, Clemson seems to have stagnated under Dabo Swinney, and Tom O'Brien still hasn't proven he can get N.C. State over the ACC Atlantic Division hump. Wake Forest seems to be taking a step back after their dream 2006 season, and BC has Spaz.
Leach at Maryland ... bad news for Boston College? Is the window to get back to the ACC Championship Game closing for the Eagles? Talk amongst.