It was Senior Night at Byrd Stadium, which meant an evening of emotional goodbyes.
Goodbye, Jaimie Thomas and Edwin Williams. Goodbye, Obi Egekeze and Kevin Barnes, Dave Philistin and Danny Oquendo.
Oh yeah, and goodbye, Atlantic Coast Conference title game; goodbye, Orange Bowl; and goodbye, promising conclusion to a hopelessly erratic season.
The Terps awoke yesterday with visions of oranges dancing in their heads. To clinch the conference championship game in Tampa, Fla., they needed a win over Florida State, coupled with a Wake Forest victory over Boston College. Instead, Wake Forest folded in the fourth quarter of its game and the Terps never bothered showing up for theirs, losing last night in embarrassing fashion, 37-3.
A game billed as a "blackout" - Terps players and fans dressed in black - was instead a knockout. The same Maryland team that has beaten four ranked teams has lost three conference games to unranked teams by a combined 91-16.
And once again last night, we're to believe there's simply no explanation.
"It just didn't happen," coach Ralph Friedgen said last night, "for whatever reason."
Friedgen has said he's baffled by this team, that he can't figure out why the Terps show up for some games and disappear in others. It's become a familiar post-game lamentation.
"I just don't understand how we can play well one week and so poorly the next," he said. "They're a funny team that way."
Funny? There wasn't much laughter to be heard last night.
At some point, such a summation is simply lacking. With one game left, it's past time for a better explanation. A head coach's job is to prepare and to motivate, and there have been too many times this season when the Terps have appeared to be neither.
Florida State so thoroughly dominated the Terps it was clear Maryland would have had little business in the ACC title game. Sure, Florida State was better physically, but more important, mentally and emotionally they better understood what was at stake.
On a frigid night in College Park, Maryland quarterback Chris Turner was little more than kindling for the Seminoles' fire. Florida State's hungry defenders didn't simply sack him five times; they also battered him all night. The Seminoles' defense treated Byrd Stadium as if it were the Florida State student union building.
