Danny O Brien

The Maryland football team enters Saturday's game against No. 8 Clemson with a 2-3 record (they probably would be 1-4 if Miami was at full strength in the season opener). At least one player has voiced his displeasure with Randy Edsall. And former coach Ralph Friedgen recently said he was ready to set his diploma on fire). Needless to say, the first five games of the Edsall era have not been ideal for the former Connecticut coach. When Edsall took over for Friedgen, he inherited at 9-4 team with a star sophomore quarterback in Danny O'Brien, who threw for 2,438 yards and 22 touchdowns (with just eight interceptions)

When C.J. Brown and Perry Hills were lost for the season, it continued a run of bad luck for Maryland quarterbacks. Hills, Brown, Danny O'Brien, Jordan Steffy - that's a partial list of quarterback starters from recent years who suffered knockout punches. It's been years since Maryland had a starting quarterback go wire-to-wire. “Hopefully this bug will get out of Maryland,” said Brown, who has endured season-ending injuries twice in his career.  He said the second one - the torn ACL from August - is more difficult.

COLLEGE PARK - It was the second half of last Saturday's 21-16 loss to Georgia Tech and quarterback Danny O'Brien stood on the Maryland sideline wearing a headset and signaling to the offense. It's not where he had expected to be. Midway through Maryland's season, the struggles and subsequent benching of O'Brien - last year's Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year - may be the most surprising development in a season of change. O'Brien could still start today's Homecoming game for Maryland (2-3, 1-1 ACC)

Maryland's 41-16 loss to Florida State was one of those dispiriting games for Terps fans in which the team trailed so quickly that there was a sense of forever trying to swim upstream. But there were interesting developments nonetheless that occurred later in the game: *I was intrigued by the fact that Danny O'Brien came in and immediately began throwing downfield. This is a Maryland team that has seemed protective of its quarterbacks. For much of C.J. Brown's playing time, the game plan had seemed to be to get the ball out of the quarterback's hand swiftly on short throws, That's understandable to a point given Florida State's fierce pass rush (six sacks)

In the last two Maryland games — a loss, and a breakthrough road win — redshirt freshman Danny O'Brien has seemed to solidify his position as the Terps' No. 1 quarterback. O'Brien set a career high for completions for the second week in a row Saturday as Maryland won its first road game in two years, 24-21, over Boston College. He was 27-for-40 for 182 yards and three touchdown passes. O'Brien's performance came a week after he was 24-for-45 in a 31-7 loss at Clemson but threw three interceptions.

Things I'll be watching for during Maryland's season-opening football game against William & Mary at Byrd Stadium on Sept. 1. *Stefon Diggs' debut. Will he follow the Torrey Smith model and make his mark initially more as a kick returner than a receiver? Remember that Smith caught only 24 passes in his first season but averaged 25.9 yards on kickoffs, where his talents were immediately evident. *The new FieldTurf. Does it have that new car smell? *The uniforms. Does Maryland come out right away with those funky “Maryland Pride” uniforms, or does it keep them in reserve?

Of the more than 80 scholarship football players who will be impacted by a coaching change at Maryland, none will be more immediately affected than redshirt freshman quarterback Danny O'Brien. Recently named the Atlantic Coast Conference's Rookie of the Year after leading the Terps to an 8-4 record and late-season contention for a division title, O'Brien now faces the prospect of continuing his career in College Park without the two coaches most responsible for him being there — coach Ralph Friedgen and offensive coordinator James Franklin.

This could not have been the way Maryland envisioned Saturday's game unfolding -- with its new quarterback dazed by a head-high tackle and the former starter trying to resurrect his team in a season that has now seen the Terps lose five of their past six contests. Florida State's cavernous Doak Campbell Stadium has never been a place for Maryland to seek sanctuary. It proved unfriendly again as the Seminoles knocked quarterback C.J. Brown from the game in the third quarter and beat the Terps, 41-16.

- There is a lot of interest among Maryland football fans about who the No. 2 quarterback will be this season, in part because there are still some doubts about the consistency and passing ability of the team's returning starter, junior C.J. Brown . While Brown has shown some improvement in those areas from where he was last fall, when he twice replaced former Terp star Danny O'Brien as the starter, the development of his two freshman backups...

For nearly three quarters Saturday at BB&T Field, a young and undermanned Maryland defense kept the Terrapins from continuing their two-month freefall. And, for a few seconds at the end of the first half against Wake Forest, the offense seemed to come to life, too. It didn't last. The defense got tired and the offense made a crucial mistake — an illegal shift penalty against junior wide receiver Kevin Dorsey that negated what would have been a 17-yard touchdown run by senior tailback Davin Meggett that could have put the Terps into the lead.