Georgia

On Wednesday's regular ACC teleconference, Maryland coach Randy Edsall said that injured offensive lineman Andrew Gonnella was taken to a local hospital Tuesday night because of what doctors determined to be a blood clot in his leg. Gonnella sustained a gruesome injury during last Saturday's 21-16 loss at Georgia Tech. He suffered a dislocated left knee and had to be taken off the field in Atlanta by ambulance to a hospital nearby for surgery. After returning to College Park Monday night, Gonnella talked with the media on Tuesday about the injury.

Andrew Gonnella arrived at Maryland in 2007 as a walk-on in a world of scholarship players. His college football career had been a calculated risk. When the offensive guard was in high school, his father, Alfonso — a swimming-pool supply vendor from Orange County, N.Y. — couldn't bring himself to tell his son that the family couldn't afford to send him to Maryland. The elder Gonnella contemplated Andrew's life — how the boy endured the death of his mother from complications of juvenile diabetes when he was 4. "I pretty much mortgaged the house" to pay Maryland's tuition and fees, Alfonso said in 2009.

Maryland-Georgia Tech notes: *Beautiful, sunny day at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Bit of a gusty wind. Not many people in the stadium yet. Tech coach Paul Johnson appealed to fans to come out and be loud. A crowd of about 44,000 is expected by the locals. *Kenny Tate was on the field warming up but that doesn't mean for sure he will play. I'm told backup Mario Rowson will start but that Tate is still expected to be available. The Maryland linebacker was listed as "doubtful" by the school.

For Maryland, there was a perpetual sense Saturday of trying desperately to hang on - to Georgia Tech ball carriers, to the game, and to a season the Terps hoped would not begin to slip away. Starting four freshmen on defense, the Terps held Georgia Tech's potent offense to less than half its scoring average and almost came back from an 18-point deficit before falling, 21-16, in front of an announced crowd of 45,905 on a sunny, windy day at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Maryland (2-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference)

News item: The Ravens have soundly beaten both teams from last year's AFC title game and appear to have the scariest defense in the league, but somehow are only fifth in this week's ESPN power rankings. My take: You could throw the first four teams after the No. 1 Packers in a hat, but the Ravens have been more dominant than the No. 3 Patriots and certainly deserve to be ranked ahead of the Detroit Lions until they play a few more good teams. Related News item: The Ravens got one of the earliest byes this year and will be off this weekend after Sunday night's uplifting victory over the New York Jets.

To give you a look at Maryland and this week's opponent, Georgia Tech, I traded five question-and-answers with Ken Sugiura, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Georgia Tech beat writer. Here are Ken's responses to my Georgia Tech-themed questions.   1) Does Paul Johnson ever refer back to his Navy days? Can you even find crabs in Atlanta? He mentions his teams at Navy occasionally, usually, not surprisingly, in response to questions about his background or experiences in coaching.

A surprise on Maryland's injury report: linebacker Kenny Tate is listed as doubtful for Georgia Tech. We don't know why yet. Tate had nine tackles and an interception against Towson last week. He's 11th in the ACC in tackles at 8.8 per game. His absence would be a blow to a defense already without linebacker Darin Drakeford and defensive lineman Andre Monroe, among others. Maryland started three first-year players on defense against Towson last week. Tate plays a hybrid position called "Star.

To give you a look at Maryland and this week's opponent, Georgia Tech, I traded five question-and-answers with Ken Sugiura, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Georgia Tech beat writer. Here are my answers to Ken's questions. His responses to my Georgia Tech-themed questions will appear soon.   1) Is "disciplined" a word you would use to describe Maryland's defense? Disciplined, yes. But also young and still learning. Maryland started three first-year players on defense last week.

Paul Johnson had grown tired of the question. It was 2008, and the former Navy coach — entering his first season at Georgia Tech — was repeatedly asked by the media whether the option-based offense he ran so successfully at Navy would translate in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Johnson folded his arms and exhaled. "I get a kick out of, 'Will this work on this level?' he said. "I'm like, 'Are we playing the NFC East?' Last I looked, the last six years at Navy, we were playing Division I teams.

**Headiing into the contest at Georgia Tech, Maryland's hurry-up offense has held the ball for an average of 24:40 per game -- last in the ACC by far. So might the Terps go slower against Georgia Tech to try to keep the ball away from a Yellow Jackets offense that is averaging 51.6 points and 587 yards per game? "Those are things that we have discussed," Maryland coach Randy Edsall said today. In other words: wait and see, kids. **Is everyone buying into Edsall's system?