Maryland vs Navy 2010 College Football Picks: The University of Maryland Terrapins and Navy Midshipmen open their respective 2010 college football seasons Labor Day at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore with a 4 pm ET kickoff. Maryland will be looking to improve on its disastrous 2-10 campaign in 2009 while the Midshipmen. The Midshipmen enjoyed a successful season in 2009 going 10-4 including a New Years Eve 35-13 victory over Missouri in the Texas Bowl.
Sportsbook.com has installed NAVY as 6 1/2-chalk favorites versus the Terps with a 50 1/2 total.
Maryland and Navy are meeting for the first time since 2005. Neither team is ranked, though the Midshipmen received votes in both the preseason AP and USA Today polls.
Navy returns five of its top six rushers from last year including their quarterback Ricky Dobbs. The Mids return two of their top five recivers, Greg Jones and Mike Schupp. Dobbs returns after rushing for 27 touchdowns in 2009, an NCAA record for a quarterback. Navy's top two returning fullbacks, Vince Murray and Alexander Teich, combined to rush for 1,347 yards and six touchdowns on 252 carries in 2009.
The Terps have hopes the return of a number of key performers from last season will help it battle for the ACC Atlantic Division crown and reach postseason play for the seventh time in the last 10 seasons. The Terrapins, who have been to six bowl games under Friedgen, return 12 offensive and defensive starters, all four special teams performers and eight players who have earned all-conference or All-America honors.
For Maryland to be successful this season it must do a better job of holding onto the ball. The Terps struggled overall in the turnover department in 2009, but improved during the latter half of the year. The Terps were tied for 97th in the nation in turnover margin (-0.55 per game), but were +7.0 over the last five games. The defense forced 10 turnovers in the last five games (also one on special teams vs. N.C. State) after inducing seven in the first seven contests. A key to the second-half improvement was Jamarr Robinson who did not thrown an interception in his 85 pass attempts which all came in the final four games of the year.
Maryland seems to be a trendy pick among talking head but we (Point-Spreads.com) are not buying it. We fully expect Maryland will have a tough time containing the relentless pounding from the Navy triple-option. Take the Midshipmen -6 1/2.
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