Maryland joins the Big Ten this season and will play at many big-time venues in their first year in the conference. The Terps visit Wisconsin, Penn State and later in the year, Michigan.
Maryland head coach Randy Edsall has been asked about transitioning into the new league, and one question he’s continuously faced has to do with the new crowds and visiting stadiums. On Wednesday, Edsall was asked by The Sports Junkies’ Eric Bickel about playing at Michigan (the game is on Nov. 22). Edsall downplayed the crowd at The Big House.
“You know, I had the opportunity to play in the Big House when I was in Connecticut coaching there, and when they had just finished the expansion [to] 113,000,” Edsall said on 106.7 The Fan. “Yeah, it’s big, but it’s not loud. I mean, that’s one thing with Michigan, it’s not a loud crowd. And I think the biggest thing with that situation, you go in there and they understand that, ‘Hey, the field is the same size here at Byrd as it is there.’
“And the biggest thing you’ve got to do is go out and out and get on top of them and try to take the crowd out of the game. But we’ve played at Clemson and Florida State and those places, and Clemson is as loud as it gets. So I don’t think our guys will be intimidated by that. It’s just kind of the history of the Big House and Ohio [State’s] stadium and Penn State. But again, just go focus on what you’ve got to focus on, and that’s playing against the guy you’re lined up next to.”
Edsall isn’t the first person to question the noise level in The Big House, but what’s funny is that Edsall had the exact opposite opinion about Michigan fans back when he was the head coach at UConn.
As the DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg pointed out, Edsall said in 2010 that Michigan’s crowd noise could have been a factor in the Wolverines establishing an early lead and beating his Huskies 30-10.
“I’ll tell you what, it was loud out there,” Edsall said, according to the New Haven Register. “When I told people we were going to Michigan to play and they said it’s not loud, I don’t know what they were talking about. Maybe it was the new additions that kept the sound in, but I thought it was pretty loud.”
It’s pretty obvious that Edsall is just trying to psych up his team so they’re ready for the challenge of playing in the new conference.
Gosh, whose idea was it anyway to put Maryland and Rutgers in the Big Ten? Yuck.
