Filed under: Maryland, NC State, ACC
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien, in his inimitable calm manner, held his hands inches apart Saturday night just after a crushing, marathon-length 38-31 loss to Maryland.The Wolfpack dropped passes. They committed turnovers. They dropped passes. They were scorched by Maryland's pitch-and-catch duo of Danny O'Brien and Torrey Smith. They dropped even more passes.
And yet the chance to escape Byrd Stadium with an Atlantic Division title slipped away only in the final minute when Maryland narrowly made a first down and spoiled N.C. State's conference title hopes.
"We're so close. I remember coach (George) Welsh said if you're that close, you might as well be that close," Tom O'Brien said as he spread his arms out and invoked the name of his old boss at Navy and Virginia. "It doesn't matter. We have to make up a lot of ground, which we're going to do here."
As O'Brien spoke, the disembodied voice of Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen echoed throughout the stadium as he fulfilled his postgame radio obligations. Moments later, he would describe the window one of quarterback Danny O'Brien's touchdown passes needed to travel through to be caught rather than intercepted.
Friedgen nearly cupped his hands together, spread out far enough to hold a football. Yep, that close.
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