Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
As I wrote in an article last week about Penn State head coach James Franklin, I figured there would be some emotion for both sides going into last Saturday’s game against The University of Maryland Terrapins. Now, I don’t mean to brag, but it didn’t even take until the official start of the game to prove my assumption was correct. However, let’s get this out of the way before I delve into the rest of the article. Skirmishes like this happen all the time. Teams get heated, emotions get the better of certain people — nothing to really to get upset about. However, when the smoke clears, and the refs have thrown the flags and the players have calmed down, you still are supposed to act in a dignified manor.
What Maryland’s captains showed me during that coin toss was that they are simply not level-headed people. And to be frank, I simply don’t understand why what happened did happen. The fights have been broken up. The refs have settled everything down, the teams are on their own sidelines. When those Penn State captains come out and put their hands out, why don’t you shake their hands?
You know that the refs are going to call an unsportsmen like penalty on you. You know that because of this action, an action that you have time to think about, that you are potentially starting your team in bad field position. And you still go out and decide not to shake the other captains’ hands? What does that say about those players (who are the CAPTAINS of the team, the moral centers of the program) that they are willing to engage in an act that will hurt their team’s chances of winning? And they still, knowing that, go out and don’t shake the Penn State captains’ hands. It’s mind boggling.
I’ll tell you what; those Terps players should be counting their blessings that they won that game. Had they not, I guarantee you this would had turned into something much bigger.
If head coach Randy Edsall doesn’t discipline these players, then I will be extremely disappointed. Coach Edsall needs to show his players that he won’t take insubordination like this, and that he shouldn’t have to go on national television and apologize for their actions. If he doesn’t, then I don’t know what he’s doing with that program.
Alasdair Thornton is a Big Ten writer for www.RantSports.com. Message him on twitter @Alasdairthornto, or on Facebook.
