Maryland wants you to believe Stefon Diggs was him at Maryland, and Mel Tucker wants you to believe Denzel Washington would play him in a movie. Plus, Michigan wants to break (weird) records, and I remembered that Wilton Speight was a quarterback for Michigan at one point.
THE WEDNESDAY GRIFT: MARYLAND’S REVISIONIST HISTORY
Even if Maryland likely won’t get a win on Saturday, they certainly got a PR and recruiting win on Monday.
Former Maryland wide receiver Stefon Diggs is the new face of Maryland Athletics after his show-stopping performance on Monday Night Football. Diggs, who played for the Terrapins from 2012-2014 before declaring for the 2015 NFL draft, netted 12 catches for 148 yards and three touchdowns against the Tennessee Titans. (Your author was elated.)
Maryland Athletics’ Twitter has since updated their header photo to one of Diggs celebrating with fans in the stands, and updated their bio to, “The school Stefon Diggs attended.”
I promise you, this is not another ploy for your author to wax poetic about the Buffalo Bills. Rather, seeing Michigan’s upcoming opponent celebrate Diggs in this way reminded me of something – Maryland and Diggs didn’t particularly love each other.
My Wednesday Grift alarm went off.
Teams do this all the time, of course. A “problem” player, or even just a lackluster one, during the course of his tenure at a program might still become an excellent football player down the line. If he makes it big-time, the university can tout having some role in that player’s success, even if his tenure there wasn’t all that (see: Tom Brady).
In this case, Stefon Diggs and Maryland were a match made out of necessity. Diggs was a five-star recruit coming out of high school, and flirted with a long list of Power Five schools to ultimately commit to Maryland. He eyed Florida before Charlie Weis left for Kansas, and rejected Urban Meyer’s push to get him to Ohio State. Maryland and then-new head coach Randy Edsall could provide him both a football opportunity and a chance to remain close to his two younger brothers.
Diggs had been a solid player for a less-than-stellar Maryland squad for three years. An injury in his sophomore season and the subsequent rehab led Edsall and others to speak on both his maturity and potential into his junior year. Though another injury and a suspension limited his on-field time in his junior year, he declared for the NFL draft with 150 receptions for 2,227 yards and 14 touchdowns.
That said, he wasn’t anything to write home about. As Jim Monos of the Go Long substack recalls:
Diggs obviously was a player the entire NFL had concerns about coming out of Maryland. He did not get the best endorsement from his coaches at Maryland. He was not considered a great teammate. We were told he was “high maintenance.”
[…]
One of the plays we showed Diggs was him short-arming a ball in traffic and not selling out to make the catch. We asked him why he did not go all out for the catch and he simply said, it was a business decision. That answer did not go over well with everyone. We loved his honesty but hearing him say that after everything our scouts were hearing about him from Maryland explains why he lasted until the 146th overall pick [in the] fifth round.
To be sure, the rumors of Diggs being a “problem” in the locker room persisted until he landed with the Bills. He has the intent to retire with the team and was elected captain. Sometimes, though, these character evaluations are spot-on; players only succeed and mature in the right conditions.
This isn’t that bad of a grift to paint Diggs’ tenure with the Terps in this way – it’s not harmful to either party. I’m sure he doesn’t give a shit what the university does with his image, and it’s great PR for the Terrapins, especially while they’ve continued to recruit and develop receivers.
Still, Maryland did not make Stefon Diggs. He kind of did that himself.
KEVIN COSTNER AS… BRET BIELEMA
Self-scouting is important, and for coaches, this is no exception. The Big Ten asked its head coaches who they’d cast to play them in a movie for some fluff social content. I don’t know whose idea it was to try to endear us to Big Ten head coaches, but do you, I guess.
As your resident analytics expert here at Meet at Midfield, I wanted to review the tape and make some ranked evaluations on who answered the question best.
Not Present: Kirk Ferentz, Greg Schiano, Scott Frost. I assume Kirk Ferentz has never seen a film in his life, and Greg Schiano just started listing off names of famous Italians and they cut him from this entirely. If you know what Scott Frost’s answer to this was, please, for the love of God, you have to tell me.
11. Jim Harbaugh / Brad Pitt. Harbaugh sorely misunderstands the assignment here, saying he “always wanted to be Brad Pitt.” That’s… not how acting works.
10. Ryan Day / Kyle Chandler. Leave it to Ryan Day to pick like, the most normie dude on this list. Urban Meyer would have chosen Brad Pitt and meant it. Believe in something, Ryan.
9. Jeff Brohm / Brad Pitt. Lost some points for originality because this is a classic dad joke.
8. Pat Fitzgerald / Tom Cruise. I have to deduct a few points on the resemblance scale, but all things considered, this makes sense. Cops love Top Gun.
7. James Franklin / Keegan Michael Key. Key is a Penn State alum and huge fan, and has impersonated Franklin before; you can tell how excited he was to name-drop that. I do agree with Franklin’s actor choice here, because any movie about James Franklin would be a comedy.
6. Bret Bielema / Kevin Costner. Regrettably, this one works, in a way that almost freaks me out. I will not rank it any higher than this because it freaks me out so much.
5. Mel Tucker / Denzel Washington. Denzel Washington starring in an NFT/crypto heist film would rock, actually. His character’s name would just happen to be named Mel Tucker. There is no football in the film whatsoever.
4. Tom Allen / Tom Hanks. A movie about Indiana’s miracle season under Tom Allen starring Tom Hanks would be annoyingly endearing. It would be the worst case of football propaganda since Rudy, because it would probably be delightful.
3. P.J. Fleck / Jason Statham. Unfortunately, this is a good answer. Statham is a movie-handsome, reasonable facsimile of P.J. Fleck, and seems equally intense. I would insist that Statham not use an American accent for a film about Fleck, just for the absurdity of it.
2. Mike Locksley / Forest Whitaker. Holy shit, they do look a lot alike. I would maybe actually go see this. Or, perhaps Mike Locksley missed his calling to be a Forest Whitaker body double.
1. Paul Chryst / no one. He’s right.
FROM THE MAIZE AND BLUE THINKING CHAIR…
- Again, I am not naming names on who’s doing this, but you really don’t gotta hand it to him.
- Jim Harbaugh wants to break a Guinness world record for the most quarterbacks used in a game, because of course he does.
- Olu Oluwatimi spoke to the media after Tuesday’s practice, discussing where the offensive line can improve. One note: he felt they’ve done a good job of keeping the quarterbacks “healthy” and “upright,” which they have, with, um, one exception.
MICHIGAN-ADJACENT VIDEO OF THE DAY
Michigan 59, Maryland 3. De’Veon Smith rushed for 114 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries. Both Wilton Speight and John O’Korn threw for touchdowns, and Speight also ran one into the end zone. Maryland scored a field goal.
Keep the good vibes train rolling into Saturday.