Two months ago, Morgan State's football team was wincing from a low point in school history, an 87-12 thrashing by Grambling State. The Bears were 0-2, had been outscored 128-12 and seemed headed for another hopeless season.
With two games remaining, the Bears (2-7) cannot avoid their 15th consecutive losing year, but at least they have come to life down the stretch.
Morgan State earned its second victory two weeks ago with a 24-20 upset at Florida A&M;, the Bears' first road victory since they rejoined the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference as a Division I-AA program nine years ago. Last week, the Bears nearly knocked off Samford before their fifth turnover helped the Bulldogs slip away with a 40-34 victory. Samford's 3-5-1 record is misleading. The Bulldogs have played a brutal schedule, and were coming off a 45-45 tie against Division I-AA power Alcorn State and Heisman Trophy candidate Steve McNair.
"It's a matter of maturity," Morgan State coach Ricky Diggs said. "We've finally started executing properly on offense, even though we're giving up the ball too much, like we did last week. On defense, we've made a few changes and have gone to a more simplified approach, without as much stunting, and with more zone coverage."
Although they have allowed 40.4 points and 421 yards per game, the Bears have made strides on defense. Sophomore nose guard Willie Thompson (40 tackles, three sacks), junior linebacker Levi Baucom (84 tackles, three sacks) and senior strong safety Anthony Freeman (60 tackles) have helped keep opponents under 30 points twice in the past month. After moving from backup quarterback to free safety last month, senior James Perkins has intercepted three passes.
The emergence of junior quarterback Michael Moore and junior fullback Andre Thomas has been the story behind the team's rejuvenated offense.
Thomas, 5 feet 10, 220 pounds, has become a force, averaging 5.5 yards on 110 carries.
Moore, who had barely played in his previous two years -- he was academically ineligible last fall -- looked lost in the early going. Diggs benched him after the Grambling game for freshman Adam Pitcher, who suffered a concussion the following week during a 22-13 loss to Knoxville. Moore regained the starting job, and gradually got the hang of Diggs' run-and-shoot offense. In his past two games, Moore has completed 40 of 69 passes (58 percent) for 693 yards and five touchdowns.
Deju vu at Frostburg
Frostburg State's football team went through a bad case of deja vu last week when the Bobcats failed for the second straight year to maintain an unbeaten season against a mediocre Waynesburg (Pa.) team.
This time, the loss really hurts. Last year, Waynesburg foiled a perfect regular season by handing the Bobcats their only loss, but it didn't prevent them from going to their first NCAA Division III tournament. This time, the Bobcats probably will miss the national tournament, because they were coming off a 27-27 tie against Newport News.
The 28-21 loss dropped Frostburg State (7-1-1) to seventh in the South Region. Typically, the top four teams in each region are selected to the NCAA tournament.
"We lost the intensity you need to be great every game," Bobcats coach Mike McGlinchey said. "We've got a lot of good football players, but we're not better than every team we've played. We're probably out of the thing [the playoffs], so we learned a valuable lesson."
The warning signs were there three weeks ago, after Frostburg State had turned in its most impressive performance, a 47-17 rout of SUNY-Brockport. The following week, the Bobcats trailed winless Bridgewater (Va.) at halftime before pulling away to a 42-10 victory. Then, Newport News -- which lost to Salisbury State, a team Frostburg State blew out in September -- tied the Bobcats.
Penalties, turnovers and shaky defense ultimately did in the Bobcats. They have given up 300 yards a game, they are averaging nine penalties at a cost of 80 yards per game, and they have committed nearly three turnovers per game. A fumbled kickoff return helped Waynesburg take an early, 14-0 lead last week. That marked the Bobcats' largest deficit this year.
"We missed lots of tackles against Newport. We didn't hold our blocks very well against Waynesburg," McGlinchey said. "There's no one thing I can put my finger on. We're just not the team we were before the Brockport game."
UMBC is top seeded
The UMBC volleyball team, which completed an 8-0 sweep of the Big South Conference, is the top seed of the three-day league tournament that begins tomorrow at UNC-Greensboro.
Tennis title for Shoremen
Washington College hit the big time last week, when Robin Sander and Miroslav Beran won national Division III tennis titles for the Shoremen at the Rolex National Small College Championships. Sander did not lose a set while winning three matches and the individual title. Sander and Beran then teamed up to win the doubles championship.
Terps to miss Herskovitz
Maryland's men's soccer team, which is third-seeded and takes on host Clemson tonight in the first round of the ACC tournament, will have to make the NCAAs without junior midfielder Tod Herskovitz, its second-leading scorer. Herskovitz is out for the year with a leg injury.