Big Ten Power Rankings Week 2: Ohio State Still On Top But Penn State Closing Gap
By Corey Hunter
No. 6 Maryland (Last Week – 10) ↑4
Ok, admit it, you’re still in shock that Maryland was able to go into Austin, Texas and actually beat the Longhorns. Oh sure, Texas is in a time of transition and maybe they would be out of sorts just enough to keep Maryland in the contest, but actually win the darn game? No way!
Head coach Tom Herman is in his first season with the Longhorns, and he was quick to admit the building process will take longer than simply one season. In his post-game presser he made the following statement, “If we thought we’re coming here and in nine months sprinkle some magic fairy dust and think we’ve arrived, we were wrong.”
This then begs the question, was Texas really not that good or was Maryland just that much better? The answer lies somewhere in between. Texas will surely rebound after the upset home loss, but I don’t think they are a top-25 contender. By the same token, the win on Saturday was a program-building win for DJ Durkin, but there is still a significant room for improvement within the Terrapins program.
Were the Terps for real last week? I don’t we will get those answers this week as they square off against the Towson Tigers. In fact, we may not find out until they travel to Columbus on October 7 For now, their upset win at Texas earned the Terps the largest jump in our weekly Power Rankings.