Maryland, You Wanna Win Tomorrow? Stop the Run.

Tomorrow, Maryland and Clemson face off in Death Valley at high noon. Or regular noon -- one of the two. I think in Death Valley every noon is high noon. Both teams can help their chance to win the Atlantic Division of the ACC with a win. Clemson has been rolling until Virginia Tech rolled over them in Blacksburg last week. Asides from that and a one point loss to BC, Clemson has been dominant this season. They showed Georgia Tech who's boss in the ACC with a 31-7 beating two weeks ago.

Maryland has been on an upswing lately. They've won three in a row against UVA, NC State, and FSU. Yes, those are all games Maryland should have won -- they should have beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta but instead they beat themselves -- but good teams win the games they should. Great teams beat the teams they shouldn't as well. I'm not saying Maryland is going to be great if they beat Clemson, but they won't be if they don't start beating some ranked teams. They have three ranked teams left, the others being Boston College and Wake Forest.

So we've established that Maryland needs to win this game if they want to be considered more than just a decent team. I think that was pretty obvious. Now how does Maryland go about this?

Clemson, much like Maryland, has a great tandem of running backs: CJ Spiller and James Davis -- thunder and lightening. Maryland's combo, who Keon Lattimore likes to call the "One-two punch", features power back Lance Ball and the more elusive Keon Lattimore. This game will be won by whoever's defense can stop a two headed monster.

Maryland's defense has been making plays as of late, but they have been known to let the great running backs use them. Remember Steve Slaton's near 200 yard game? Antone Smith of FSU had a nice first half last week until the defense started finally making some tackles.

As a unit, though, Maryland has started stepping up and individuals have as well. Jeremy Navarre was a hero last week with a big fourth and one stop and of course the blocked field goal. Rick Costa, listed as a linebacker, has been doing some damage on the defensive line. The move from nose tackle to defense tackle has turned Conrad Bolston into a dangerous lineman.

If the passing game comes into play, Clemson's has a marginal advantage over Maryland. I haven't seen Will Proctor play too much, but he's looked very poised to make big plays when he needs to. It's pretty clear that Ralph Friedgen doesn't trust Sam Hollenbach enough to unload the offense on him. His deep ball is poor. However, he's made tight throws and can use is legs when he needs be.

Since I'm not forced to choose a winner here, I won't. It's not as if someone has my family hostage and will only let them go if I predict the score. Clemson definitely has the edge, especially at home coming off a big loss. But Maryland, a 17 point underdog, still hasn't gotten any attention, and they are willing to fight for it. This is a huge ACC battle and I suspect that when the bell tolls for high noon, it will be some duel.