Roughly every 25 years, Maryland decides to be good at sports. For most of the school’s history, they have been relatively average in men’s basketball and football. But, they won a share of a football National Championship and won their first ACC title in basketball in the 1950s. In the ‘70s, Lefty Driesell led them to a string of national top-10 hoops finishes while Jerry Claiborne had the football team consistently in the top 15. After fairly quiet periods in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, both teams surged near the start of the new millennium.
Terrapin football, led by Bobby Ross protégé Ralph Friedgen, won 10+ games for three straight years from ’01-’03 to restore the program to prominence.