Maryland Is WVU's Lucky Number Seven

The number seven is a pretty significant number in the WVU-Maryland series. Obviously, the Mountaineers have won the last seven meetings. Which is the longest streak in the series. Sometimes in outlandishly easy cakewalks. Like the 2006 meeting that was pretty much over the first time Steve Slaton touched the ball. There was also the night in 2007 that #7 Noel Devine broke every ankle on the Terrapin defense. While the last two years were way closer than they should have been.

For their part, Maryland has won seven out of the last 21 meetings. Norman (Boomer) Esiason, who wore number seven for Maryland, beat the Mountaineers exactly zero times in three tries as a starter. Frank Reich had the good sense to wear #14 in his one start against the Mountaineers and squeaked out a 20-17 win. Lastly, Randy Edsall was 1-7 against the Mountaineers while at UConn and is 1-9 overall.

There were a few close calls to seven as well. Don Nehlen got his eighth win against Maryland in 1981. I would have thought one of those would be against a 1-AA team to give Nehlen his 7th win over a 1-A team. But apparently, we didn't do that back in the day. Maryland won six in a row from 1949-1966 (so close). To my knowledge, that's where things peter out with regards to the number seven, though. But hopefully tomorrow won't be the end of the streak.

It would be real easy for me to base the theme of this post around the movie, Se7en. The cover photo for this post is from the movie (full picture here). But it was apparent to me that any good taste and sportsmanship on my part would be thrown out the window as soon as I got to Gluttony and Ralph Friedgen. Luckily, there was a movie released in 1997 that was nominated for, imagine that, seven Academy Awards.

How do you like them apples?