Steve Davis: What Is Your State Of The Union For Sports?
With the President giving his State of the Union Tuesday night, it's not a bad time to assess the "State of Sports" in Maryland. And, right now, it's not very good.
Think about it, we've done a 180 since last year at this time. Back then, the Ravens were still in the playoffs, the Orioles had just come off their second playoff and the Maryland football program had played in a bowl game and was coming off a regular season in which it beat Penn State and Michigan.
Now, the Ravens had their second worst record ever, the Orioles missed the playoffs and have done very little in free agency (to this point) and Maryland fired its football coach and couldn't replace him with a big-time proven coach.
The only team pointing up is the Terps basketball team, which, despite losing to Michigan, is ranked #3 in the country and is certainly a strong contender for the national title.
Moving forward, the Ravens seem to be talent deficient in key areas: cornerback, pass rusher, left tackle and receiver.
That is a lot to change in one off-season, although I certainly believe in the Ravens front office.
The Orioles' number one priority was to improve the rotation, and as we sit here in mid-January, they have a lesser pitching staff than last season.
The Maryland football team has a new coach, DJ Durkin who has never been a head coach before, so that is a very iffy proposition.