In theory, an upcoming Maryland football opponent might be scrambling to figure out just who the Terrapins had under center Saturday against Florida International.
Coming into the eventual 42-28 victory, Danny O'Brien owned all of 21 career snaps --- including 19 against Morgan State.
The two plays against major-college competition? A fumble against Navy and a sack against West Virginia. Not a whole lot of a track record.
Not much of a track record ... and seemingly an advantage for Maryland, which broke O'Brien in extensively Saturday while Jamarr Robinson sat with an injury to his throwing shoulder.
That's an advantage for Maryland, right?
Well ... not entirely.
Funny thing is, O'Brien will go against a coaching staff quite familiar with him. Duke was one of a handful of schools to target the native of the Winston-Salem area, and now the Blue Devils will face O'Brien in some capacity when they visit Byrd Stadium on Saturday night.
"Danny's a North Carolinian, and we thought he was a heck of a prospect," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. "Ralph did a great job recruiting him. He's strong-armed, big and tough. I hadn't seen a lot of the tape [by Sunday afternoon], but I know Danny."
Cutcliffe owns a well-earned reputation as a quarterback guru, with Peyton and Eli Manning his most notable pupils. He also coached Heath Shuler (when he was good at Tennessee, not when he struggled in the NFL), and his first starter at Duke (Thaddeus Lewis) made St. Louis' roster as an undrafted free agent.
If O'Brien attended Duke, he might have competed with Sean Renfree for the starting quarterback job this year. Instead, Renfree is expected to be under center Saturday --- with the chance O'Brien could oppose him.
"I was wondering when that might occur," Cutcliffe said. "They'll have a very good quarterback for a long period of time now, in my opinion."
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