Maryland coach: Big Ten is 'really a lineman league'

CHICAGO -- Randy Edsall's top takeaway from Maryland's first season of Big Ten football will not excite marketing executives, but it will please Midwest football coaches. 

"Well, I think that we found out that it was really a lineman league," the head coach of the Terrapins said. "That you had to be able to win in the trenches if you were going to be successful, week in, week out, year in, and year out." 

Maryland finished third in the Big Ten East division, but the Terrapins had problems controlling the line of scrimmage both ways. They were 12th in the league in both rushing and stopping the run. 

All in all, it was an eye-opening experience after decades in the ACC. 

"It was just the physicality and also different from the ACC where, again, it was more of a lineman league so to speak," he said. "And I don't mean that there's not skilled people in the Big Ten, but there, you better be able to control the line of scrimmage if you're going to give yourself a chance to win."