They may have won just two games one season ago and ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference, but a trio of Maryland Terrapins give the program hope that 2010 will bring better times.

Three members of the Terps have earned selection to college football awards’ watch lists entering the season.

Talented senior linebacker Alex Wujciak has been placed on five watch lists: the Butkus Award, for the Nagurski Trophy, Lott Trophy, Lombardi Award and Bednarik Award. Fellow senior linebacker Adrian Moten is on the Butkus Award list as well.

Junior wide receiver Torrey Smith is on the Paul Hornung Award and Biletnikoff Award lists.

Maryland opens the 2010 season with Navy in Baltimore on Sept. 6.

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Maybe it’s not the news fans of the Maryland Terrapins want to hear during the preseason, a time when no matter how rough the previous season was, there always is optimism.

The media voting at Atlantic Coast Conference Media Days on the predicted order of finish in the conference don’t see the Terps moving out of the cellar in the Atlantic Division.

Maryland, which finished last in the Atlantic in 2009, is tabbed to land there again by the media. The predicted order of finish in the division: Florida State, Clemson, Boston College, N.C. State, Wake Forest and the Terps.

In the Coastal Division, Virginia Tech earned the nod from the media. Miami was picked second, followed by defending ACC champion Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Duke and Virginia.

Maryland finished 2-10 last season, going 1-7 in ACC play. The Terps lost four games by a touchdown or less during a seven-game, season-ending losing streak.

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Tillman led Harvard to a 20-19 record in his three years at Harvard. They won eight games in 2009, the most since 2002.

He is known as a tireless recruiter, something Maryland is hopeful will help retain many of the top players coming out of the state, considered the hotbed of lacrosse.

Tillman wasn’t all that high up on Maryland’s list of candidates, but a number of coaches turned them down.

He will take over for Dave Cottle, who was much-maligned during his tenuse with the Terrapins.

Ranson takes over for Chuck Driesell, who left two months ago to take over as head coach at The Citadel.

Ranson spent the past year as an assistant for Xavier and had previous stops with Loyola, Marist and James Madison.

He played his high school basketball in Baltimore and is praised for his tenacious recruiting ability.

There are high hopes from many that he will be able to reel in the top recruits from the Baltimore area on a regular basis.

The Terrapins were upset by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.

Cottle was in the final year of his contract, and word on the street was he would not return if the team did not reach the Final Four.

He was head coach at the university for eight years, guiding them to three Final Four’s and two ACC championships.

The Terps have not won a national championship in lacrosse for far too long, and it was time to find a new coach to put them over the top.

The Maryland Terrapins have landed their sixth player in the 2010 recruiting class, junior college center Berend Weijs.

The 6′10″, 210 lbs. center was persuaded by a teammate to go play pickup basketball at Maryland.

Weijs played against several Terps players while at Maryland, and they all went back to the coaching staff and expressed how impressed they were with him.

The Terps then had Weijs in for a visit, offered him a scholarship, and he signed it before he returned home.

Weijs Juco coach started receiving phone calls from other major Division-I programs like Virginia and North Carolina in the past week. He suspects those schools became intrigued by Weijs when they saw the effort with which the Terps were suddenly recruiting him. 

He averaged just over six points and five rebounds per game last year, hardly numbers that jump out at you for a Juco player.

Patsos is currently the head coach at Loyola and has struggled during his six seasons with the Greyhounds.

The team has failed to make the NCAA tournament and Patsos has a losing record at the school.

Head coach Gary Williams has denied the rumors, saying he isn’t close to making a decision yet.

Williams recently advised Patsos against taking an assistant coaching job with St. John’s, telling him to remain a head coach with Loyola.

Gibbs decided on Maryland, choosing to become a Terp over heading to Pittsburgh, Indiana, Florida and a few other schools.

The guard said Maryland was his top choice for some time and that he loves the intensity of head coach Gary Williams.

Gibbs first gained interest in the school when assistant coach Chuck Driesell started recruiting him two years ago.

Interestingly enough, Driesell was just hired for the head coaching job at The Citadel, but Gibbs still stuck with the Terps.

Driesell has been with the program for several years now as the team’s top assistant coach and recruiter.

The loss of Driesell breaks up some of the continuinty that was lost after the national championship when many of the team’s assistants were hired as head coaches.

Assistants Keith Booth and Rob Ehsan could be promoted or the team could elect to fill Driesell’s spot.

Driesell is the son of Lefty Driesell, the former Maryland coach who was fired following the Len Bias tragedy.

The Terps took a one-point lead with just six seconds to go, but a three-point shot by the Spartans went down as the buzzer sounded.

The shot wiped away a 15-point second half comeback by the Terps, who didn’t grab the lead until under a minute remained in the game.

It left Maryland players dazed and later teary-eyed as the locker rooms opened for media access.

It also ended the career of three seniors: Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes and Landon Milbourne.