Every year at the first practice of the season, I turn to a handful of my colleagues and caustically intone in my best John Facenda voice "The road to Boise is long and pointless."

Well, the winding road landed in San Francisco. Tonight. In the Emerald Bowl. Against Oregon State. At AT&T Park. The Terpies are playing for all the NUTS.

It's an important game for the Terps only in that they'll leave with either a winning season or a losing season. As for Oregon State, they were kind of bummed not to go to the Holiday Bowl to play Texas -- but the Beavers weren't that disappointed to land in San Francisco. It was a more appealing possibility than playing in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, two years in a row.

The Terps were probably a 7-5 team that, though problems both within and beyond their control, went 6-6. The Beavers were probably a 9-3 team that just took a little too long to get started this season. They were definitely a Discourse favorite at the start of the season, and their presence by the Bay made this trip more appealing than if Maryland was playing 6-6 Cal or 6-6 (well, now 6-7) UCLA.

It will also make it tougher. But oddly enough, I expect a pretty solid game tonight. Both teams feel they have something to prove, and this could turn out to be one of the more underrated matchups of the postseason.

So that consistency Ralph Friedgen's been looking for? It very well could show up tonight. But a victory might be more elusive. It's been a very gray, dreary, cool day here (believe me, it was the right day for the perfect Alcatraz experience), so both teams will enjoy a prototypical San Francisco night by McCovey Cove.

Here's looking at Oregon State slipping away with a 20-17 victory, but Maryland putting up a solid showing for itself on both sides of the ball. Both teams have solid bowl histories under their current coaches (Oregon State is 3-0 under Mike Riley and Maryland is 3-1 under Ralph Friedgen), so the safest bet of all is both teams will be prepared after layoffs of about a month.

More in a bit once I make it over to the stadium.

--- Patrick Stevens