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This post is part of the series ACC Gridiron Legends

This is part of a month-long series examining the greatest football teams in ACC history. Each day a new team will be unveiled until the top team in ACC history is revealed on June 30. Click here for other parts in this series.

Few teams have come from literally nowhere to win an ACC title quite like the 2001 Maryland Terrapins.

The Terps were a decade removed from their last bowl game and had just one winning season (6-5) in that span. Maryland was awful and fan and media interest had waned.

But in 2001 ‑ alumnus Ralph Friedgen’s first as head coach ‑ Maryland opened with a moderately surprising 23-7 win over North Carolina before waxing Eastern Michigan 50-3.

But it was a 32-20 victory over West Virginia in the fourth game when national pundits began taking notice. And after wins over Virginia and on the road at Georgia Tech and Duke, Fridge’s boys were 7-0 and ranked No. 10 in the nation.

A 52-31 loss at Florida State didn’t cost the Terps the eventual league crown. FSU lost twice, and at 7-1 in league play the Terps won the regular season crown.

Scott O’Brien was excellent under center, but it was the play of linebacker E.J. Henderson (pictured above) that gave the Terps star power. UMd was blown out 56-23 by Florida in the Orange Bowl. Maryland finished 10-2 and ranked No. 11.

This is an important team in ACC history because it brought football in that region of the conference back to life and made one of the more accomplished programs in conference history relevant. In fact, Maryland won 31 games in a three-year period that began in ’01.

Andrew Jones is in his 14^th year covering major college sports and can be reached at AJones@BusterSports.com.

ACC, Feature, Football, Headline, Maryland Terrapins