I, for one, am glad this Maryland-WVU rivalry is back. Quality series, BCS conferences, typically even-matched teams, fun road trips and just enough feistiness between the teams, no doubt due to proximity and familiarity.

Many of the players know one another through high school or the recruiting circuit. A number of the coaches have gone against or with the others in games in the past, to say nothing of recruiting battles in the region.

You’ll remember a few years back this thing was humming and, for reasons like Scott McBrien’s transfer and the consequences, the tension was fervent. The Terps were also a pretty solid program, so much so that they were party to the Under Armour ad campaign.

If you don’t remember, trust that Kay-Jay Harris did.

In 2004, after West Virginia won a 19-16 overtime battle in Morgantown, running back Kay-Jay Harris entered the interview room and shouted, “We must protect this house!” a mocking salute to Maryland’s Under Armour commercial. “That was our slogan all week,” Harris said after the game. “Is Under Armour second-guessing why they didn’t come to Coach [Rich Rodriguez] to give him an endorsement deal?”

For as spirited as the rivalry has been, there has been a dearth of competitive games in recent years. In the last 15 meetings, only that 2004 game was decided by less than 10 points.