Maryland superfan Van Pelt delivers Terps virtual titles amid pandemic
Maryland superfan Scott Van Pelt has tried to figure out what to do without sports like so many others around the country, and many nights these days he’s spending that extra time leading the Terps football program in a virtual world.
The midnight SportsCenter host often stays up until 3 a.m. playing as his alma mater on NCAA Football 2014, the last college football video game produced by EA Sports due to legal issues surrounding the game’s use of player likenesses. He took the idea from Barstool Sports’ Dan Katz, who used the pandemic as an opportunity to dust off the game and live-stream himself playing to fill the live sports void. Van Pelt began his virtual coaching career as the offensive coordinator at Nevada before accepting the same position at Texas Texas and then landing his dream job in College Park.
“Not trying to steal context, I’m just trying to steal time in my bored out of my brain existence,” he told Katz on the Pardon My Take podcast Thursday.
Van Pelt said things were “pretty grim” at Maryland when he accepted the head coaching position but he turned things around quickly with tactics that would certainly draw the NCAA’s attention in real life. He boosted the speed ratings of players, and put a 96 overall high school recruit -- named Steve Coughlin after his show’s producer -- in his backyard. “I made him a College Park guy. I put him in College Park. Somehow we got him,” he said.
“This is how sad my life is. I redshirted him because the guy that I juiced up that’s my quarterback is so good, and now I’m afraid that when the year ends that he’s going to leave. Like I can’t believe the things I’m saying out loud are where my life currently is. You know what I mean? Like I have little kids and when I got home at night, I can’t wait [to play NCAA Football 2014]. I have a national championship game tonight with Auburn and all sit there tonight in the dark [and play]. It’s all I’m thinking about right now. Like I can’t wait to go home and play.”
Van Pelt provided an update on his virtual coaching on Twitter Friday, claiming he led the Terps to the title with a 42-3 win over the Tigers. He could take a step up in competition now by squaring off against Katz’s Tennessee team on live-stream for charity provided he can figure out how to get his Xbox 360 online.
“I think something should happen and I should have to deal with everything that comes with the [cheating] accusations,” Van Pelt said. “And also I’d have to more accurately bump my players back down from some of the guys I’ve got because we’ve got some guys that are really [on] Sosa-McGwire home run-chasing juice working right now.”
While he’s spending most nights up late playing video games, Van Pelt is also still hosting the midnight edition of SportsCenter amid the pandemic, although he told CNN earlier this month he’s worried about running out of things to talk about.
“All we’re doing, any of us, is trying to kill time, pass time, stay safe and try to get to the next day,” he said. “And we’re here for people to help in that passage of time. I don’t know if it’s noble or not, but we do take it seriously.”
The Maryland native plans to bring the show, his family and presumably the national championship trophy back home in August.
