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Terrapins Driven by Their Will to Win
By Al Featherston for theACC.com
On paper, there's no way Maryland should have been so successful last season.
The Terps were out-gained by an average of more than 56 yards a game in 2006. Maryland committed more turnovers than its opponents and scored exactly the same 284 points as it gave up.
So how did Ralph Friedgen's team finish 9-4?
"We found a way to win," Friedgen said. "We won the moment of truth in games more than we did in 2005. There comes a point in time in every game where it's a matter of wills to decide who's going to win every game. We won that last year and I tried to emphasize that to our players. As time went on they got pretty confident."
Probably no game illustrated Maryland's "will" more than the Terps' 13-12 victory over Clemson in Death Valley. The Tigers moved the ball up and down the field, out-gaining the Terps by 93 yards, but could never get in the end zone and lost on a last-second field goal.
The Maryland coach sees his team's ability to win in spite of such statistical disparities as a sign of success.
"I definitely see it as a positive," he said. "If we won games on stats, we would keep score that way. A lot of times I'm trying to manage the game to win it. We found a way to win."
Friedgen's only complaint was that his team couldn't find a way to win its final regular season game against Wake Forest when a victory would have given the Terps the Atlantic Division title and a spot in the ACC title game.
"We had a good season," he said. "We had a chance to make it a real special season, but came up just a little short."
The former Maryland lineman has already given the Terps some special seasons since taking over his alma mater's program after the 2000 season. He inherited a team coming off five straight losing years and promptly won 10 games and an ACC championship in his first season.
His 31-8 record over his first three seasons is the best in ACC history, five wins better than second place Lou Holtz, who was 26-8-2 in his first three years at N.C. State.
But after the Terps struggled to back-to-back 5-6 seasons in 2004 and 2005, some of the luster seemed to be off the Maryland program. Friedgen had to work to re-instill the positive outlook in his players.
"Last spring we talked about winning the ACC title and I don't think our players really believed it," Friedgen said. "But we ended up having an opportunity to do that. That's where we need to look to keep setting our goals high."
The Terps - with six starters back on both sides of the ball - appear to have a deep enough core of solid players to make a championship run in 2007, provided Friedgen can answer one very troubling question.
Who is going to play quarterback?
Senior Tackle
Andrew Crummey
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A year ago, Sam Hollenbach did a superb job, throwing for 2,371 yards and completing almost 62 percent of his attempts. But now he's gone and Friedgen has to find a new offensive signal-caller from among a trio of candidates: junior Jordan Steffy, who failed to complete any of his five pass attempts last season, goes into preseason practice as the starter, but sophomores Josh Portis and Chris Turner - neither of whom has ever taken a snap in a game - are also competing for the job.
The lack of a proven quarterback might be more of a concern, except that Friedgen, who now serves as his own offensive coordinator, has long proved his ability to find and groom successful players at that position. He arrived at Maryland after tutoring Joe Hamilton, one of the best quarterbacks in ACC history, at Georgia Tech. He groomed unheralded Scott McBrien in his first years at Maryland and helped turn Hollenbach into an excellent player.
Who is to say he can't do the same with Steffy, who was once a very coveted prep prospect ... or, if not him, then Portis or Turner?
Senior tackle Andrew Crummey, who is expected to anchor the Terps' offensive line, is confident that Friedgen will find a trigger-man for an offense that appears loaded at every other position.
"We're very confident in those three guys," Crummey said. "Whatever quarterback gets the job is going have his own distinctive impact on the offense, how he gets the team going and how he approaches the game."
The veteran lineman suggested that the inexperience at quarterback could actually work to the team's advantage.
"The battle has really gotten the offense to rely, not on Sam Hollenbach, but to instead rely on the offensive line, the running backs, and the receivers and tight ends," Crummey said. "We want to spread out the responsibility and the pressure. That way, when the quarterback steps in, the offense will have a lot of confidence as a whole."
There's a lot of talent to share the load. Lance Ball (815 yards rushing last season) is one of the best running backs in the ACC and his backup Keon Lattimore (743 yards) is not far behind him. Wide receiver Darrius Heywood-Bey made the preseason All-ACC team this summer after catching 45 passes for 694 yards as a freshman last season. Wide outs Isaiah Williams and Danny Oquendo combined for 62 more catches for 775 yards last season. And tight end Joey Haynos caught more touchdown passes last year than All-ACC first and second teamers Greg Olsen and Anthony Hill did combined.
Senior Free Safety
Christian Varner
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Defensively, Friedgen has to replace three of his top four tacklers from 2006, but he's comfortable with the replacements that will surround established standouts such as linebacker Erin Henderson (the No. 2 tackler in the ACC last season) and free safety Christian Varner.
Varner, a senior from Baltimore, said the veterans on this team feel a responsibility to build on last year's success.
"When we first came in we were winning 10 games, and for us to go 5-6 back-to-back years, we felt like we weren't doing the program justice," he said. "It felt like we were letting the program down. It took a lot of character, a lot of heart, and a lot of hunger, but people came out last year with a little more experience and that hunger showed. Maybe that was a stepping stone and we can win 10 games again this year."
STRENGTHS: Proven playmakers at the skill positions - few ACC teams can match Maryland's combination of rugged running backs and speedy wide receivers ... defensive depth, especially up front where returning three line starters should provide plenty of protection for the talented Henderson at linebacker.
CONCERNS: Finding a quarterback is preseason priority No. 1 ... .The kicking game - graduated punter Adam Podlesh was one of the ACC's best over the last two seasons, while departed place-kicker Dan Ennis was a reliable performer .... depth of the offensive line is questionable.
EARLY SEASON BELLWEATHER: Big East power West Virginia visits College Park for a Thursday night ESPN game on Sept. 13. Maryland committed five turnovers in a lopsided loss to the Mountaineers a year ago, but a strong showing in this year's rematch would go a long way towards establishing the Terps as an ACC contender.
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