Aug. 5, 2004

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2004 Maryland Football Preview

Maryland rallied from an 0-2 start to finish 10-3 overall and second in the ACC with a 6-2 league mark. 2003 marked the second- straight year that Terps won 10 of their final 11 games. Maryland capped off the season with an impressive 41-7 win over 20th-ranked West Virginia in the Gator Bowl.

Ralph Friedgen, 31- 8 in his three years with the Terrapins, is the winningest third-year head coach in ACC history. Maryland is also one of just five teams nationally to have won at least 10 games in each of the past three seasons.

Since Friedgen's arrival in 2001, the Terps have featured the conference's most balanced offensive unit. Over the last three years, Maryland has averaged 415.0 yards per game - 212.4 yards per game passing and 202.6 yards per game rushing.

Offensively, the Terps return five starters among 23 lettermen from a unit that averaged 34.8 points and 460.3 yards over the last 11 games of the season. Missing are QB Scott McBrien who threw for 5,169 yards and 34 TDs in his two years as a starter and TB Bruce Perry who ran for 2,494 yards in his career and was the 2001 ACC Offensive Player of the Year.

Tailback Josh Allen led the team and was sixth in the ACC in rushing (70.9). He ran for 922 yards as a sophomore a year ago and has averaged 5.5 yards per rush attempt in his career and has scored eight TDs in each of his first two seasons.

A two-time first-team All-ACC selection, Steve Suter enters his senior season third among ACC career punt return leaders with 1,108 yards on 94 returns. Suter has an ACC-record six career punt returns for touchdowns

A two-time first-team All- ACC selection, placekicker Nick Novak ended the 2003 season just three points shy of becoming the league's all-time leading scorer.

ACC Football Preview Schedule | More Maryland Info From ACC Media Guide

QUOTES FROM 2004 ACC FOOTBALL KICKOFF

Ralph Friedgen, Head Coach, entering 4th season
"Every year it gets tougher to duplicate. Winning the league may or may not include winning 10 games. It's probably going to get tougher and tougher to win 10 games with the people we're playing. I think I've won 10 games six or seven times in my career -- that's a special feat ... I don't know if you can categorize that as the norm. I think we've had three exceptional years, now let's go back and do the best we can and see where we end up this year."

"We're not going to lead the league is passing. We're probably close sometimes in rushing, but we usually never lead the league in rushing. All of the good offensive teams I've been associated with were about 240 yards passing and about 230 yards rushing. So at the end of the year, and it's kind of the philosophy that we have -- that we want to be able to take advantage of what the defense gives us -- and in order to do that you have to have the same ability to throw it as you do run it. That's what makes it tough to defend us because it's tough to take both away."

2004 Maryland Football Schedule
Sept. 4	Northern Illinois
Sept. 11	Temple
Sept. 18	at West Virginia
Sept. 25	at Duke
Oct. 9	Georgia Tech
Oct. 16	NC State
Oct. 23	at Clemson
Oct. 30	Florida State
Nov. 6	at Virginia
Nov. 18	at Virginia Tech
Nov. 27	Wake Forest

"When I first came to Maryland, the year before we came we sold 10,000 season tickets ... Now we're selling over 30,000, and we've had six straight sellouts, and we're probably going to have a guaranteed six straight sellouts going into this year. What makes me proud about the whole thing was that I had a vision, and when I got there people didn't believe in that vision. But now they do. And now they see what I see what we're capable of, and we're even talking about expanding our stadium, so that's pretty neat."

C.J. Brooks, Offensive Guard, Senior
"There's a lot that goes into knowing the playbook, not just knowing the plays. Once you learn parts of the offense, you learn other parts that might help you out -- you learn things the quarterback would know and things that help you out personally. Eventually it helps everybody out because everybody's on the same page doing the same thing."

"We're going to try to make sure that everyone feels comfortable, especially the quarterbacks and the younger players that are going to have to step into big roles this year. We're working with them and trying to keep confidence in them, so that when we play in these early games, they'll feel comfortable right away and we won't hany any slip-ups."

Domonique Foxworth, Cornerback, Senior
"It's not something that's been hard to come by. I've only known 10 wins (per season since I've been at Maryland). As a true freshman, we won 10 games, and then as a sophomore and as a junior. There's no reason why we can't do it again my senior year."

"A lot of people look at the team as an offensive team solely because of Coach Friedgen's experience in the NFL as an offensive coordinator, but anybody close to the program knows that the defense is the true constant of the program. As far back as I can remember, the first season when we won the (ACC) championship, the scores were very low early on in the season. It took a while of the offense to get going. Every year, it takes a little while longer for the offense to get it together than it does the defense. So it's our job to whatever it takes to win, and it seems we do a good job of it."

OFFENSE - Returning Starters
TB Josh Allen, Jr.
WR Steve Suter, Sr.
T Stephon Heyer, Jr.
G C.J. Brooks, Sr.
C Kyle Schmitt, Sr.

OFFENSE - Starters Lost
QB Scott McBrien (21-6 as the starting QB)
FB Bernie Fiddler (started 11 games in `03)
WR Latrez Harrison (39 catches, 558 yards)
TE Jeff Dugan (2nd-team All-ACC)
T Eric Dumas (started all 13 games in `03)
G Lamar Bryant (4-year starter)

DEFENSE - Returning Starters
DE Kevin Eli, Sr.
DE Shawne Merriman, Sr.
LB D'Qwell Jackson, Jr.
CB Domonique Foxworth, Sr.

DEFENSE - Starters Lost
DT Randy Starks (1st-team All-ACC, 7.5 Sacks)
NT C.J. Feldheim (31 career starts, 42 tcks)
LB Leon Joe (3-year starter, 104 tackles in `03)
LB Leroy Ambush (13 starts in 2003)
CB Curome Cox (4-year starter, 29 PBUs)
SS Dennard Wilson (HM All-ACC)
FS Madieu Williams (2nd-team All-ACC)