Straight Talk From the “Fridge”

Story by Michael Richman
Photographs by Peter Gregoire

It wasn’t long ago that the Maryland football program was reeling, having endured a decade-long absence from the bowl circuit and five straight losing seasons. There were lots of long faces in College Park. Ralph Friedgen wasted little time injecting his squad with a winning hunger after becoming the Terps’ coach three years ago—using a clever motivational approach at that.

Previously the offensive coordinator for a Georgia Tech team that had won two straight Gator Bowls, Friedgen sported a Yellow Jackets shirt with the Gator Bowl emblem. One player, thinking Friedgen was a traitor, asked him why he was pumping up a Maryland rival. The coach said it had nothing to do with the school, but instead the Gator Bowl. He then hit a nerve with the player, saying, “You wouldn’t know what that is.”

Maryland’s players do now.

The Terps are coming off a 41–7 trouncing of West Virginia in the Gator Bowl, no less, on New Year’s Day 2004. The sweet victory marked Maryland’s second straight bowl win and third straight appearance in a prominent postseason game.

The bowl streak exemplifies Friedgen’s transformation of the Terps into one of the hottest teams in the nation. They posted a 10–3 record last season, their third straight 10-win campaign. Only Texas, Oklahoma, Miami and Washington State can boast of a similar three-year stretch. Maryland, 31–8 during that span, has also been in the final Top-25 rankings in each of the three years, last season placing No. 17 in the Associated Press poll and No. 20 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

How Things Have Come Full Circle on the Maryland Gridiron

“The kids really didn’t understand what comes along with winning,” Friedgen says. “Now they do. You go to bowl games, and you get honored. That’s all part of it. The fact that I had been there before helped give credibility to some of the things I was trying to get across to them.”

	Ralph Friedgen played guard at Maryland from 1965–69 (left).
	When Friedgen became head coach at his alma mater in 2001 (center), success came quickly—he led the Terps to the Orange Bowl in his first season and was named NCAA Coach of the Year. Friedgen also began the tradition of singing the “Victory Song” after each win (right).

The Terps’ outstanding wide receiver-kick returner, Steve Suter, remembers the aura that surrounded Friedgen when he arrived in 2001.

“We knew he was a winner,” says Suter, who will be a senior this season. “It was like, if we can’t win with this guy, then we’re not going to win. We fed off his winning vibes.”

Suter and his teammates are now aiming for something Friedgen sports from his days as offensive coordinator of the 1990 Georgia Tech squad—a national championship ring. The coach points to recruiting as the key for the program to elevate another notch and contend for the national title, saying the Terps’ last two recruiting classes have been excellent. The 2004 recruiting class, in fact, is one of the best in the nation and in school history. But the coach adds, “We’re probably another recruiting class away from being there.”

“I’m always going to push the envelope to be the best we can be,” Friedgen says. “But as good as we’ve been, I still think we can be better.”

The entry of Miami and Virginia Tech into the ACC this season is also likely to impact Maryland’s chances of ascending to the national elite. Miami, a perennial power and winner of the national championship in 2001, finished No. 5 in both major polls last season. Virginia Tech was unranked last season but has played in bowl games 11 of the past 12 years.

Age: 57 Graduation year: 1970, 1972 M.A. Residence: Olney, Md. Career: Football Coach, 1969–present ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 31–8 record in three seasons as Maryland head coach Has coached Terps to three 10-win seasons; Maryland is one of only five teams in the country to do so over the three-year span. Winner of the Peach Bowl and Gator Bowl as coach at Maryland; his Terps lost in the Orange Bowl in the 2001 season Consensus NCAA National Coach of the Year in 2001 32 seasons as an assistant football coach, 27 in college football Won the Frank Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in the country in 1999 Offensive coordinator for Georgia Tech teams that won the Gator Bowl in the 1999 and 2000 seasons. Offensive coordinator of the 1990 NCAA co-champions, Georgia Tech Offensive coordinator of a Maryland team that appeared in four straight bowl games in the 1980s and won the Sun Bowl in 1984 and Cherry Bowl in 1985 Five seasons as an assistant coach for the San Diego Chargers (1992-1996) Offensive coordinator of the Chargers team that played in Super Bowl XXIX in January 1995

Friedgen says Maryland is on par with if not better than Virginia Tech, pointing out that the Terps have been ranked higher than the Hokies in the major season-ending polls for the past three seasons.

Maryland plays Virginia Tech in Blacksburg this season but does not face Miami, who Friedgen admits has had a more lofty football tradition. But he touts how Maryland destroyed West Virginia twice last season by a total score of 75–14, while the Hurricanes needed a late surge to squeak past their then-Big East opponent.

According to Friedgen, Miami and Virginia Tech will fortify what he calls a “pretty strong conference” that already features Florida State and Clemson—both ranked at season’s end—as well as always-tough Georgia Tech, Virginia and NC State. The ACC finished 5–1 in bowl games last season.

“The ACC is a very powerful conference not only from a talent standpoint but from a media standpoint,” Friedgen says. “I don’t think there’s a better place to be than the ACC right now.”

The coach says he plans to shoot for another 10-win season in 2004 but acknowledges that he must do so with a very young and inexperienced squad. He says he faces serious challenges in replacing such stars as quarterback Scott McBrien, who was 21–6 as a starter and earned most valuable player honors in Maryland’s Peach Bowl and Gator Bowl wins the last two seasons. The Terps also lost running back Bruce Perry, the ACC Offensive Player of the Year in 2001, and three-quarters of a top-notch defensive backfield in Curome Cox, Madieu Williams and Dennard Wilson.

“We’ve got a lot of players who will be first-year players, so we’ll see how they accept their role,” Suter says. “The seniors really need to step up and take control of the younger kids and make sure everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to do.”

Winning a national championship, Suter adds, is something the team would love to accomplish, but “who knows if we can do it this year. Winning the ACC title is definitely on our minds because that would take us to a BCS [Bowl Championship Series] game. We’re not settling for anything less.” TERP

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