His Own Ship
1/12/2001 7:00:00 AM | Football
Jan. 12, 2001
Click here to read the story on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's web site
By Norman Arey
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
College Park, Md. --
Ralph Friedgen sat inside his office, the one with the "Head Coach" sign on the wall outside. He tried to find the right words to describe the events that started Nov. 22, the Wednesday before Georgia Tech played Georgia.
That was when he got a call from Maryland athletics director Debbie Yow asking if he had an interest in the job of football coach at her university. Yow had fired Ron Vanderlinden earlier in the week and the search had led quickly to the offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech.
"I said, 'If you're sincerely interested in me, I'm interested,' " Friedgen told her.
The key word was "sincerely." No one could blame the longtime assistant and Maryland alum for being cautious. The last three times the Maryland job had been open, he had been passed over without even the courtesy of an interview.
After a modest playing career in College Park, Friedgen had made eight stops in 28 years as an assistant coach. But when he returned to Georgia Tech for his second stint in 1997 as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, he made his mark.
Friedgen's publicized offensive scheme, piloted by Heisman runner-up Joe Hamilton, led the nation in total offense in 1999 with an average of 509 yards per game and ranked second in scoring with a 40.9 average. Tech set 59 school records. Friedgen won the Broyles Award given annually to the nation's top assistant football coach.
Yow took a flight to Atlanta a week after the telephone call, on Nov. 29, for their meeting. During that lengthy interview, Yow reached over, put her hand on Friedgen's arm and said, "You're my man."
He still had two days of meetings with members of the search committee, Maryland president C.D. Mote Jr. and other school officials, but the job was his.
"I've been preparing for this job for quite a while," Friedgen said. "I once heard [Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach] Tony Dungy say on a radio show that [former Pittsburgh Steelers coach] Chuck Noll told him, 'If you have to apply for a job, you're probably not going to get it.' This time I decided I wasn't going to do anything, and if something happens, it happens."
It happened so fast that Friedgen still has a hard time talking about leaving Georgia Tech and his players. He paused to wipe a tear away as he struggled with it. "I honestly thought we were going to win six or seven games [this season at Tech]," he said. "They worked and practiced so hard and overachieved. It was hard leaving. That was a special team. I feel like I let them down."
In fact, when Friedgen returned to Atlanta to say goodbye before heading to College Park, the only player he could find in the football offices was George Godsey, the starting quarterback. Godsey might have been the main reason that Friedgen got the Maryland job. The Tampa junior, who had been Hamilton's understudy, barely edged out Andy Hall and Jermaine Crenshaw in the spring but finished the year as second team All-ACC behind Heisman winner Chris Weinke of Florida State.
"I sat down with George," Friedgen said, his emotions overtaking him again. "It was hard."
A long time coming
Friedgen acknowledged that it took him a while to realize that he finally had achieved his goal. "It's surreal," he said. "I was driving to work on my first day, a Thursday, and I realized, 'Last week this time, I was preparing for Georgia.' You know, over the years, I really hadn't been back here much. It was amazing."
Friedgen was recruited by Tom Nugent and came to Maryland in 1967 as a 190-pound quarterback. At Harrison High in New York, coached by his father, who had played at Fordham with Vince Lombardi, he became a very good quarterback. In fact, he was selected all-county and second-team all-metropolitan. Friedgen says he was beat out on first team by Calvin Hill.
At Maryland, he worked on special teams and played some fullback and some linebacker. He spent his senior year as an offensive lineman and became an academic All-ACC.
Friedgen said he learned a lot of the offensive system he uses today from his father. "We were running a lot of the same things I do now, to be honest," he said. "We'd run the same plays out of different formations."
Friedgen is ready to be head coach, said Bobby Ross, former head man at Maryland, Tech and two NFL teams. "The first person I called when I took the Maryland job was Ralph," Ross told the Baltimore Sun. "And the first person I took with me to Georgia Tech was Ralph." When Ross left Tech to head the San Diego Chargers, Friedgen went with him again.
A recipe for success
"I had a broad plan when I got here," Friedgen said. "Everything has fallen in place. I haven't had anything happen I hadn't anticipated."
He took with him to his interview a list of assistants he planned to hire. "I knew they'd ask who I had," he said. "I had an A group, a B group and a C group. I asked, 'What are we paying.' When Debbie told me, I said, 'I guess we're talking about the A group.' "
His staff is in place, headed by Charlie Taaffe from the Canadian Football League as offensive coordinator and former Bowling Green coach Gary Blackney as defensive coordinator. "I wanted one or two coaches who had been head coaches," Friedgen said, "in case something came up that I hadn't anticipated. I wanted recruiters. I wanted a good-character group. I was interested in their wives and if they would be good coaches' wives."
Some people were surprised that Friedgen hired Taaffe as offensive coordinator. "There was some pressure on me to be offensive head coach," he said. "But Charlie knows the option and learned the throwing game in Canada. We're going to run my offense, but I told Charlie I was going to allow him to be creative within my offense. Next week, I'll get Charlie one on one, and we'll spend a lot of time together. I feel very confident in his hands."
Friedgen scoffs at the perception that his offense is intricate and complicated. "The secret of the offense is to make it as difficult to defend and as easy to operate as possible," he said.
He plans to add a couple of innovative twists to his coaching style. "I want a players committee of 10, made up of four seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and one freshman," he said. "I want sincere discussion on how we can be better and do better. I want to cultivate leadership.
"I'm El Supremo on the field, but in my office, you can call me anything you want. The players have got to have a way to express themselves.
"I'm direct, and what you see is what you get," he said. "But I'm honest. I've never lied to a kid. If you lose trust, you can never have a relationship. I'm very emotional, and I may wear on you. I've [been] very straightforward."
A definite direction
Friedgen had some questions of his own for Yow. He wanted to know why Maryland had not been able to win for 15 years
The Terps went through three athletics directors in less than a decade before Yow arrived. The athletics department found itself $60 million in debt when Yow came. She has brought the debt down to $22 million.
A major question had been about Maryland's direction since the death of basketball player Len Bias in the mid-1980s and the aftermath of those problems.
All of those factors contributed to a lack of direction and purpose for the football program.
"My philosophy is I believe in the student athlete," Friedgen said. "What I make important is what will be important. If I make academics important, it'll be important.
"I believe in recruiting good-character kids," he said. "If you don't, you're building a house on a bad foundation. I believe in organization. I have a five-year plan. I have a policy book. I have job descriptions for everybody who works for me. I have control of everybody who works under me."
The coach said he has been impressed with what he has seen at the university. "Maryland has a huge student body" of 28,000, he said. "The average SAT score here is 1,275.
"I've met with the president [Mote] on several occasions," he said. "He wants to be on the sideline for games. He's very committed to the program. I had a recruit whose mother wasn't sure about Maryland academically. He spent more than an hour with her to assure her. We have three full-time academic support people, and we have another who works with learning-disabled students. Some schools won't admit they have learning-disabled students."
A pleasant surprise
"The only thing I hadn't anticipated was the excitement here for football," Friedgen said. "You've got to remember -- I've been in relative obscurity over the years. But the people up here are pumped up. It's flattering. I just didn't anticipate it. I didn't expect the commitment from the administration I got.
"This place has a lot of potential," he said. "Coach Ross always said this place had more potential than Georgia Tech."
Georgia Tech has 68,000 living alumni, Friedgen said, Maryland has 150,000 in a 10-mile radius of the campus. He said he has received 60 letters a day since he arrived, all positive. Boomer Esiason, whom Friedgen coached in the mid-1980s, has been a strong supporter and is a very influential alumnus, both personally and financially.
"Debbie [Yow] told me she had been watching me for four years," Friedgen said. "She said she had seen me on the sidelines. 'I've seen you chew 'em out, and I've seen you hug 'em. I watched everybody get quiet when you approached.' "
Now, Friedgen finally is where he always has wanted to be.
"If this had never happened, I would have been OK," he said, "But I would never have been fulfilled."
