Oct. 19, 2001

By RICHARD ROSENBLATT
AP Football Writer

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- It's near the end of a two-hour workout on a crisp autumn evening. On the practice fields adjacent to Byrd Stadium at the University of Maryland, quarterback Shaun Hill is running the two-minute drill.

Zip. Complete. Hill dances forward, his arms flapping signals for the next play as his teammates quickly line up over the ball. Zip. Complete again. The first-down chain is moving now, the coaches are screaming, and tailback Marc Riley is strutting along the sideline.

"Best two-minute in the business," he chanted. "Best two-minute in the business."

Zip. Zip. Touchdown. That's a wrap.

The players gathered around their rookie coach, 54-year-old Ralph Friedgen, affectionately known as "Fridge." Why? Because he's large. Maybe extra large. "My dad's big, my uncles are big, my family is big," he said earlier, in the warmth of his office. "I can't change what I can't control."

Before the team jogs to the locker room, Friedgen offers a few words of encouragement. Then, bunched next to each other, the players start a rhythmic bounce. Up and down. Up and down. And a chant: "ACC champs. ACC champs."

Friedgen is back at his alma mater, and suddenly the Terps are terrific again- 6-0 for the first time since 1978, with their highest ranking (No. 12) since opening the '85 season at No. 7.

With tailback Bruce Perry averaging 145 yards and linebacker E.J. Henderson starring on defense, the Terps are scoring 32.2 points per game and allowing 14.7. They are third nationally in turnover margin at plus-2.3.

When Friedgen arrived from Georgia Tech, his new players were thinking "six wins, bowl eligible." The Fridge laughs. He's thinking national championship, "but I was probably the only one who believed it.

"Look, I wouldn't have come here if I didn't think we could be successful," he continued, noting he can recruit all the players he needs within a five-hour drive from campus. "I was beyond the point of just taking a head coaching job to be a head coach."

An expected win over Duke (0-6) on Saturday sends Maryland to Tallahassee, Fla., next week with a chance to end Florida State's nine-year run as ACC champs. Even with a loss to the Seminoles, the Terps could still win the ACC and an automatic berth in a $6 million Bowl Championship Series game.

Not bad for a program that has only a 1990 Independence Bowl trophy on display at the Gossett Football Team House.

"Usually, the students can't wait for football to end and basketball to begin," fifth-year senior linebacker Aaron Thompson said. "It's different now. The support has been great."

Says athletic director Deborah Yow: "This has been extraordinary for morale. There's a spring in the step of the employees, a sense of pride."

At Midnight Madness last week, some football players attended the Terps' opening basketball practice. Fans at Cole Field House began chanting "6-0, 6-0," prompting coach Gary Williams to guarantee that "the next time we play Duke, we'll win!" Williams, whose Terps lost to the Blue Devils in the Final Four, was referring to Saturday's game.

Maryland's football turnaround is no accident. Friedgen is one of the great offensive innovators in the game- college or pro. He was a Georgia Tech assistant under Bobby Ross when the Yellow Jackets shared the national crown in 1990, an assistant under Ross when the San Diego Chargers reached the 1995 Super Bowl, and the Terps' offensive coordinator under Ross in 1984 for college football's greatest comeback --Maryland 42, Miami 40 -- after the Hurricanes led 31-0 at the half.

The past four seasons, he turned Georgia Tech's offense into a scoring machine, first with Heisman Trophy runner-up Joe Hamilton, and last year behind quarterback George Godsey. The Terps -- and Yow -- have firsthand knowledge of Friedgen's "eclectic" offense under George O'Leary. Maryland lost all four games from 1997-00 by an average score of 38-21.

So when Yow dismissed Ron Vanderlinden after four losing seasons, she immediately went to Friedgen.

"I had been watching him for four years after he left San Diego," Yow said. "As an AD, you hope for the best but plan for the worst. I hoped the existing coaching situation would work out. But when we decided to make the change, Coach Friedgen was already on top of the list."

Yow also met with players and listened to suggestions before meeting with Friedgen. Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez and East Carolina's Steve Logan were mentioned before Thompson, according to Yow, said: "I don't know his name but could you get that guy that coaches the offense down at Georgia Tech?"

Friedgen, passed over more than once in the late-1980s and '90s when Maryland needed a coach, got the job this time. He went out and made the unusual move of hiring two former head coaches- Charlie Taaffe (The Citadel) runs the offense, Gary Blackney (Bowling Green) the defense. His reasoning? "I can't wait around to be making rookie head coaching mistakes at 54," Friedgen said.

Then he laid down the law to his players: Work hard, follow the rules and you'll win. Others before him -- Joe Krivac, Mark Duffner and Vanderlinden -- gave similar pep talks. Thompson had a good feeling about this speech.

"I knew he was the one. He had confidence written all over him," he said. "The way he talked, the way he looked you in the eye. I knew about him, knew about what he did at Georgia Tech."

Which brings us back to that two-minute drill the Terps work on at the end of every practice.

Last Thursday night, Maryland had the ball with 78 seconds left and no time outs, trailing Georgia Tech 17-14. Hill hit 4-of-6 passes for 51 yards and Nick Novak kicked a 46-yard, last-play field goal to force overtime. Novak won the game with a 26-yard field goal in the first OT.

"That's something that wouldn't have happened here before," Hill said. "The chips were falling the other way then. Maybe now it's time for the chips to fall our way."