Quotes From Day 2 At The Orange Bowl

Dec. 27, 2001

HEAD COACH RALPH FRIEDGEN

On the health of the team heading into the FedEx Orange Bowl:
"We're kind of taking some hits in the offensive line right now, but I'm happy with the way we've worked. I think they're doing a pretty good job. Also, Bruce [Perry] has been having this problem with an abdominal pull. He just ran outside and it bothered him so I don't know where he is at."

On shaking off the Christmas rust:
"I think the Christmas rust was out yesterday. Some of the nightlife rust was still with us today. That happens in bowl games. The thing I liked today is I thought they came to practice even though they weren't at 100 percent. They were willing to work and they put in a good day's work and that's what I was happy with."

On the teams' free time in South Florida:
"Today I'm gonna give them a two o'clock curfew. Then tomorrow it goes to one o'clock. Then the next day it is twelve o'clock and then we're back with eleven o'clock.

"That's part of the bowl. These people have been kind enough to put aside things at the beach where they can have a good time and I think that's an experience they need to have. I want to see some of the parachutes they have to pull these guys. I tell ya what, you ain't gonna see me up there."

QUARTERBACK SHAUN HILL

On driving to Miami with three other players rather than flying:
"We had a good trip down here. It was better than I was expecting. Obviously the weather was increasingly better as the further we got down here. So it was nice. It took 17 hours to get down here. It was me and three other guys."

On free time in South Florida:
"I'll definitely do the jet skiing. I've done that one time before in the ocean. It was unbelievable, but I don't know about the para-sailing. I'm not much of a height guy."

On getting back to practice after the layoff:
"At first it was really relaxing. We got to take some time off and kind of heal up. And then as we've come back we've kinda been chipping away at the rust and really got that all knocked off before we left [College Park, Md.]. I think we're back in the full swing of things now and probably have been for over a week."

"From our first practice back to today we've improved greatly. I think we've passed where we were going into the last part of the season. I think we're moving in the right direction. Obviously we have to get better until January 2nd and then we'll be ready to tie it on.

"I think it's better because we were able to back and kind of work on the basics and get some of the timing things down again with all of the with all of the receivers not just the main ones. So I think we're a little deeper than we were at the end of the season."

On the whether the Maryland offense will be wide open in the Orange Bowl:
"I hope you expect that every week. We expect that from ourselves, to go out and play as an offense. I wouldn't expect this to be any different.

On what this game means to the Maryland football program:
"This game is huge for this program. It's a chance to put our school on the level we want to be at. To beat a Florida, which is a perennial power year in and year out, would kind of solidify our spot in the upper echelon of the NCAA. And that is where we want to be sitting.

LINEBACKER E.J. HENDERSON

On whether Maryland is getting the respect they deserve:
"No. Not quite. Not yet. It's gonna take a good game or a couple quarters for everybody to see what we're really made of."

On practice so far in South Florida:
"In think we're doing good. Yesterday we just got off the plane came out here and practiced. Coach [Freidgen] said we had a real good practice. Today we had a long one. We stuck through it in the heat and we came out ready to play."

ASSISTANT COACH CHARLIE TAAFE (OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR)

On what to expect from Maryland's offense:
"As good a running team as we've been when people load the box up on you and put an extra guy in the box or they over commit defenders to defending the option, then you get a lot of one-on-one opportunities outside. When that happens we have to capitalize on that. That's something we tried to grow into our offense as the season has gone on and that's something we'll obviously looking for in this football game. We expect they'll {Florida] play some man coverage against us and try and go one-on-one with us outside on our receivers. When that happens we've got to be able to take advantage of those opportunities."

On preparing for Florida's speed on defense:
"I don't know if you can prepare that. You can't simulate that look with the great quickness and speed that they have. They're one of the elite football teams in the country. We're just gonna line up and do the things we do and the things that got us to this point. Obviously we're gooing to have to out execute Florida's defense to win those battles over four quarters. We're going to run our offense. We're going to try and run the football. The teams that have had some success against their defense this year have been teams that have been able to run the football. For us to be really good offensively, to run our offense, we have to run the football."

On the whether the Maryland offense will be wide open in the Orange Bowl:
"We're going to play this as a one game season. This is a great opportunity to showcase our program in our first year to go against one of the great football programs in the country. When you play a game like this you're not going to hold anything back. You're going to give your best shot and fire all your bullets and see what happens. We're going to do everything we can to win the football game and it's going to take a great effort. The effort will be there and what it comes down to in a game like this is the execution."

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