Football Game Notes -- Terps vs. Akron
9/2/2002 8:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 2, 2002
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
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The Game
- The University of Maryland football team will look to return to its winning ways this weekend as it will play host to the University of Akron Zips at Byrd Stadium in the 2002 home opener. Kickoff for the game is set for 6:07 p.m. and the game will be televised locally on Comcast SportsNet on a pay-per-view basis while being broadcast on the Terrapin Radio Network (radio pre-game starts at 5:30 p.m.).
- The Terrapins opened their season with a disappointing 22-0 defeat at the hands of Notre Dame in the first meeting between the two schools and the 20th and final Kickoff Classic in New Jersey's Meadowlands. Maryland's troubles on offense marked the first time since 1998 (23-0 at Clemson on 10/10/98) that it had failed to score in a game.
- Maryland is 52-26-1 (.665) all-time in home openers and has won four in a row. It carries a seven-game home winning streak into the season after tallying a perfect 7-0 record at Byrd Stadium a year ago.
- Like the Terps, Akron opened its season on a down note, falling to Iowa, 57-21, in its season opener. The Zips actually outscored the Hawkeyes in the game's final three quarters in Iowa City, but the first quarter doomed their efforts early as they fell behind 37-0 before finding the end zone.
- This week's game is the start of a four-game home stand for the Terrapins. The four-game stretch will mark the first time since 1983 -- and just the third time since 1915 -- that Maryland will have played that many consecutive games at Byrd Stadium. The five games to open the season without a true road date (four home games plus the neutral game vs. Notre Dame) is unprecedented in school history.
Series Notes
- This week's meeting between the Terrapins and Zips marks the first-ever meeting between two schools.
- Akron is one of two Mid-American Conference schools the Terrapins will face this year as they will also play host to Eastern Michigan in two weeks, a team it beat 50-3 a year ago.
- The ACC has already had a tough time with the MAC this year as both North Carolina and Wake Forest lost to MAC schools last week. UNC fell to Miami of Ohio, 27-21, while Wake lost an overtime game to Northern Illinois, 42-41.
- The meeting between the Terps and Zips will mark the first ever between Akron and an Atlantic Coast Conference school. It will not be so long before the Zips square off with an ACC team for the second time as it heads to Virginia on September 21.
Big Play E.J.
- Senior All-American and consensus national defensive player of the year favorite E.J. Henderson burst onto the national scene last season and -- after an offseason of worries about his back -- has proven he is ready to return to lead the Terp defense again in 2002.
- With one game down in his final year at Maryland, Henderson looks like the E.J. of old, a relief to the Terps considering he had back surgery on April 8 and missed all of spring practice. Henderson finished game one of this season with typical numbers -- a team-high 16 tackles (11 solo), one tackle for loss, one pass breakup, two QB hurries and one forced fumble.
- A 2001 consensus All-American selection, Butkus Award finalist and ACC Player and Defensive Player of the Year, Henderson has led the Terrapins in tackles in each of the past two seasons. In 2000, he led the way with 109 tackles despite missing a game-and-a-half due to injury before posting a spectacular ACC-leading 150 tackles last season.
- Henderson has led Maryland in tackling in all but one game (Virginia in 2001) the last two years.
- One game into the season, Henderson has posted 314 career tackles. He needs 34 tackles to move into the Maryland career top 10 and currently stands 13th.
- With 28 TFLs last season, Henderson posted the best single season in modern Maryland history. His four tackles behind the line against Clemson broke the record of 24 set by the legendary Randy White in 1974, the first season the stat began being kept at Maryland.
- With two more tackles for loss, Henderson will surpass the Maryland career record of 45 set by Aaron Thompson (1998-2001).
- Henderson has averaged 13.8 tackles per game (221 total) in his last 16 games dating back to the 2000 season.
- In his two-plus years at Maryland, Henderson has notched double-digits in tackles 17 times (nine times last year).
- Dating back to his sophomore season, Henderson has finished with double-digit tackle performances in 14 of the last 16 games. On five occasions he had 17 tackles or more.
- Henderson's single-game high in tackles (20) came in the ACC-clinching win at NC State last year.
Three-For-One
- With the hiring of Ralph Friedgen and Friedgen's ensuing hires of offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe and defensive coordinator Gary Blackney prior to the 2001 season, the Terrapins got the equivalent of three head coaches atop one coaching staff. Though Friedgen is in just his second season as a head coach, Taaffe (Montreal Alouettes and The Citadel) and Blackney (Bowling Green) each bring head coaching experience to the table.
- Taaffe and Blackney were able to maintain success virtually everywhere they had been as head coaches. While in Montreal, Taaffe guided the Alouettes to a combined 25-14 record (two seasons) and an appearance in the 2000 Grey Cup. In 1999 and 2000, he was named the CFL's Coach of the Year, making him only the second coach to earn such an honor in back-to-back seasons (Marv Levy the first in 1974) and the first ever to do so in his first two campaigns. In addition, he is the winningest coach in The Citadel's history.
- Blackney was able to achieve in his own right as a head coach at Bowling Green. In 10 successful seasons, Blackney won 60 games (third most in school history), was the only coach in school history to win a bowl game (his Falcons won the 1991 California Raisin Bowl and the 1992 Las Vegas Bowl) and was the only coach to win more than 10 games in back-to-back seasons (11 in 1991; 10 in 1992).
- Now in their second seasons at Maryland, the trio comprises one of the most experienced triumvirates in college football. With their 85 years of combined, full-time experience at the college and/or pro levels, Friedgen, Taaffe and Blackney are the fifth-most experienced trio in Division I-A.
A Wealth of Experience
- The coaching experience does not end on the Terrapin coaching staff with Coach Friedgen and his coordinators. The Maryland staff overall possesses a combined total of 206 years of full-time experience at either the collegiate or pro levels.
- That total includes five coaches (excluding Friedgen, Taaffe and Blackney) who have been at it for 18 years or more, and the 206 years means an average of almost 21 years of experience per coach on this year's staff.
The Graduates
- Maryland has three players who earned their bachelor's degree before they even set foot on the field this season.
- Linebacker E.J. Henderson and offensive linemen Todd Wike and Matt Crawford all earned their degrees and are working toward additional degrees. All three earned their degrees this past spring, with Henderson and Crawford getting bachelor's in criminology and criminal justice while Wike earned his degree in philosophy.
Terps Sans Perry
- Less than 10 days before their opener against the Irish, the Terps learned that they would be without their top returning offensive player from a year ago, junior tailback and 2001 ACC Offensive Player of the Year Bruce Perry.
- On Tuesday, August 20, Perry suffered a third-degree tear of his left groin (adductor longus) muscle. The injury took place during warmups prior to a scrimmage as Perry's foot was stepped on by an offensive lineman and as he made an effort to pull his leg free, he felt a "pop."
- No surgery is necessary and the timetable for Perry's recovery is anticipated to be 4-8 weeks from the time of his injury.
- Perry entered this season as the lone returning finalist from last year's Doak Walker Award. He ran for 1,242 yards as a sophomore last year, his first as the Terps' starter. In addition, he finished ninth in the nation in all-purpose yards with an average of 156.2 yards per outing.
No More Secrets
- When last year began, the Terps' lone mention on any "watch lists" for national awards was punter Brooks Barnard. By season's end, the team had Barnard as a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award, E.J. Henderson as a finalist for the Butkus Award, Bruce Perry a finalist for the Doak Walker Award and Melvin Fowler a finalist for the Rimington Trophy.
- This season, those who vote are not taking any chances as Barnard is again on the Guy list, Henderson is the only returnee among Butkus finalists, Perry is the lone returnee among Doak Walker finalists and offensive lineman Todd Wike is on the watch list for the Outland and Lombardi trophies. In addition, Henderson enters the season as one of the nation's favorites for the Nagurski Award and is on the Walter Camp Player of the Year "watch list."
Lean On Seniority
- Despite the fact that this year will be the last for several big names on the Terrapin roster, the team is one that will not need to do a significant amount of replacing next year.
- Though people will ask at season's end how the Terps will replace players like E.J. Henderson, Todd Wike and Brooks Barnard, a closer look shows that there will not be a lot of turnover between this season and next. Amazingly, this year's team features a total of only 11 seniors, with just six figuring as starters on the preseason depth chart.
Senior Citizens
- Of the 11 seniors on Maryland's 2002 football roster, all but one saw action vs. the Fighting Irish. The only senior who did not play was cornerback Luke Kim, who did not make the trip. Seven of the Terps' seniors drew starting assignments.
Bootin' Barnard
- Senior All-ACC punter and Ray Guy Award hopeful Brooks Barnard thought his punting was not up to snuff in 2001. So bad, it was, that Barnard ranked seventh nationally and first in the ACC with a 44.6 yard punting average. For the sake of the 2002 season, Terp fans can only hope he was right.
- Barnard opened the 2002 season kicking off of a bad left ankle (his plant foot) after one of his teammates was pushed into him at practice two days before the Notre Dame game. He played in spite of the injury and finished with a 37.6-yard average on seven kicks. Erase a seven-yard effort on his first punt of the evening, and he would have had a solid 42.7-yard average despite the injury.
- Of Barnard's 54 punts last year, 17 were downed inside the 20 (12 inside the 20 and five inside the 10) and 14 were 50 yards or further.
- Barnard has finished each of the last two seasons ranked in the top 10 in the nation. Last year, he finished seventh with a 44.6-yard average while the year before, he finished fourth with a school-record 44.7-yard average.
- In addition to his gross punting average, Barnard has also helped the Terps' punt cover teams excel as he had a 40.4 net punting average, fourth-best in the nation and tops in the ACC a season ago.
- As impressive as any of Barnard's punting stats may be the numbers he has posted in the weight room. In offseason testing, he benched 400 pounds, cleaned 286 and was timed at 4.65 in the 40-yard dash.
Action Jackson
- In the first game of his first season of college football, true freshman D'Qwell Jackson showed why his name is pronounced as it is (dee-kwell) -- he knows how to play defense.
- Jackson made his way onto the field as a reserve against Notre Dame but played like he wouldn't be a reserve for too long in his career. The Largo, Fla., native made 12 tackles (10 solo), second-most among Terps, and added two stops behind the line of scrimmage.
- What may be even more amazing about Jackson's play in his debut is that his 12 tackles came on just 39 snaps, meaning he made a tackle nearly every three plays.
Nick the Kick
- Nick Novak came on midway through last season to help shore up the Terrapins' kicking game and help Maryland -- with the aid of punter Brooks Barnard -- stake a claim to having one of the best kicking tandems in the country.
- Novak did not attempt a kick in the season opener against Notre Dame.
- Starting with his game-tying kick at Georgia Tech a year ago, Novak made 12 of his final 14 attempts, with the lone misses being a 50-yard attempt that deflected off the midpoint of the right upright and a 62-yard attempt that fell just a few yards short (both coming just before half). He also made two 50-yarders before the half (at Florida State and versus Troy State).
- Novak set the school record for PATs in a season in 2001 with his 41st at NC State and fell just one field goal shy of tying that single-season record (17 - Dan Plocki ('88), Jess Atkinson ('84).
- Novak finished the regular season 15th nationally with 1.5 field goals per game.
- The sophomore has made 31-straight PATs and 12-straight field goals of 49 yards or less dating back to last year, his first season as the Terps' placekicker.
Coaching Connections
- Ralph Friedgen is not the only member of the Terrapin coaching staff with ties to College Park, though this is his fourth stint at Maryland (player from 1965-68; graduate assistant from 1969-72; offensive coordinator/offensive line coach from 1982-86 and the present stint).
- Inside linebackers coach Rod Sharpless played linebacker at Maryland from 1972-74, was an outside linebackers coach from 1977-80 and a wide receivers coach for the Terps in '90 and '91. Defensive line coach Dave Sollazzo was a graduate assistant for the Terrapins in 1984 and defensive line coach in '86-87.
- Sollazzo is also one of several coaches with a connection to another institution - The Citadel. Sollazzo played for (1974-76) and helped coach (1989-98) the Bulldogs, while Friedgen coached there from 1973-79, Charlie Taaffe was a head coach there from 1987-96 and outside linebackers coach Al Seamonson served there from 1987-99.
Homeboys
- In his first signing day with the Terps (2001), Ralph Friedgen said that in addition to landing some of the top recruits nationally, one of his goals was to make sure that all of the best players in the state of Maryland stayed in state and became Terps.
- Over the course of the past five years, the Maryland-D.C.-Northern Virginia recruiting area has been tapped more successfully in each ensuing year. In 1997, just 23 players on the Maryland roster hailed from either Maryland, D.C. or Northern Virginia, with six of those serving as opening-game starters. Since that time, however, numbers in both categories have risen steadily. Below is a look at the trend:
Md./D.C./No. Va. '97 '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 Players on Roster 23 34 39 46 49 54 Opening-Day Starters 6 5 7 12 10 14
Terp Alley
- In an effort to restore some tradition on gameday in College Park, the football staff created Terp Alley last year, a tradition that has become a part of the gameday experience outside of Byrd Stadium.
- For every football home game, the entire football team makes its first appearance of the day at "Terp Alley." The team is dropped off at the circle at the top of Field House Drive (between the football press box and Ludwig Field) approximately two hours before kickoff and it is led past fans gathered along the street to the football complex by the Maryland band and cheerleaders.
Iron Terps
- For the second consecutive season, Maryland boasted record strength numbers and again posted its highest number of student-athletes earning "Iron Terp" status. In preseason strength and conditioning testing this year, the Terrapins again set four team strength records.
- This year's Terps set team records for strength index, power clean, squat and bench press, improving on the previous all-time team highs that had been established since such records have been kept (started in 1983).
- Individually, six Terrapins set 11 records in disciplines at their respective positions, but the star in the weightroom was again DE Durrand Roundtree.
- Roundtree, a senior from Baltimore, did not break his records of a year ago, but still posted amazing numbers. Among them: an 826 strength index (700 is considered high), a 490-pound bench, a 720-pound squat and a 35-inch vertical jump.
First-Time Terps
- A total of 11 Terrapin players saw their first-ever action in a Maryland uniform last weekend in the Kickoff Classic against Notre Dame. That total accounted for over 20 percent of the 51 Terps who saw game time against the Irish.
- The breakdown of the 11 Terps who played in their first game as Terps is as follows:
Juniors (3) (Reuben Haigler, CB; Scott McBrien, QB; Madieu Williams, FS) Redshirt Freshmen (4) (Derrick Fenner, WR; Ricardo Dickerson, LB; Mario Merrills, TB; Derek Miller, TE) True Freshmen (4) (D'Qwell Jackson, LB; William Kershaw, LB; Shawne Merriman, LB; Jo Jo Walker, WR/KR)
- Seven Terrapins also made their first career starts last Saturday. On offense, first-timers included junior left tackle Eric Dumas, junior quarterback Scott McBrien, and sophomore tailback Jason Crawford. On defense, the list included sophomore outside linebacker Jamahl Cochran, junior inside linebacker Andrew Henley, junior outside linebacker Leroy Ambush, and junior free safety Madieu Williams.
Local Ties
- Maryland has two players who call the state of Ohio home. Sophomore TE Ryan Flynn (Youngstown) and junior DT Landon Jones (Marion) each call the Buckeye state home.
- Defensive coordinator Gary Blackney served as head coach of Bowling Green State from 1991-2000 and was an assistant at Ohio State (1984-90) prior to his stint with the Falcons.
- Outside linebackers coach Al Seamonson served as Bowling Green's special teams and linebackers coach in 2000.
- Akron does not have any players from the Maryland area but defensive tackles coach Mike Williams is a Maryland native and graduate of Bowie High School.
Grid & Hardwood Harmony
- Last year marked the first time in University of Maryland history that the school's football and basketball teams were both ranked in the nation's top six during the same week.
- The Terrapins, ranked at No. 6 heading into the Orange Bowl, were joined by the basketball Terps who -- at the same time -- had been ranked second nationally. As everyone knows at this point, the basketball Terrapins went on to claim the national title.
New-Look Terps ... Again
- The Terrapins of 2001 had a new head coach, a new look to their uniform and helmet and in the end, a whole new way of playing football compared to recent years. Though the hope is that the brand of football will remain the same under the coach who is back for year two, the Terrapins' uniforms are seeing a change -- again.
- This year, the Terps' helmets remain the same as a year ago but the uniforms are a new look designed for Maryland by Nike. The uniforms were created with the past in mind even though the look is modern; the stripes on the shoulders are reminiscent of Terp uniforms of the '50s and '60s.
Building For The Future
- When the Terrapins take the field at Byrd Stadium this year, there will be many changes to the stadium that has been home to the Terps since 1950. Some will be apparent as soon as one sets foot in the stadium and others would only be noticeable to the men who wear the Maryland colors on game day.
- The most glaring change at Byrd Stadium rests above Gossett Team House in the form of a brand new, state-of-the-art video scoreboard. The new board features a high-resolution screen that is 21-feet tall by 28-feet wide and is capable of displaying in excess of 281 trillion colors.
- In addition to the bright visible new video board, it may go overlooked by some that expansion has taken place on the building below it, the Gossett Football Team House. Thus far, the coaches' offices have been refurbished as have meeting rooms and the equipment room.
- Other phases that await completion will include the addition of a new academics support and career development unit; a new multi-purpose room that will feature a kitchen and dining facilities; a new team meeting auditorium; and an expanded entrance and lobby area.
Byrd Stadium
- Now in its 53rd year of operation, Byrd Stadium continues to serve as the home of the Terps. Opened on September 30, 1950, and constructed for a sum of $1 million, Byrd was named after Dr. H.C. "Curley" Byrd, a multi-sport star at Maryland who later became the school's head football coach and ultimately its president.
- Heading into the 2002 home opener, the Terrapins are 157-103-1 within the friendly confines of Byrd (capacity 48,055).
- Last season, Maryland went 7-0 at Byrd, notching the best record at home in any season in school history.
Ticket Information
- Individual game tickets for Terp home games (with the exception of FSU) may be purchased locally at any Ticketmaster outlet or by visiting the Maryland ticket office at Comcast Center. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com.
- For additional info or to order by phone, call (800) 462-TERP.
2001: A Look Back
- The 2001 season was an amazing one for the Maryland football team. It was a season that saw the Terps catch the eye of the ACC before drawing the attention of the nation. The following are some of the more notable accomplishments of the 2001 team and their efforts to return Maryland to national prominence.
- The '01 Terrapins gave the school its first Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1985. The team won 10 games, marking the first time since 1976 that a Terp squad had hit that mark.
- Maryland's' seven ACC wins were the most in school history. The seven wins matched the combined total of the previous four Maryland teams and bettered the mark of four other teams (1974, 1983, 1984, 1985) that won six ACC games in a season.
- In securing sole possession of the league title, Maryland became the first team other than Florida State to win the ACC outright since the Seminoles joined the conference in 1992 (the Seminoles had either owned or shared the crown every year from 1992-2000).
- Last year's team was the first in school history to win seven games at home as the Terps went a perfect 7-0 at Byrd.
