Terp Highlights Under Friedgen
1/2/2003 7:00:00 AM | Football
• The 64 wins in eight seasons are more than the Terps had (60) in the 15 years prior to his arrival. The win total ranks fourth in school history and his winning percentage (.640) is eighth all-time in ACC annals among coaches with at least three years on the job.
• Under Friedgen, the Terps posted a school-record three-straight bowl wins (2003, 04, 06), culminating with a 24-7 triumph over Purdue in the 2006 Champs Sports Bowl. The Terps have out-scored their last four bowl opponents by a 151-83 margin. He has a 4-2 bowl mark as a head coach.
• Four of the school's 13 nine-win seasons have come in Friedgen's eight years as head coach.
• A school record-tying 11-victory season in 2002, when the Terps won 10 of their last 11 games. Only the 1976 team won as many games.
• Maryland was among the best in the nation last season playing ranked opponents. The Terps went 4-1 vs. ranked foes (AP poll) with wins vs. No. 23 Cal, No. 20 Clemson, No. 21 Wake Forest and No. 17 UNC. The Terps were one of only five teams in the nation (also Florida, Oklahoma, USC and Texas) to beat at least four Top 25 teams. The other four all finished in the top five of the final polls.
• During 2007, the Terps defeated two top-10 teams (No. 10 Rutgers, No. 8 Boston College). The Terps had never beaten two Top 10 teams in the same season. They were also one of only four teams in the nation (LSU, Kentucky and Illinois) to accomplish that feat in 2007.
• Maryland was joined by only four other Division I-A schools - Miami (Fla.), Oklahoma, Texas and Washington State - to have won as many as 10 games in the 2001, 2002 and 2003 seasons.
• A top-20 final national ranking in both major national polls for three straight years (2001-03). Maryland ended 2003 ranked 17th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' poll and 20th by the Associated Press. In 2002, the Terps were ranked 13th in both polls, and in 2001 the team finished 10th in the ESPN/USA Today poll and 11th in the AP standings. It was the program's best three-year final rankings since 1974-76 (when the Terps finished 13th, 13th and eighth).
• Friedgen is the third-most successful seventh-year coach in ACC history, with his 56-31 mark eclipsing those of league mentors Dick Sheridan, Tommy Bowden, Bill Dooley and Mack Brown.
• He is the second-most successful sixth-year coach in ACC history, with his 50-24 mark (through the end of 2006) eclipsing those of such former league mentors as Bobby Ross and Lou Holtz. Friedgen is currently 19th among all active coaches for Football Bowl Division (formerly Division I-A) victories.
• In his first four years, Friedgen set the ACC record for wins (36) by a fourth-year head coach. He tied for second in the ACC in wins by a fifth-year coach.
• Bowl appearances in six of his first eight seasons, including dominating wins in the 2004 Toyota Gator Bowl (41-7 over West Virginia) and a 2002 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl victory over perennial national power Tennessee (a team ranked fifth in the two major preseason polls). The Terrapins also earned a BCS Orange Bowl berth during the 2001 campaign.
• Friedgen has a 37-27 (.578) Atlantic Coast Conference record, including a 7-1 mark in 2001 when the Terps became the first team other than Florida State to win an outright ACC title since the Seminoles joined the league, and a 6-2 mark and runner-up finish in 2002.
• By winning the ACC title in 2001, Friedgen became the first mentor in conference history to win the championship in his first year as a head coach. He also tied the mark of 10-2 set by Ken Hatfield (Clemson) in 1990, the best record ever by an ACC coach in his first season.
• 39 wins in 51 games at Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium, where the Terps averaged a school-record 52,426 fans in 2005 and 51,263 in 2007.
• Three of the last eight ACC Defensive Players of the Year.
• 48 national television appearances, including a school-record eight showings in 2002. The Terrapins played on national television or ABC regional six times in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and eight times in 2008.
• The program's first major national award winner since 1974 in linebacker E.J. Henderson, a two-time consensus first team All-American who was named the winner of the Dick Butkus Award (nation's outstanding linebacker) and the Chuck Bednarik Trophy (nation's outstanding defensive player) in 2002.
• Back-to-back school records in number of first team All-ACC performers in 2001 (7) and 2002 (8) and an ACC-best 13 overall all-conference honors (2001).
• A league-best 14 representatives on the last two Academic All-ACC teams (eight in 2008; six in 2007).
• 33 weeks in at least one of the country's two major Top 25 polls, including a streak of seven consecutive weeks at the start of the 2004 season.
• The only consensus national coach of the year award (2001) in Maryland football history. He was one of 20 coaches around the nation on the watch list for the 2008 Paul `Bear' Bryant Coach of the Year Award.
• Five straight seasons of over 31,000 season tickets sold (2004-present). Twenty of the top 25 all-time highest crowds at Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium have come during the last seven seasons.
• Back-to-back school scoring records (2001 and 2002) and a two-year team scoring average of more than 33 points per game in those seasons.
• A NCAA-low four passing touchdowns allowed in 2005. The defense also had four straight seasons (2001-2004) in which it allowed 20 points or less a contest.
• In his eight seasons, the Terps have earned 41 Academic All-ACC honors and 19 All-America accolades, including two first-teamers (Vernon Davis and D'Qwell Jackson) in 2005.
