Saturday Practice Report from Toyota Gator Bowl
12/27/2003 7:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 27, 2003
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Maryland Terrapins had their first workout Saturday in preparation for the 2004 Toyota Gator Bowl. Maryland is practicing on the soccer and football practice fields at Jacksonville University, about 15 minutes from the team hotel - the Jacksonville Omni. The Terps had a full workout in pads, using their normal Monday practice schedule. Many coaches and staff members were in shorts, taking advantage of the 63-degree, sunny day. The Terps worked out from 10:45 until nearly 1 p.m.
Quotes from Maryland Head Coach Ralph Friedgen following Saturday's practice for the Toyota Gator Bowl:
On the nice weather:
"This beats working out in cold weather. It was beautiful today. We like where our kids are in preparation. We're not there yet, but we're working on it."
On whether it's good to get back to work after the holidays:
"It is. We've had such a sporadic type of workouts. We only went five days before exams, took all of exams off, then practiced three days after exams. Now it's been four days since our last practice. Our practice today was good. We could be a little bit sharper, but that's to be expected. I thought our effort, intensity and enthusiasm were really good. I was happy with that."
On today's practice issues:
"We were working on the game plan. That's already in, but we're just perfecting it. We're trying to get the fundamentals down. That's where I thought we were a little rusty, on our fundamentals. We've got to get better at that... To me this is a Monday (in terms of the game-week preparation schedule) and we run pretty good on Monday. We had a little longer practice than we normally do. But because of the layoff, I need to run them now to make sure they're in shape. We'll cut down the running as the practices go on and their shape gets better. We didn't do anything more than we normally do."
On staying focused this week:
"It's a fine line. You definitely want the players to have a good time, otherwise they won't want to go to bowls. I think the first year I tried to get another Spring Practice out of it. I think you can get enough out of that if you continue to work your young kids. In all of our fundamental drills, we keep our young kids in those drills, so they're getting more reps. I don't do that anymore because of the way our exams fall. I think we'll end up with 12 practices for this game and I think that's plenty if you do them right."
On Bruce Perry starting:
"If Bruce is healthy, I think he'll be the starter. Right now I don't have any indication he won't be healthy. I think we owe that to Bruce being his last game. To me, I think Josh (Allen) understands that, but both are going to play."
On the difference in WVU between earlier and now:
"I think there is a lot of difference. They're running the ball very, very well. They're executing well and they're throwing the ball deep. Defensively, they're really attacking the line of scrimmage. We always felt they were a very good defense. Wiley and the whole corps of linebackers are excellent... To me, they're a BCS team. They're one play away. They could have beaten Miami. If not for that play, they're in the BCS and Miami is probably in this game or Pittsburgh. I think they're a very good football team that's playing very well right now."
