Sept. 16, 2003
The following are University of Maryland head football coach Ralph Friedgen's comments from his weekly gathering with local media. Friedgen and the Terrapins face West Virginia on Saturday at Byrd Stadium.
On team's injury situation:
"Lamar Bryant practiced last night and hopefully everything will go well. He says he has no pain, but I told him to take it easy and not do too much too soon. Bruce Perry did not practice last night, he's probably doubtful for the game. Bernie Fiddler will probably be unavailable for Saturday."
On Josh Allen:
"I thought Josh had a great game on Saturday. I had a talk with Josh last week and I felt he wasn't running the way he's capable of running. I thought he was one of the kids who was tentative. I noticed in practice last week that he was running very well so I knew he was going to have a good game, I just didn't know he was going to have it that fast."
On Scott McBrien Facing His Former Team:
"Scott's a pretty stoic individual; I always say he'd make a good poker player. I'm sure the game is important to him, but he's never indicated to me that it's any more important than any other game. I thought he practiced well last night, for the most part he's been practicing well all season, and I thought he played a lot better Saturday that he had been playing."
On the Maryland-West Virginia Series:
"Any time you're able to play a team year in and year out, especially a team from a bordering state, it takes on tremendous meaning not only with the fans, but also with recruiting. The fact that they're in the BIG EAST, we're in the ACC...we know they have a very good football program and we give them a lot of respect. It's been a great series and it's one I'd like to maintain. I have a great deal of respect for Coach Rodriguez and the things that he does both offensively and defensively. It's good for the community and it's good for both states. Hopefully we'll have an even bigger crowd than we had last Saturday because I know when we go up there it's always a boisterous crowd and it's one of the tougher place to play."
"It's a crucial game for both teams. Both teams are 1-2, the winner builds momentum getting ready for the rest of the season, the loser has to sit back and find some answers and try to regroup. This is a very big game in our season and we have to be ready to play."
On the team's defense:
"The big thing our defense has to do is stop giving up big plays. Once we keep people contained we do a pretty good job. We're tackling very well. We were more aggressive last week in our pass defense."
On Hurricane Isabel possibly disrupting Saturday's game:
"We practice in the evenings and we had a torrential downpour but we didn't go in until lightning struck nearby. I told them 'We're getting ready for Isabel, so stop looking to go in'."
On what makes Steve Suter a great returner:
"First of all he can catch the football, and he's fearless in catching the football. The next thing he does that's really important is that he can make one or two guys miss. If you notice on most of his returns, the first or second guy has missed him. Then, because he'll make guys miss, guys block harder for him. With that, he's got great speed.
