Football Practice Report #1

Aug. 13, 2004

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The following is the first of several practice reports from fall camp for the Maryland football team. The Terps opened camp on Wednesday with their annual Media Day before running through a two-and-a-half hour session at the football practice fields. Football practice reports will run every Tuesday and Friday during preseason camp with news and notes from each day's outing.

Wednesday, August 11

The Terps started the day getting fitted with their equipment for 2004 and then spending some of the morning in meetings. After an early lunch, the team got pictures taken for themselves as well as for use during television games before heading back to their locker room for interviews with local and regional press.

The afternoon held more meetings before hitting the field at 5:00 p.m. for the year's first practice. Practice was delayed about an hour as storms passed through the area and the team ultimately took the field in shorts and helmets, working with a fervor that matched the praise their head coach had given them earlier in the day for their offseason work.

In skelly (7-on-7) later in practice, true freshman Eric Lenz intercepted a pass from fellow newcomer Jordan Steffy and returned it about 25 yards for a touchdown. The leaping grab by Lenz and the ensuing return showed the athleticism coaches have been excited about from the Frederick native.

On his next two passes, Steffy came back strong, completing each of his next two passes.

Junior Shawne Merriman made another one of the day's top defensive plays, knocking down a Joel Statham pass at the line and nearly coming up with the interception after diving after the batted ball.

One of the offensive plays of the day came from sophomore QB Sam Hollenbach who completed a deep ball to WR Paschal Abiamiri. Abiamiri had a few drops in the session but appeared to be more active and played more confidently than he has in either of his two previous seasons as a Terp.

Thursday, August 12

Like Wednesday, Thursday's practice session was affected by the weather. This time, however, practice was moved to 10:00 a.m. to beat the rain that was expected, and ultimately came, later in the day. The team was again in shorts and got in a solid two-and-a-half hours.

Senior safety Ray Custis - one of the team's top performers in the offseason - made a nice play coming over to break up a long pass from Statham intended for Derrick Fenner.

Friedgen on the team's work Thursday: "We were alright. We were rusty and a little rough around the edges." The coach later went on to continue complimenting the team for their hard work and effort and explained that the rust was common after a long first day of work.

Thursday's practice ended the same as Wednesday's, with Friedgen running the first and second teams through conditioning drills while the freshmen and scout teams continued to work. The extra work for the younger players ended in conditioning as well but got the Terps' younger players more work than they would have gotten running with their respective units in the normal context of practice.

Dog Days
College Sports Television (CSTV) was out at Maryland in the last week of voluntary workouts and will return next week as part of a feature called "Dog Days," a half-hour special that will air before the start of the 2004 season. Maryland joins Texas Tech, LSU and Georgia as one of four teams that will have be featured.

Curtis Book in Stores
Brian Curtis' book, "Every Week A Season," has been published and will hit stores soon. Curtis followed a number of prestigious college programs, getting a behind-the-scenes look at each team for a week leading up to a big game. He was at Maryland the week of the Clemson game and the result is Chapter 5 of his book.

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