Sept. 28, 2004

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen:

On what the offense will work on in the bye week:
"There are some areas we feel like we need to polish up and we want to get better at. I think it's really a week to go back to our fundamentals and get better at them. Even though we had a tremendous output [Saturday against Duke], we weren't really pleased with the way we played and I think we can play better."

On the Duke game:
"When I look at the Duke game, I think we benefited from the West Virginia game. I think we grew up some. We are going to have to play at a higher level than what we did at Duke in order to be successful in the last seven games. We can win all of our games or we can lose all of our games. That's the way this league is now. We really have to take our whole game to another level."

On the bye week and the amount of practice:
"In the past we've probably practiced more, I just sense our team is a little tired and beat up right now. I am going to try to get them rested while trying to keep us sharp and improve on some of the things we have to improve on. I hope I am making the right call. As I get older, I think more is not necessarily better. Maybe I'm maturing, too."

On the running backs:
"We started Sammy [Maldonado] Saturday because we felt he deserved it, but I thought that Josh [Allen] was back to his old self. I thought if anyone played really well on Saturday it was our two running backs. Josh has a burst that when he's running well he can run away from people and I saw that again on Saturday. Sammy's a senior and has worked very hard and has been playing very well. They compliment each other so well. Their style of running keeps people off balance. When Josh gets in there he's going to have a burst and maybe run by you, and then Sammy comes in there and just mashes you and runs right over you."

On the progress of QB Joel Statham:
"I see him making progress. Is he there yet? No. Is he making progress in the right direction? I think he is. He made some very good throws the other day. No one's thrown the ball on Duke like we did. So our receivers and our quarterback must have been doing something right in that game."

On the progress of the defense:
"The thing about our defense is that they are playing very hard and they are fundamentally sound. I think they are playing well as a unit. I looked at the tape from the last two weeks and I look at our pad position, and up front we are under the offensive linemen and people aren't knocking our line off the ball. When you do that then your linebackers are going to be able to make a lot of plays. People have tried to test us in the secondary, and Gerrick McPhearson and Reuben Haigler have held up against the pass and that's where people are going after us. Ray Custis and Chris Kelley have played well at safety. I think our defense is playing well because we play well together."

On TE Vernon Davis:
"He's a great kid. He's always up. He brings energy into the room and into the huddle. He's a confident individual who believes he can get it done, yet he doesn't have a very big ego. He has a tremendous amount of physical talent and I think he's just going to get better and better. He's still learning. He's playing a position that's tough. He has a lot of things to think about and still has room to grow in that area, but he's so eager to learn. He wants to be the best. To me, we just need to find ways to get him the ball because good things are going to happen."