Sept. 7, 2004

COLLEGE PARK, Md.

Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen:

On Temple:
"Our biggest concern this week with Temple is their quarterback. He's really a very good athlete and I've studied some tape of him and his decision-making and throwing ability is good. He's also very mobile. He's 6-2, 240 pounds, and they run the option. That's a concern of mine, that we are facing the option for the first time. I didn't know how much they threw the ball; they throw it quite a bit. What I'm trying to do is make sure our defense gets the right looks in practice. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain so things along those lines concern me. They have some good linebackers who run very well. They're a big team. This is a big team, bigger than the team we played last week."

On the victory over Northern Illinois:
"We know this is a work in progess. I'm elated that we won the game. That is the concern I had, that we would make mistakes and it would cost us the game. I told our team I think we were better than three points over Northern Illinois but you can't turn the ball over and expect to win. I told them we dodged a bullet. Anytime you don't play as well as you are capable of playing and still win, that's a big plus."

"After looking at the tape of the Northern Illinois game, I saw we did a lot of good things as well as some not so good. I thought defensively Shawne Merriman played very very well. We put him up for conference honors along with D'Qwell Jackson. Our interior line played better and played longer than we anticipated a lot of them playing. Chris Kelley also had a very fine game."

"On offense, I thought our offensive line played extremely well. C.J. Brooks, Stephon Heyer, Kyle Schmitt, Lou Lombardo and Russell Bonham stepped up and played well. Brandon Nixon played and Andrew Crummey also played well. We ran the ball and protected pretty good."

"Overall I was pleased with the way we hung in there and fought to win the game and now I think the biggest thing we have to do is improve on our play from last week and get better this week and hopefully get another win."

"Our receivers and our passing game is not where it needs to be. I think we're behind because we've had some injuries in training camp. But, we did do some good things and there were some good catches made and some good throws. The biggest thing we have to do offensively is stop the turnovers and get better in that light."

On quarterback Joel Statham's performance vs. NIU:
"From a mental standpoint I think Joel did a good job. He made some plays in the second half and, as I said after the game, I was pleased with the way he hung in there."

"What I try to do is point out the positives to Joel, I think he knows the negatives. I didn't really sit down and go over tape with him; I know [offensive coordinator] Charlie [Taaffe] did. The biggest thing we can draw from the game with Joel is that he did keep his composure. I think he had three turnovers in his first four possessions. There are a lot of kids who wouldn't want to go back out there after that. But I never saw that in him. A lot of times kids get "a deer in the headlights" look and he never had that. He stayed calm and came in and made some plays."

"Now, Joel has his first win as a quarterback. I'm looking for him to be better and more poised this week."

On senior Chris Kelley:
"Chris is a great story in our program. He was a highly recruited kid out of Seneca Valley and played linebacker and quarterback in high school. He came here and really struggled at quarterback so he came to me and asked to be moved to defense during the year. I told him I couldn't do that, but if he wanted to move in the spring that we could do that. We did it and he struggled to play defensive back. He played linebacker in high school and now he had to cover guys. But he was always very aggressive. He was a guy who we didn't know whether he would be a player for us or not. But he really worked at it on the off-season, studying tape and this spring he was a pleasant surprise. He had a great spring and I've said many times that he is the most improved defensive player we have. Now in the fall, he's played even better than he did in the spring. Not only is he one of our better defensive players, he's one of our leaders. He plays with such enthusiasm and he loves to play football. It makes me feel good because here's a kid who's had some physical disappointments with the three knee operations. He was able to persevere and be successful and it's a neat story. And I might add he's going to graduate in May."