April 30, 2005

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The following are quotes from University of Maryland head football coach Ralph Friedgen following today's annual Red/White game. The Terrapins put the wraps on spring and will now gear up for summer and ultimately the September 3rd opener against Navy in Baltimore.

On the game
I thought the hitting and the enthusiasm was pretty good. We got some guys nicked up. William Kershaw had a hip pointer, Richard Taylor sprained his MCL, Brad Schell broke his collar bone. Saha played strong safety for both teams and did a heck of a job. All in all, I thought it was a good scrimmage. We got some things done, and I was impressed with the return guys. I think Josh Wilson, Jo Jo Walker, and Vernon Davis can all be a threat there. For a spring practice, the hitting was pretty good. I could hear them on kickoff returns and that was a positive.

On the defense
I thought our defense, especially our first team defense, played very well. I saw Christian Varner and Eric Lenz on our second team making a lot of plays. I thought Wilson and [Gerrick] McPherson both played well at cornerback.

On the offense
Offensively, I thought the quarterbacks played okay. They missed some opportunities they had. We had one turnover, and a couple of missed reads, and a couple of situations I thought they could have played better in. But I didn't think they did anything that would cause us to lose a game. Sam [Hollenbach] made a play where he scrambled and found a guy in the end zone for the touchdown and I thought Joel [Statham] made some good throws. I think that situation is what it is. We're better than what we were, but we've got to continue to improve to be a good football team.

On the spring overall
Overall, I am happy with where we're at. We've got a lot of work to do to become a real good football team, but I think we've made progress this spring.

On the running backs
Both Mario Merrills and Keon Lattimore impressed me. Keon is just learning how to run. I've been on him all spring about running the ball more north-south, but he gets on the perimeter and he's trying to run a guy over who's diving at his feet, and he's got to be a better athlete there and just make that guy miss him. If he did, he would have some bigger runs. I thought Mario did a good job of running the ball north-south, but overall both of them did a nice job.

On the quarterbacks
I don't think anyone is the outright leader yet. I think both of them need to get better for us to be where we want to be, but I think we're a lot better than we were last year. There is an air of confidence about them, and every now and then we get in a game-type scrimmage, and sometimes we don't read our keys and that's when we get in trouble. Sam made a nice throw to Vernon, but to get that in there, it took a perfect throw, and he probably could have gone down in the flat and gotten an easy throw. That's the type of thing that we need to watch.