Dec. 27, 2006

Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen

On the seniors being carried off the field:

It's a thing they do the last practice. The seniors get to request who they want to carry them off the field. It's kind of an appreciation of what they've done and the years they competed here. We've had it as a tradition since I've been here.

On the final practice before Friday's game:

It was OK. We've been practicing better than this, probably because people were out here. I think this last practice kind of got to them a little bit. They're probably tired of practicing. They want to play. This has been our 14th day of practicing for Purdue. It wasn't as sharp as what it's been. I was concerned about that, but as I look back over the last couple practices, I was pretty pleased with the way they played. We've gotten a lot better, and I'm hoping it shows on Friday. When I watch the tape, I seem some of our walk-on scout team guys have gotten better.

On players he is seeing improvement in:

Scott Burley, I wish he'd played like this all year. He's really starting to do a lot of good things. On defense, I see Jeff Allen making some plays and Anthony Wiseman is a little bit better. I'm encouraged by that.

On the players wearing mixed-up jersey numbers:

I don't mind them changing their numbers because that's a way they honor their friends. They wanted to change complete jerseys. Well, red going against red and white going against white, I have a tough enough time.

On the offensive philosophy:

There were times this year where we had to play conservative to win the football game. We take some heat because we don't have great stats, but I do what I have to do to win the football game. If it means throwing only nine passes or throwing 35 passes, I'm going to try to put our kids in the best situation possible to win, and that means eliminating errors. If I was a guy that was just worried about stats, we could probably have a lot better stats but we wouldn't have as good a record.