Fans Can Experience the 2009 ACC Football Kickoff
GREENSBORO, N.C. -
Quarterback Chris Turner and cornerback Nolan Carroll were among 24 players who addressed the media Sunday at the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Football Kickoff.
After a luncheon and group photo session with players from the other 11 teams, Turner and Carroll spent nearly four hours answering questions from a variety of print and electronic media members in the Grandover Resort.
One of the themes of the day was the Terps' preseason selection in the Atlantic Division race.
Despite coming off a season in which Maryland battled for the division crown until the final two weeks of the year and finished 8-5, including Ralph Friedgen's fourth bowl victory, many prognosticators have the Terps finishing in the lower half of the division in 2009.
They did lose 30 seniors from last season's team, but the Terps return a number of talented individuals with 38 letterwinners, including 10 starters (six offense/four defense) and two preseason All-Americans (P Travis Baltz and KR Torrey Smith), back from last year's squad which advanced to the team's sixth bowl game (Humanitarian Bowl) in the last eight years.
The team may use the predictions as a motivating factor this season.
"I can kind of understand where outsiders may be coming from with that," Turner said. "Obviously, we lost a lot of players from last season, but I really love who we have coming back. Being picked toward the bottom of the division is a theme I'm used to now in my fourth year. I feel we've been picked pretty low every year I've been here, but we've gone to bowl games every year, beaten a lot of ranked teams and competed for an ACC championship two of my three years."
Turner likes the weapons he has at the skill positions headlined by junior RB Da'Rel Scott, a 2008 first-team All-ACC choice, and Smith, who set the ACC single-season record for kickoff return yards (1,089) and had 24 receptions for 336 yards.
The Terps lost a top-10 draft pick in Darrius Heyward-Bey and the reliable Danny Oquendo, but Turner likes his potential targets this season.
"I'm very confident in the guys we have coming back," Turner said. "We are very deep at receiver. We have nine guys who will probably play at some point during the season. Torrey Smith really came on last year and guys like Adrian Cannon and Ronnie Tyler have really come along too. LaQuan Williams is coming back from a foot injury, so it will be nice to get him back. Obviously, a guy like Darrius is tough to replace. He's a great player, but I think our combination of guys can fill his role nicely. It might not be one guy, necessarily, but someone else in different games stepping up."
While the offense is in its second season under assistant head coach/offensive coordinator James Franklin, the defense will be led by first-year coordinator Don Brown, who has implemented an attacking-style.
Carroll is excited about his role which will feature more man coverage from the secondary.
"It's going to be a lot different than what we've done in the past," Carroll said. "The last couple years we dropped into a lot of zone coverage and adjusted to what the offenses were doing. Coach Brown likes to attack more. We're going to dictate the tempo more than in the past. We want to put pressure on the quarterback. We'll probably blitz a lot more in this defense. Coach Brown's really good at disguising his blitzes and that's a fun style to play in. We're looking forward to the change."
The ACC Football Kickoff concludes Monday with Friedgen scheduled to visit with the media in the afternoon after the annual Skeeter Francis Golf Tournament in the morning.
As it did Sunday, the ACC will be providing live satellite feeds of a segment of the interviews.
Monday's head-coach interviews will start at 3 p.m. (on 13-minute intervals) with Butch Davis opening the session followed by Paul Johnson, Frank Beamer, Ralph Friedgen (3:42 p.m.), David Cutcliffe, commissioner John Swofford, Al Groh, Tom O'Brien, Bobby Bowden, Randy Shannon, Jim Grobe, coordinator of football officials Doug Rhoads, Frank Spaziani and Dabo Swinney. The last interview will end at 6:15 p.m.
Information about the ACC Football Kickoff can be found Fans Can Experience the 2009 ACC Football Kickoff in Greensboro.
Important Upcoming Dates
Aug. 8 - Freshmen report to campus
Aug. 9 - Varsity reports to campus
Aug. 10 - Football preseason camp opens/Media Day
Sept. 5 - Season opener at California
Terp Notes:
Tyser Tower Expansion Project: The newly-expanded Tyser Tower will officially open at the first home football game on Saturday, Sept. 12 vs. James Madison. The renovated towers include 64 luxury suites, and over 400 new mezzanine seats. Suites are available now on multi-year, annual and single-game lease terms and offer the most luxurious game viewing experience. Mezzanine Seating is available now on lifetime, 10-year or annual lease terms, and feature complimentary in-seat food and beverage service. For more information on these premium seating opportunities at Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium, please call the Terrapin Club at (301) 314-7020, send an e-mail or visit www.GreatExpectationsAthletics.com.
Football Season Tickets on Sale: Season tickets for this fall's seven-game home slate, which includes matchups with Rutgers, Clemson, Virginia and Virginia Tech, start as low as $135 and are on sale through the Maryland Athletics Ticket Office. To purchase season tickets, call 1-800-IM-A-TERP or click here.
State of the ACC: League commissioner John Swofford was recently interviewed by The Greensboro News-Record. The story ran in Sunday's edition.
Maryland Player Quotes
On embracing the role of team leader:
"It's something I've waited for for a long time. It's something that coach (Ralph) Friedgen, the rest of the coaches and my teammates all expect from me. I'm constantly in the spotlight as a senior quarterback. It's a huge role with a lot of responsibility. People's eyes are on me at all times, looking for me to lead us to wins. I'm looking forward to the challenge of taking this team as far as we can go."
On replacing departed wide receivers Darrius Heyward-Bey and Danny Oquendo:
"I'm very confident in the guys we have coming back. We are very deep at receiver. We have nine guys who will probably play at some point during the season. Torrey Smith really came on last year and guys like Adrian Cannon and Ronnie Tyler have really come along too. LaQuan Williams is coming back from a foot injury, so it will be nice to get him back. Obviously, a guy like Darrius is tough to replace. He's a great player, but I think our combination of guys can fill his role nicely. It might not be one guy, necessarily, but someone else in different games stepping up."
On the importance of the running game:
"As a quarterback, it's always nice to have a reliable running game to take the pressure off. We have several good running backs, which a lot of teams don't have. I'll put Da'Rel Scott up there with the top guys in this league like (Clemson running back) C.J. Spiller and (Georgia Tech running back) Jonathan Dwyer. People like to talk about our depth at wide receiver, but balance is the key thing we strive for in this system. We want to be able to run and pass effectively."
On the loss of 30 seniors from last year's roster:
"You can look at that any way you want. Yeah, that's a lot of leadership out the door for sure. That's tough to replace, but I think people can focus on that too much sometimes. A lot of people don't realize how much young talent we still have on both sides of the ball. Being around these guys all the time, I know what they can do. I have all the confidence in the world in the players we have and I expect great things this season."
On being picked to finish toward the bottom of the Atlantic Division:
"I can kind of understand where outsiders may be coming from with that. Obviously, we lost a lot of players from last season, but I really love who we have coming back. Being picked toward the bottom of the division is a theme I'm used to now in my fourth year. I feel we've been picked pretty low every year I've been here, but we've gone to bowl games every year, beaten a lot of ranked teams and competed for an ACC championship two of my three years. I don't worry too much about these things. I know what our expectations are inside our locker room and we expect to win a lot of games."
On adjusting from a 3-3-5 defense to a 4-3:
"It's going to be a lot different than what we've done in the past. The last couple years we dropped into a lot of zone coverage and adjusted to what the offenses were doing. Coach (Don) Brown likes to attack more. We're going to dictate the tempo more than in the past. We want to put pressure on the quarterback. We'll probably blitz a lot more in this defense. Coach Brown's really good at disguising his blitzes and that's a fun style to play in. We're looking forward to the change."
On the increased reliability on the secondary in defensive coordinator Don Brown's defense:
"I think the secondary is going to have to set an example this season. Guys like me, Terrell Skinner, Anthony Wiseman and Jamari McCollough are going to have to step up. In this defense we play a lot of press-man coverage, so the defense is going to start from the secondary and work its way up to the defensive line, whereas in past years the defense worked its way from front to back."
On replacing several defensive starters from a year ago:
We definitely lost some good players, especially at the linebacker spot, but I'm not worried. We'll get (senior defensive tackle) Travis Ivey back. He missed a lot of games to injury last season, so that will be a huge boost. He was more or less un-blockable in the spring. At linebacker we still have Alex Wujciak and Adrian Moten to make plays. We also have some really good freshmen at that spot in Avery Murray and Darin Drakeford. Those two guys were able to get here early and get a spring season under their belts, so they should be able to contribute right away.
