"I remember being a part of the interview process and him coming in. Aaron Thompson asked him 'what makes you think you can win here?' I remember Ralph's answer but at the time it didn't really strike me. I don't know if he fully knew or realized what he was getting into. We had a group of upperclassmen that were obviously sick of losing and willing to do anything to turn the tide and to win. I think that's what drove the question from Aaron. What Ralph did is he came in, he took a group of determined people and he demanded excellence from a group that had never done anything but be average to that point. He demanded excellence from day one. I've been around people that demand things but don't always get them. Ralph demanded it, but got it also. He demanded greatness from every one of us and got us all to gel together on the field. He really turned the program around very quickly. That's the thing that sticks out Ralph." 

"With Coach Friedgen, he was instrumental in the longevity I've had in the NFL. I've been a part of the NFL now for 15 years and I'm not saying I owe it all to him but I was a linebacker coming into Maryland and his first year there I transitioned to long snapper. At the moment I really didn't like it just because I wasn't used to being a specialist you know during the practice day, sitting on the sideline with the kickers and just waiting for special team moments to come about. But he saw my ability and he would tell me, repeatedly, 'John you can have an extended career playing football and at the same time making a lot of money doing so'. As he was telling me this I would just roll my eyes just like 'yeah sure, you don't know what you're talking about' or anything like that. But he was always on me about it and I think as I got older, I think I started to see you know more of the reality. Early on it motivated me in a sense to work at my craft and get better and be the best I could be at the moment. That is something that has always meant a lot to me. It is kind of funny to me because in the end he ended up being right."

"The first great memory of coach is actually when he was recruiting me. At the time, my senior year I broke my leg and a lot of colleges started to back off and I was recruited by a whole bunch of colleges when I was coming out and they saw my leg as a problem. They didn't think it would heal right and they didn't think I would be the same and 'all the crap that comes with the injury'. When I was in with Coach Friedgen, he acted like I was healthy, I was 100 percent. He continually recruited me hard, he came to my house, he was checking up on me you know I think for him, what stood out to me the most was not that I was a football player, more importantly I was someone that could be groomed into becoming a man. He valued more so the relationship with the players and getting our education than more so playing on the field. I just remember him coming to my house, like the second or third time, and looking at me and my parents in the eyes and him telling me 'I don't care if your son ever plays a snap at Maryland as long as he graduates and gets his education, I see that as a win'. For me, that spoke volumes that he didn't just see me as a football player and I think that really translated to my life and what I'm doing now. I went to the league and I think I was really able to grow and mature faster than a lot of my peers because of the lessons he taught me at Maryland. I was able to really keep those same lessons and translate that to the NFL and then what im doing business now, that really stuck out to me the main significant story. It wasn't on the field it was more so the stuff that he did off the field that really impacted me."

"I remember when we went down to NC State my freshman year, it was Phillip Rivers senior year. We came back and beat them. Ralph decided that he was going to dance with us in the locker room. He was jumping around with us. That was the first time I've ever seen him dancing. That was pretty funny. I had a great experience and enjoyed every minute with Ralph. He always told me everything straight up. I remember when I was getting recruited he told me 'hey man, I want you to be here. He was a GA at Maryland when my dad was there. He told me I come from a good family and he wants me to be a Terp."

"I remember when I transferred in, he looked at me and said, ' heard you are a transfer, you think you could play here? I said 'yes'. He said 'we'll see'. Then at my first winter workout, he looked at me and said, `is this what you got?' Then he said 'if you don't go hard, I am going to call your coach and send you back to Towson, because that is a piss-poor effort.' I always laugh about that because years later I think back on how that was my first experience with Ralph."

"My favorite Coach Friedgen story that really speaks to who he is, is we played West Virginia in Morgantown my junior year, which was one of my biggest road games of my career, a make or break game for our season, and that whole bus ride to Morgantown, which was three hours, he sat next to me in the front row and quizzed me from the moment we left College Park to the moment we got to Morgantown. At the time I hated him for that because I wanted to put my headphones on and take a nap, but at the end of the day, it was the best thing that he did for me. I learned so much from him in that three hours and it really showed that game, I think I had one of the best games of my career at Maryland when we played at Morgantown, and we ended up blowing them out so it was pretty cool."