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Terrapins Open Practice With Friedgen in Control
"I prepare very, very hard," said Ralph Friedgen, whose Terps face a difficult schedule after back-to-back 5-6 seasons.
(By Toni L. Sandys -- The Washington Post)
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But Friedgen cringes when asked about those words. It's not about genius, he said. It's about bringing your computers with you on vacation, preparing meticulous game plans, going home at 11:30 at night during the season, watching a few moments of "Law & Order," and then waking up again at 4:30 in the morning.
"I know everybody says I'm this and I'm that, but I have to work very hard at it," he said last week during his lunch hour, which he has regularly skipped in recent weeks to save time. "You know, I prepare very, very hard. You've got to make the right call. I mean, for these guys in the stands having a couple beers, everything looks easy. But you better be ready when that one situation comes up that you were studying, and then you've got to know how to counteract things that people are doing.
"That has to be thought out -- that's not just 'pick a play,' " Friedgen said, covering his eyes and sticking out his finger in random directions. "There are no geniuses. It's guys that work hard and that are prepared."
He laughed as he explained this, and indeed, while he said he feels the same pressure to win he's felt every season at Maryland, he also said he's having fun. Before his vacation he'd lost about 35 pounds since February -- 11 in the month of April alone. He's conquered his sleep apnea with a portable electronic device, which allows him to function on four hours of sleep, as he's always done during the football season.
He said he still loves game-planning, that he wouldn't have brought work with him on vacation if he didn't enjoy it. And he said he still loves being coached; he asked more successful fishermen in Georgia to "coach him up," and he pesters defensive staff members to explain various schemes and tactics.
Friedgen's contract at Maryland runs through 2012, but after that he's not sure. He hasn't decided if he wants to coach into his 70s like Florida State's Bobby Bowden and Penn State's Joe Paterno. That uncertainty, more than last year's record, is what motivated him this offseason.
"I want to eventually win a national championship here, and I'm 59 years old," he said. "So every year is pretty critical to me, you know?"
Normally, he asks his players to set the team goals. This year, he'll do it himself: "To me it's at a point, are we dropping back to where we've been or are we taking it to a whole new level? And that's where I see us in this situation."
