By Dan Steinberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 7, 2006

Ralph Friedgen went fishing nearly every morning during his three-week vacation last month. Then he went back to his vacation home in Georgia, retreated to the basement and spent four or five hours staring at two computer screens and plotting Maryland's return to success.

As soon as his vacation ended, he was back working his real summer hours, arriving early at Maryland's football offices -- usually by 6 a.m. -- and leaving late. Last Sunday, he spent 11 hours in the football offices, alone. And the last day he spent without thinking about football?

"Never," Friedgen said last week. "Ever. That's what I do. That's who I am, you know? I think about football. I think about plays. I think about situations, probably more than I should."

There's plenty to consider for Friedgen, whose sixth season begins with today's first practice. After a brilliant start to his tenure, the Terps are coming off back-to-back 5-6 seasons -- just as they were the year he was hired. Recruits, Friedgen said, are waiting to see how the team performs this fall. Current players, Friedgen said, lack the confidence that propelled the Terps to a 31-8 record in his first three season.

The schedule is unforgiving; the home slate includes Miami and Florida State, while all five of Maryland's road opponents played in bowl games last year. And after the departure of offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe, Friedgen is calling the plays for the first time since he left Georgia Tech in 2000, and for the first time as a head coach.

That's by design. After last year's disappointment, Friedgen felt frustrated not only with his team's won-loss record, but also with his role on the coaching staff.

"To be honest with you," he said, "it was a little boring."

Which is why he was thinking about taking over the play-calling even before Taaffe departed in February. With the coordinator position open and Friedgen's mind still unsure, he consulted with friends in the business, including Georgia's Mark Richt and Notre Dame's Charlie Weis.

"Why would you want someone else to call the plays in your offense?" Friedgen recalls Weis asking. "Who knows it better than you?"

Friedgen ultimately agreed. And so he's delegated more of the administrative tasks that occupied his time in past seasons. He's announced that he will dramatically scale back his fundraising phone calls and appearances this fall. He's pared down his schedule of pregame breakfasts with boosters, again, to free up more time. He said his "creative juices are kind of back flowing again," and added that with his increased duties, he probably deserves more responsibility for this year's results.

"He says he likes pressure, he enjoys pressure," longtime offensive assistant John Donovan said. "It's been a while for him, but it's his offense. . . . I think he's fired up to be doing it again."

Before the turnover-plagued struggles of 2004 and 2005, Friedgen's Terps had been carving up the team's offensive record books, setting scoring records in his first two seasons. Those fireworks earned Friedgen the typical monikers that come with high-scoring success: he was a genius, an innovator, a guru.

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."