Terps Feel It's Time to Get Going

Despite an opening stretch that has revealed little about the team's identity, Maryland coaches and players say at least one standout trait has emerged.

"What I know is that they'll play hard," Terrapins Coach Ralph Friedgen said. "We've got to play a little better, a little smarter. But right now, what I do know about them is that they will play hard."

The evidence, he said, comes from the Terps' last two games.

Even after West Virginia jumped out to a nearly insurmountable lead in the first quarter, the Terrapins showed a measure of toughness the rest of the way, regrouping well enough to put up 24 points. The Terps showed more grit again the following week, holding on to a 14-10 victory against a Florida International team that didn't look intimidated by playing an ACC foe on the road.

But outside of the team's toughness, little about its identity can be gleaned through the first four games.

"I think it's still unknown," running back Lance Ball said last week as his team prepared for Saturday's ACC opener against No. 18 Georgia Tech. "We really haven't come out of our shell yet. We still haven't had a perfect game. We still need to find out what we are."

In assessing his team's situation, quarterback Sam Hollenbach took a tempered approach.

"We've done some good things and we've done some bad things so far this year," he said. "Right now, being 3-1 isn't the best we could be but it's also not the worst."

Though the victories have been far from dominating, despite a schedule that included two non-Bowl Championship Series teams and Division I-AA William & Mary, the Terrapins find themselves still in position to record a winning season and perhaps end a two-year bowl drought.

"That's what all the guys in the locker room are talking about," linebacker Wesley Jefferson said. "We just want to get it done. It wasn't pretty, but that doesn't matter. I would take 11 ugly wins over 11 losses, any day."

That mentality seems to have infiltrated the offense, which so far has been about as daring as the prime-time lineup on PBS.

Maryland's longest play from scrimmage is a 47-yard pass from Hollenbach to Isaiah Williams against William & Mary in the season opener. The play is just one of five from scrimmage that has gone for more than 30 yards.