Senior Moments
At Make-or-Break Time, Leaders Have Willed the Terps to Victory

By Eric Prisbell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 22, 2008

The same routine occurs at the Maryland football team's hotel every Friday. Because players are summoned to the dinner line one class at a time, when seniors are called, the largest group of upperclassmen Coach Ralph Friedgen has ever coached rises in unison.

Friedgen looks at them and sees 30 athletes whose talents and potential he never doubted. All along, Friedgen's biggest question about the seniors was whether they believed in themselves as much as he believed in them.

During a season of volatility and tumult, five senior-led moments gave Friedgen his answer and helped change the trajectory of a season that had plenty of opportunities to unravel. Pivotal moments of confrontation and contemplation, both public and private, have set the tone for tonight, when the seniors could lead the Terrapins to the brink of an ACC Atlantic Division title in their Byrd Stadium finale against Florida State.

"You ever hear those things called perfect endings?" senior linebacker Moise Fokou said. "That is what it would be tonight, a perfect ending for our seniors."

'We Cut It Loose'

On the morning of Sept. 13, Fokou and defensive lineman Dean Muhtadi grew concerned. They had listened to their coach's impassioned speech the night before, they had heard teammates talk about regrouping after the embarrassing loss at Middle Tennessee the week before.

But when Fokou and Muhtadi looked around the Byrd Stadium locker room eight minutes before the Terrapins were to charge onto the field to play nationally ranked California, they saw players quietly sitting at lockers, stone-faced, lost in their own iPod worlds.

"There was a somber look," Fokou said. "No one had a smile. No one was excited."

Something had to change, and fast. So Fokou rose and started chanting, "Come on! Wake up!" On the other side of the locker room, Muhtadi stopped listening to his most inspiring song, "My Black Dahlia," and began yelling and punching lockers with his bare fist.

"I lost it," Muhtadi said. "There was some heavy stuff I was hitting. I was so hyped I wouldn't have felt anything even if I broke my hand. Moise and I knew it was too quiet, and we cut it loose."

By the time Friedgen moved himself around the room to shake everyone's hand, the coach's routine was a lost cause. Fokou and Muhtadi had worked their teammates into a frenzy.

"It was electric in there," Fokou said of the mood change shortly before Maryland's 35-27 victory. "We were loose and emotional at the same time. From there, we played one of our best games."

'Never Lost Confidence'

Obi Egekeze never flinched. He missed his first five field goal attempts this season, including three off the uprights or crossbar, prompting Friedgen to stage an open competition in practice in mid-September.

"A couple players probably lost faith in him," Fokou said. "He was that close to losing the job. They were checking out new kickers in practice."

Running out of patience, Friedgen was talking more about the second- and third-string place kickers, but Egekeze maintained confidence by listening to reinforcement from teammates and several prominent kickers across the country, including former Terrapins standout Nick Novak. In practice, he focused on details, including keeping his eyes down to see his foot contact the football.

Since that tryout week, he has made 14 of 16 field goal attempts, including two game-winning field goals, both in rainy conditions, in the past month.

"I never lost confidence," Egekeze said. "My teammates, friends and coaches stuck by me."

'We're Better Than This'

On a sunny, late September afternoon, Jeremy Navarre walked into Memorial Stadium's visitors' locker room steamed and embarrassed. Clemson had built a seemingly insurmountable 17-6 lead against the Terrapins, and the Tigers appeared on their way to a rout.

While coordinators feverishly looked for solutions in different rooms, Navarre, who usually leads through his performance rather than his words, felt his moment had come. He recalled a former teammate, D'Qwell Jackson, making an emphatic plea to the team years ago, and Navarre knew teammates would listen if he spoke.

Navarre stood, yelled, cursed and told players, "Let's wake up! We're better than this!"

Players called Navarre's halftime address "raw emotion," a much-needed outburst by a senior who rarely offers one. Senior offensive lineman Dane Randolph said the message to younger players was, "If the seniors who don't say much are saying something, that means we really need to listen to that person."

The defense made subtle tweaks, and Navarre galvanized the team with his energy. In the second half, Clemson ran for just 26 yards, and Maryland rallied to win one of the more memorable comebacks in Friedgen's career.

'A Vital Meeting'

Jaimie Thomas had seen enough uneven performances by October's first weekend, so he grabbed his cellphone and started text messaging seniors. Maryland had just suffered an inexplicable 31-0 pounding at the hands of then-struggling Virginia, and Thomas was intent on preventing the season from further fraying.

Fellow seniors were not surprised when Thomas scheduled a seniors-only meeting in the offensive line room on the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 6.

"There was starting to be a disconnect," Muhtadi said. "It was a vital meeting. As you will have with any football team, there is a lot of resistance with the younger players. We felt they really did not know the opportunity that we have this year."

Players moved 30 desks in a circle so players could see one another. There were disagreements, but no arguments. Some players felt coaches needed to change. Others said players were at fault. And still others pointed to themselves for being selfish.

The hour-long meeting produced two important conclusions. When players broke the team huddle in practice, they would shout something about the next opponent and never again holler "ACC champs!" as they had been doing all season. Seniors also vowed to hold younger players accountable, even if that meant getting in their faces after miscues.

"Don't be afraid to say something to a guy," Thomas said. "This is our team, and we're only going to go as far as we lead us."

'A Pivotal Moment'

All season, center Edwin Williams had answered questions about the struggles of the offensive line. For nine days, he had listened to critics remind him of Maryland's minus-12 rushing yards at Virginia Tech.

Williams and fellow linemen decided last Saturday's game against North Carolina was a now-or-never opportunity for his unit. And trailing by one point with less than two minutes left, Maryland appeared to face fourth and goal inside the Tar Heels 1.

Williams flared his arms, thumped his chest and implored Friedgen to lean on the line so the Terrapins could pound the ball across the goal line.

"Heck, yeah, everybody wanted to go for it," Williams said. "You can trust the offensive line for 200 yards and not give me six inches? Who wouldn't want to go for it? Six inches."

Replay overturned the previous play, which meant Maryland settled for a 26-yard field goal and Friedgen never had to make the fourth-down decision. But Williams's histrionics reflected the confidence he had in the line, which played its best game of the season and helped Maryland's running backs amass 215 yards.

"It was a pivotal moment," Randolph said. "Emotions can take over; emotions can win games. It showed the confidence the line had. It was our personal challenge."