Maryland's Football Team Tries To Warm Up to Playing Bowl Game in Boise

"Everyone knows the bowl shuffling wasn't fair," Maryland quarterback Chris Turner said. "We don't look at ourselves as the eighth-best team. We're going to this bowl. We don't have a choice. We have to go there. We're playing a good team. We can get eight wins."

As Muhtadi put it, "We got the shaft with the eighth-place bowl."

Muhtadi said there was a lot of negativity around the team when its bowl prospects became clear.

He said many seniors, including himself, had nightmares, in which they would replay sequences in the Florida State or Boston College games. Muhtadi even dreamed he was playing in the Orange Bowl, only to wake up to a much different reality.

"To fall all the way down to the eighth-place bowl, a lot of guys were like, 'Might as well pack it in, the season is done,' " Muhtadi said. "A lot of guys feel that it's not just about winning a bowl game, but what bowl game you go to that defines your season."

When Maryland learned it was Boise-bound, Friedgen wanted to know where his players' minds were, so he gathered them in the team auditorium and conducted a poll: Who wants to stay home? Those who didn't want to go didn't have to. No one raised his hand.

"When you're a kid, you say, 'I want to go here, I want to go there,' " Maryland center Edwin Williams said. "No one says he wants to go to Boise . . . You have to sleep in the bed you made and deal with the consequences."

Kevin Lempa, Maryland's secondary coach, recently addressed the team and praised the ambience in Boise, Idaho, after his experience in the Humanitarian Bowl with Boston College in 2005. By the end of the trip, Lempa told Maryland players, the Eagles said it was the best bowl they had been to because the people were so gracious and the hospitality was so good.

In recent weeks, Friedgen has half-jokingly talked about fans being able to sleigh ride, snowboard and ski in the days leading up to the game. That might be the case, but it remains to be seen whether the football game itself will also be viewed as entertaining by television viewers and fans in attendance, much less by its participants.

"I would hope no one would watch the game just because it's on a blue field," Muhtadi said. "We're excited about playing, and I could care less what the national appeal is or how many people are in the stands. I don't care if no one is there."