At his weekly press conference, Ralph Friedgen seemed to have recovered slightly from the disappointment he expressed after the Terrapin football team’s loss to Florida State last Saturday. Friedgen said he was pleased with his players’ demeanor and effort during their Monday practice, and that he felt his team would respond and play well, as they often have following dispiriting losses, against No. 20 Boston College this weekend.
Friedgen said his team would have their hands full with a Eagles squad that will be playing for a spot in the ACC Championship game. The Fridge seemed particularly impressed with the Eagles’ secondary, which leads the nation with 21 interceptions, and defensive line, led by senior tackle B.J. Raji, whose listed weight of 323 pounds fell under question.
“If he’s 323, I’m about 180,” Friedgen said.
Friedgen said he had spoken with his team about the implications this game could have. The Terps have no shot at the ACC Championship, but a win over BC would tye them with the Seminoles, who own the tiebreaker over the Terps, for the Atlantic Division’s best record and help secure a better bowl bid. Lose, and they risk falling into the middle of the ACC-pack, and drawing a lower-tier bowl game.
“I wish I could tell you what to expect from this team,” Friedgen said. “This is a special group of kids to me. I’m very disappointed for them. I really wanted them to win this thing. But like I said, that’s not going to help us against Boston College.”
Luckily for the Terps, they are playing a ranked team after losing to an unranked team. Going back to last season, the Terps have defeated their last six ranked opponents and followed their first three losses this season, all to unranked teams, with victories over ranked opponents. They’ll try it a fourth time this Saturday. The one difference: those losses came on the road, and the victories came at home. This time, they lost to Florida State at home, and will need to respond on the road in Chesnut Hill, Mass.
“Yea, I think we have noticed that trend now,” tight end Dan Gronkowski said. “Now that BC is ranked, the trend continues I guess – losing to an unranked team and playing a ranked team back to back. It’s what we’ve been doing all year, so we just got to keep it up now.”
But according to one, always-entertaining player, the Eagles might not be the Terps’ greatest nemesis this week. They might find that, oddly enough, on their Thankgiving dinner plates.
“The tough thing is probably not stuffing yourself on Thursday,” center Edwin Williams said. “Not eating too much so you won’t be able to perform on Saturday. That’s probably the first challenge.”
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