When I rolled up to Terp football practice today, I thought I must have been late. The team was running, like it would at the conclusion of practice. Turns out, coach Ralph Friedgen was just trying to send his guys a message about finishing plays.
Friedgen was upset because during the full-team portion of the practice, he was waiting to blow the play dead when all of his defenders ran to the ball carrier, taking the proper pursuit angles. Finally, Friedgen had enough and sent the entire team on a pair of full-field sprints.
“What happens is we get in bad habits, and then we start decelerating and all of the sudden we lose our angles,” Friedgen said. “I’m bound and determined to get that where it needs to be. I’ve been fighting it for the last three years.”
The main reason for this, according to Friedgen, is to create more turnovers. He cited missed opportunities at fumble recoveries in recent years because of players stopping before the play was over, particularly mentioning the team’s loss at Florida State two seasons ago when the Terps failed to recover five Seminole fumbles.
“That’s just effort,” Friedgen said. “We can get effort. We’re going to demand effort, and I’m going to get my coaches to get them to get effort or we’re going to keep running and running until we get it done. This is a young team that’s got to learn how to practice.”
The Terps may have gotten off lucky today. Friedgen said he makes not of how hard players are running their sprints, and if it’s not up to his standards, he may send the players on 10 full-field runs next time.
That doesn’t sound like something they might be interested in at 9 am on a weekday morning.
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Tags: Ralph Friedgen, terps