Posts Tagged ‘edwin williams’

November 19th, 2008 | 06:12 pm

The DeMatha Pipeline Continues

DeMatha Catholic High School football coach Bill McGregor has had a lot of great players in his 27 years on the job, and a good many of them have chosen to take the two-minute car ride down U.S. Route 1 to continue their careers at this university.

Saturday is the final home game for former Stags Edwin Williams and Jeff Allen, but the DeMatha connection will still be strong after Williams and Allen leave.

Cornerback Anthony Wiseman, who was played on the same team as Allen for the last eight years, will be a senior next season. Safety Kenny Tate was one of the Terps’ top recruits last year. DeMatha senior offensive lineman Pete DeSouza, a 6-foot-7, 305-pounder, has verbally committed. He is a rivals.com three-star recruit.

When talking to McGregor about Allen on Tuesday, the conversation turned to the Terp program and coach Ralph Friedgen. The DeMatha coach said when one of his players chooses the Terps, he knows the player will be treated right during a critical time in his young life.

“Coach Friedgen is so committed, so dedicated, so loyal to his players,” McGregor said. “He’s a little bit old school but still new school.”

McGregor mentioned the long history of his players coming to this university dating back to when he took over in the early 1980s. It’s clear that as long as Friedgen and his assistants maintain a presence at the school that is practically in their backyard, the relationship will continue.

“I wish all my kids would have the opportunity to play at the University of Maryland,” McGregor said. “It’s been that way for years.”

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October 21st, 2008 | 10:16 pm

They said it..

A little praise for some teammates – and a bonus Turner sound bite – from the mouths of Terps:

Center Edwin Williams on wide receiver Danny Oquendo – “He’s a good video game player. He’s just a beast in everything.”

Wide receiver Danny Oquendo on cornerback Kevin Barnes’ shoulder injury, which will keep him out of Saturday’s game against NC State – “It sucks, a fellow senior going down like that in his last college year. Hopefully, he’s able to bounce back.”

Quarterback Chris Turner - “I don’t have anything witty to say as far as how we beat ranked teams, but we do rise to the occasion obviously. There’s something to be said about that.”

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October 9th, 2008 | 01:25 pm

Gronko’s Modern Life

In a lot of ways, Terrapin tight end Dan Gronkowski is a model collegiate football player. He paid his dues and constantly improved as a player, graduated in three years, and now he is finally making an impact in the passing game as a fifth-year senior.

Here are a few thoughts I couldn’t weave into today’s story on the 6-foot-6, 255 pound player that quarterback Chris Turner compared physically to 300 character Leonidas:

 Gronkowski spoke candidly about his twice-weekly, summer Yoga workouts over at the Eppley Recreation Center. It’s hard to tell if he was good or not. (Center Edwin Williams said he was one of the best in the group of Terp big men who hit the yoga mats this summer, while tight end Lansford Watson declared him one of the worst.) But Gronkowski asserted that he can definitely feel the difference in his mobility thanks to the workouts, even if they stretched him to the limit.

“It’s really tough and challenging, especially being so big with tight muscles and stuff,” Gronkowski said. “The girl who did it really made it tough. It’s a big challenge, and I think she [the instructor] gets a kick out of making the big guys stretch and do all the crazy poses.”

When I initially interviewed Gronkowski for this piece on the Tuesday before the Virginia game, he was very excited about his sibling rivalry. He talked about competing numbers wise with his three brothers currently playing football (two at Arizona, one in high school). Back then he was feeling good about leading his brothers in catches and yards and being tied for the Gronkowski lead in touchdowns. But Wednesday he seemed much less confident in his abilities to stack up against younger brother, Rob, who was a freshman All-American at Arizona last season. Rob missed the first three games of this season due to mononucleosis but bounced back to score five touchdowns in his first two games of the season.

“If I don’t make it [in the NFL], I’m going to go live with him,” Gronkowski joked.

And here’s a final quote to sum up what he means to this team from Watson when asked what it means to play with a guy who has lined up alongside NFL tight ends Vernon Davis and Joey Haynos.

“It’s an honor to be out there with him because he’s hopefully going to be in the NFL next year,” Watson said. “I’m taking whatever I’ve got to take in from him, so I can do it next year.”

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September 2nd, 2008 | 11:23 pm

They Said It

From the mouths of Terps…

Coach Ralph Friedgen: “If you want to boo me, boo me. Don’t boo the kid [quarterback Jordan Steffy].”

“[Da'Rel Scott] played a very good game last week in the running game, but there’s other parts of the game he can get better at. He needs to understand he has to contribute even when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands, but I think that’s a young player’s mistake.”

Senior center Edwin Williams: “I’m pretty revved up, especially [Saturday at Middle Tennessee] being our first away game of the season. I just want to go down there and execute our plan well. That comes with practice. Today will be a tough one, tomorrow will be a tough one, Thursday will be a tough one. Friday we get on a plane.”

“Everything we can fix. It’s not a lack of effort. It’s not a lack of assignment knowledge. It’s just little things. As long as we can take care of that, I think we’ll be good.”

Senior linebacker Trey Covington: “Our defense is a lot more flexible now. There can be three men rushing or eight men in the box. It’s a really diverse defense, so I think it will work well against their spread offense.”

“You don’t see the same quarterback every week. You see left-handers, right-handers, runners, pocket passers. It’s good to have experience against them all for defensive players. I don’t know how offensive players feel about [using three quarterbacks in practice], though.”

Senior cornerback Kevin Barnes: “With all the upsets last week, you can never be too sure of anything. You’ve got to go in, and play every team like they’re the greatest team ever.”

“[Steffy is] a senior. We look to him as a leader on offense. He’s graduated already. He could have been off doing everything he needs to do to get a career, but he came back and dedicated himself to this team.”