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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 20, 2010Ralph FriedgenTHE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Maryland head football coach Ralph Friedgen. We'll ask for a brief opening statement and go to questions. COACH FRIEDGEN: Preparing for Boston College, very important game on our schedule. They played very well last week against Florida State. We're going to have a very, very tough game. I'll open it up to questions. Q. Ralph, you've always been a very patient guy with your team. It seems from what I read that you were more upset than usual after that Clemson game. Why was that? COACH FRIEDGEN: Well, I thought we did a lot of good things in the game. If you look at the statistics, it's really not indicative of us losing 31-7. But we did a lot of things, penalties, turnovers, we didn't keep our poise very well. If we're going to win football games on the road, we nullify some very good things by not playing smart. That's what was a frustration to me. There was a point in that game where I think we could have exerted ourselves and we didn't do it. Q. Is that the trend that's been hurting you on the road so far, silly mistakes? COACH FRIEDGEN: Two situations this year. We played two very tough environments, West Virginia and Clemson. I don't think we handled the noise as well as we have to. But we were better this time. We still had some off-sides penalties. If we're going to have a good football team, we have to be able to win on the road and we haven't done that in a while. Q. Ralph, looking at your special teams' performance, especially in the return game, how much easier is that making for an offensive-minded guy not having to go 80 or more based on punts? COACH FRIEDGEN: It's really been a strength of ours till last game. I don't think we played as well on special teams against Clemson as we had been playing. I think not only has it given us a shorter field from the offensive standpoint, I thought we've done a good job of giving our defense good field position also. The ability to score quickly and change the momentum of the game is something that Tony Logan has brought to the table for us. Morgan State, I think we blocked three punts. So overall we've played pretty good on special teams. I think it's something we have to continue to do if we're going to have a good football team. Q. Do you think it's hard for the normal fan to understand how a good special teams play, a return or a great punt, can flop field position in your favor in an instant? COACH FRIEDGEN: If they're a great fan, they should understand that. One of our goals of our punt return team is to gain 10 yards. We want a first down every time we return it. If you can do that, you're doing pretty good. Over the course of the game, if you do that, you change field position. And vice versa, what we call our R&B team, our punt team, they've got to establish that and can't allow people to return on us. We haven't been as good at that as I'd like us to be. Three or four good returns on us on our punt team. Q. Coach, what is the key to having a successful running game when you're facing a team with a guy like Luke Kuechly, who always seems to be around the ball? COACH FRIEDGEN: He is exceptional. I've been very impressed watching him. He can really run. I don't know if I've seen him miss a tackle. He's deadly when he tackles you. Hertzlich, he's a very good player. They've got a lot of good players on their defense. That's why they're leading the ACC in rushing defense, 30th in the country in overall defense. They're excellent. THE MODERATOR: Ralph, thanks for being with us. Good luck this week and we'll talk to you next Wednesday. COACH FRIEDGEN: Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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