UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 28, 2002

Ralph Friedgen

COACH FRIEDGEN: We're really excited to be involved in the Kickoff Classic to play such a traditional football power as Notre Dame. I had an opportunity to compete against Notre Dame before and it's always been a tremendous experience and the mystique of Notre Dame and their legendary football prowess is going to enhance our school and our players' experience and we're looking forward to it very much. I will open it up to questions.

COACH FRIEDGEN: It is difficult. You can look at what Stanford has done and then you have to try to insert Notre Dame's personnel into that system. You don't know if Greg Mannis (phonetic) being there on defense has had any input into any new wrinkles that might have occurred. So from an offensive standpoint preparing for their defense is difficult. From a defensive standpoint to try to see how people fit into the west coast offense is probably even more difficult. So it is not an easy situation to do.

COACH FRIEDGEN: Well, because it was so much different from what they had done last year being basically an option-type attack and the quarterback was kind of built for that; and how he is going to adapt to a new offense; what you need to be prepared for, it makes it very difficult.

COACH FRIEDGEN: Well, at the time of his injury they told me it would be somewhere before four and six months is what they told me. I really had talked to Chris afterwards and really encouraged him; talked to him that we would try and get a medical for him so he would get another year. In my mind, I wasn't really preparing for him to come back, and he just was determined that he wouldn't let this injury stop him. I think it helped that he had had an ACL before. He asked me if he could rehabilitate at this plays called Most which is a rehabilitation center in Silver Springs. The doctor who had operated on him previously was the head of that rehabilitation place. I told him he could. As soon as he got operated on, about a week later, for four hours a day he was in rehab and then he was mostly two and a half hours a day for the whole summer. When they told me that he had a chance, I said, yeah, okay, and then one day he came over and he was working out with our strength coach. I went and watched him run up a hill frontwards and backwards, and it was a pretty severe incline. And then I saw him cut on it and I couldn't believe it. He has had no -- you know, and then I talked to the doctor who had operated on him which is Leigh Ann Curl and she told me the things to look for because she said she put him through every test and he had passed every test with flying colors. She said his muscularture was built up so strong around his knee that if his knee looked like it was getting tired in practice I was to back off. And first day I saw him limping a little bit. I went up to him and asked him if he was getting tired. He said, no, I have got so much tape on this thing, it's bothering me with my knee. From then on, I never saw him limp. His speed is good or if not better than it was before. It never swelled. Really, it's a miracle. It's really a testimony to the kid's character and his fortitude and determination. But I still hold my breath because I know it's got to take so long for those ligaments to grasp. But I have not seen any ill effect of it in practice whatsoever.

COACH FRIEDGEN: I don't think there's any doubt. And I think the fact that he knew what it took before, you know what I am saying, he had a basis of comparison. So this was on his good knee. This injury didn't occur to the bad knee. It occurred to the good knee, so he knew what it was going to take. He just pushed the limit. Doctor Smith who was the head of the rehab, he called me and said: Ralph, this guy is off the charts on his rehab. He said, you know, he's wanting to play in this first game. I was still a little skeptical, but you know, after seeing him, he hasn't been nervous as far as being entangled with people or in contacts or anything like that. I haven't hit him. I don't hit the quarterbacks in preseason, but I mean he has been banged around some and it hasn't bothered him.

COACH FRIEDGEN: Well, we're not the same defensive team without E.J., you know, just going through spring practice without him, we had some real deficiencies. I don't know whether it's his presence. I think it's both his presence, and it's also his ability and his leadership that helped the whole defense. I am planning that he stays healthy and he has a really good year not only for our team, but so that E.J. will get his just rewards too and that he will become a fine professional athlete.

COACH FRIEDGEN: Well, it did. We moved Bernie Fiddler over there and he was kind of my ace in the hole where if I needed another player to go over there on defense, I would. But he's moved back to offense and actually we have a true freshman backing him up right now. And William Kershaw who's come in and done a very good job and is going to be a another very good football player. So it didn't work out that way, but we also have Andrew Henley who probably would have played the Mike position. He can swing between Mike and Will. So in that way it did help us, yes.

COACH FRIEDGEN: Well, I was concerned when I came in here that our expectations were high enough. Now they may be too high. (Laughs) I think it comes with the territory. I think when you have had a year like we had, you know, people think that you could continue to do that. I don't know if that's possible or not. I am going to focus in on one game just like we did last year. Hopefully our kids will play hard each and every game. And if we play unselfishly and not do the things that get you beat like turn the ball over and have penalties, and if we can limit those things and play smart football and play hard, then I think we can have a good year. If we don't do those things, then we'll have a bad year. So it doesn't change from year to year. We do have a very young team. Last year our team was more senior oriented and this year we only have eleven seniors and probably only five of them are starters, so it's a concern of mine.

COACH FRIEDGEN: Well, Scott McBrien is a kid who transferred from West Virginia has played in college football game before. No other quarterback has really played quite a bit for us. So he definitely has experience on his side - is more of a dropback thrower. He has a good arm, a good release, very accurate thrower. But Chris Kelley also has a strong arm. He's probably more mobile than Scott is and brings that element to the game. Other than that, you know, the learning process is probably about the same right now. In our offense, that takes a while to happen. Last year Hill took about five games to get it all in. So that's a concern who is going to be able to grasp the offense the best, and make the least amount of mistakes. We're looking forward to seeing everybody up in the New York metropolitan area - and that's home for me - and a lot of our coaches and our players are from that area. We're really excited about being back there. Thanks for your time.