College
Terps aim for strong finish after 2-6 start
COLLEGE PARK — A banged-up Maryland team spent its bye week healing bruised bones and trying to figure out how to become bowl-eligible.
The Terrapins (2-6) had a number of players banged up during the first seven games and last week gave them a chance to heal and gird themselves for the stretch run.
“I really didn’t do too much,” defensive lineman Travis Ivey. “I just tried to relax. I just tried to slow down a little bit and enjoy the time off.”
Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen probably would have enjoyed the time off more if his team had a better record. The Terrapins enter Saturday’s game at North Carolina State (3-5) having lost three in a row. Maryland is just 1-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and needs to win its last four games just to become bowl-eligible.
That would require Maryland to win twice on the road — at N.C. State and at Florida State. But the Terrapins haven’t won on the road yet this year. Such a run would also mean a victory at home over No. 22 Virginia Tech, which has been ranked as high as No. 4 this season.
That’s a daunting prospect for a team that ranks either last or next-to-last in the conference in scoring offense, scoring defense and turnover margin.
“I’m trying to think of anything I can do to get better,” Friedgen said yesterday. “We need to get back on track. (Winning) would do a lot of things. That’s the major goal right now.’
Friedgen hasn’t given up on trying to salvage the season with a late run. In recent weeks, he has hinted that he might consider playing younger players with greater frequency down the stretch in order to start building for next year. He has used freshmen like running back Caleb Porzel and safety Eric Franklin in recent weeks, but their opportunity came as the result of injuries, rather than Friedgen’s desire to look toward next season. In all, seven true freshmen have played at some point this season.
One position where Freidgen might want to get a look at a younger player is quarterback, where sophomore Jamarr Robinson backs up senior starter Chris Turner. Turner will remain entrenched at the position unless an injury takes him out of the lineup, but Friedgen would like to give Robinson some additional snaps to prepare him for next year. Robinson, however, has failed to play consistently in practice, making Friedgen wary of giving him any more than a cameo role in the offense.
“We’d like to get a look at that, we really would,” Friedgen said. “But we’d also like to win the football game.”
- College
-
-
Texas feels ‘singled out’ by rule change
Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds says the Longhorns football program was ’singled out’ by a new NCAA rule that drastically limits recruiting by defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, the Longhorns’ head-coach-in-waiting.
-
Kiffin leaves Tennessee to return to USC
Lane Kiffin is returning to Southern California as the Trojans’ coach after just one season at Tennessee.
-
Player mistreatment allegations give coaches pause
Oregon State coach Mike Riley won’t stop disciplining players because three of his colleagues were recently forced out after allegations of player abuse.
-
Recruiters defect, W.Va. coach unfazed
One setback after another hasn’t fazed West Virginia coach Bill Stewart.
-
SEC goes for 4th straight national title
Julio Jones was asked about the Texas defense and repeated the answer that so many of his Alabama teammates have given leading up to the BCS national championship game.
-
TTU fires Leach
Texas Tech fired Mike Leach on Wednesday after the coach took the school to court to try to overturn his suspension for alleged mistreatment of an injured player.
-
Idaho stuns Bowling Green
As his offense trotted back on the field, that fleeting voice of consciousness popped into Robb Akey’s head.
-
Leach seeks court order to coach Alamo Bowl
The lawyer for Mike Leach says the suspended Texas Tech coach did nothing wrong in how he treated a player with a “mild” concussion, and Leach wants a court’s help to allow him to coach the Alamo Bowl on Jan. 2.
-
JoePa’s roller coaster decade ends at Cap 1 Bowl
A trip to the Capital One Bowl five years ago would have been considered progress in Happy Valley. Now it’s what Penn State settles for when it gets shut out of the BCS.
-
Florida’s Meyer not resigning
Florida coach Urban Meyer is taking an indefinite leave of absence instead of resigning and expects to be on the sideline leading the Gators when next season opens.
- More College Headlines
-
Texas feels ‘singled out’ by rule change
