Maryland tries to erase the past against Navy
Back in March, on the first day of spring practice, Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin spoke eloquently and exhaustively of his singular obsession — Navy. Regardless of what question was posed, Franklin kept coming back to the Terrapins’ 2010 season opener against the Midshipmen.
Franklin’s words were for effect, but carried a powerful message.
“It’s my preoccupation,” he said. “Navy is all I’m thinking about.”
Who could blame Franklin for obsessing? The Terps were coming off their first 10-loss season in school history, which ended with seven straight defeats and questions about the status of head coach Ralph Friedgen. So why dwell on the negative?
On Monday in Baltimore, 167 days after spring practice began, the Terps get their long-awaited chance.
“The sense of urgency I have is to get this bad taste out of my mouth,” said Friedgen, when preseason practice began last month.
Coming off its third 10-win season in history, Navy enters with a completely different mindset. The Mids have been the toast of the preseason, boasting a Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Ricky Dobbs, and a rising-star in coach Ken Niumatalolo. Some outside the program have even suggested the Mids could run the table. After all, none of the three BCS conference schools on their schedule had a winning record last year. Neither did the most daunting team on their slate, Notre Dame.
Does all this sound like a mental edge for Maryland, which enters as a six-point underdog?
“We still play as the underdog,” Navy guard Brady DeMell said. “We’re not as big as the other team. We’re not as fast as the other team. We’ve got to play that much harder to have a chance to beat them, no matter what the point-spread is.”
DeMell, the Mids’ biggest starter at 6-foot-3, 295, is one of the engines of Navy’s confounding triple-option offense, which uses multiple fakes to freeze defenders. The Mids ranked No. 4 in rushing last year after leading the nation four straight years.
“Navy runs it better than Georgia Tech,” said Friedgen, who will count on a quicker defense to disrupt Dobbs & Co. and put the Terps’ troubles in the past tense.
“There’s no much negativity now because of last year,” Friedgen said in a radio interview Friday. “I think they need some positive re-enforcement.”
