It’s all about a handful of moments, maybe even just one play, which decide games. Will you be ready, Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen asks his players in practice. So far, the Terrapins have seized them all.
The No. 21-ranked Terrapins (8-2, 5-1 ACC) beat Florida State on a blocked field goal. They withstood Clemson’s late rally for a one-point win. The Terps even forced two turnovers in the final moments to edge Miami, 13-12. And the five-game winning streak started by stopping a tying two-point conversion at Virginia.
The Terps have rebounded from consecutive 5-6 seasons by making the big plays. The Terps don’t steal games. They take them.
“How are we going to be when that moment comes that determines who wins the game?” Friedgen said. “Last year, we didn’t pass those moments. You don’t think blocking that field goal [against Florida State] wasn’t a moment? It was a moment. You going to win that moment or are you going to lose it? Now they’re starting to make those plays and believe they can make those plays.”
There are plenty of believers around College Park nowadays. Maryland meets Boston College (8-2, 4-2) on Saturday and Wake Forest (9-1, 5-1) on Nov. 25 to decide who goes to the ACC Championship and eventually the Orange Bowl.
Friedgen said the program’s resurgence comes down to the paradigm pitting success versus confidence. Former Redskins coach Marty Schottenheimer said confidence was a prerequisite for success. Friedgen disagrees, saying success gave the Terps confidence, which in turn led to more success.
“I’ve always felt if this team had gotten some success it would grow,” he said. “Maybe being down 20 points to Virginia and being able to come back. … Maybe the ball is bouncing our way where it wasn’t earlier. But it was a confidence building in this team and that only comes through success. You can look at it in many professions. When you experience yourself being successful is when you become confident. Until that happens, it’s always there’s a desire to be successful, a wanting to being successful, but there’s a difference until you accomplish something that you actually feel confident.”
For quarterback Sam Hollenbach, confidence from the practice field and film room brought success.
“Coming into a game, I have to feel confident I know what I’m doing and that I’m going to be able to make the plays when I see the right defenses,” he said. “I have to have the confidence and the success comes from that.”
Like a late deep throw after sidestepping the blitz against Clemson that was the dagger in Death Valley.
“I don’t know if it’s a play that would have happened last year,” Hollenbach said.
Linebacker Erin Henderson said he also believes confidence comes first.
“If you’re wondering if you can do this or that, it makes it almost impossible to go out and execute that play,” he said. “But when you believe if this plays comes to me now I can make it, when the moment comes it makes it easier to make that play.”
But receiver Danny Oquendo seconded Friedgen over success coming first.
“The more success you have the more confidence we have in each other,” he said. “The more we win the more we know we can do this.”
Either way, the Terps are confident of a successful season.
Rick Snider and Examiner reporter John Keim are among the co-authors of “America’s Rivalry! The 20 Greatest Redskins-Cowboys Games.” E-mail him at [email protected].
