Chris Turner

Chris Turner had to know what Sunday's Charm City Challenge boys high school basketball all-star game held for him when he got into town Friday and saw the rosters of the local and U.S. teams. Turner was the second-shortest player on the U.S. squad, which meant he was going to spend most of his afternoon matched up on smaller and, in most cases, quicker guards, a formula that could have meant disaster because as Wilt Chamberlain once famously noted, "Nobody loves Goliath." At 6 feet 5, Turner is no Goliath.

It turns out that Maryland coaches entered the season opener against Navy with a quarterback secret. Redshirt junior Jamarr Robinson was to be the starter — that much was known before the game. But coaches said after Maryland's 17-14 victory at M&T Bank Stadium on Monday that the plan was to look for opportunities to rotate in redshirt freshman Danny O'Brien for plays or series. Apparently, that remains the plan going forward. "We're going to use them both," was the way Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen put it after the game.

COLLEGE PARK - - Jamarr Robinson didn't see Maryland quarterback Chris Turner go down. Turner, who had just suffered a knee-ligament injury, was lying on his back on the Carter-Finley Stadium field with his hands over his face in the second quarter of Maryland's 38-31 loss to North Carolina State. Robinson, Turner's backup, had little time to process that he was about to play in the game or to contemplate what his entry meant to Maryland or to his career. "It jumped on me quick," Robinson said.

Imagine if the Maryland Terrapins could trade speed for points as easily as investors trade stocks. The Terps might have been near the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring offense last season instead of behind 10 teams, and ahead of just Virginia. Heading into the disastrous 2009 season, the Terps knew they had enough speed at receiver and running back to rattle opposing defenses. Coaches feel the same way about the upcoming season. Maryland's problem, of course, has been translating all those impressive 40-yard dash times — tailback Da'Rel Scott and receivers Emani Lee-Odai, Quintin McCree and Torrey Smith are among the fastest — into touchdowns.

Good morning--Chris Turner--It's game day, so everyone expects to see your best against Georgia Tech.

In Friday's editions, the college that has signed Boys' Latin senior lacrosse player Chris Turner was reported incorrectly. He will be attending University of Maryland Baltimore County on a lacrosse scholarship.The Sun regrets the errors.

There has been some talk within the football program and outside of it about whether Jordan Steffy's height has been a factor, and that Chris Turner might be able to see the field a little better. Even coach Ralph Friedgen mentioned it fairly recently. Steffy is listed as 6 feet 1. Chris Turner is listed as 6-3. I asked quarterbacks coach John Donovan just how much of a factor height really is: "We've had tall guys who can't see, either," he said. "They don't look at what they're supposed to be looking at. Just because they're tall doesn't mean they can see downfield, either."

Offensive coordinator James Franklin said coaches relied on empirical data - performance charts, basically - to show how things tipped in favor of Jordan Steffy. "We just basically told [Chris Turner] the truth. We showed him all the data," Franklin said. "He sees it every day because it's posted in the locker room every day, so he kind of had an awareness of what was going on. The data documented everything we were saying." (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/terpsblog)

On November 23, 2006, WILLIAM F. MILLER, JR., beloved companion of Patsy Gibson, loving step-father of Debbie Greenwald, Chris Turner and Charlene Hill, proud grandfather of Melissa Smith, Sara and Tony Burdette, Rene Turner, Caitlyn and Ehrin Darby and Niki Turner, and dear great-grandfather of seven great-grandchildren. Funeral from the Gregory J. Gonce Funeral Home, PA., 169 Riviera Drive, Pasadena, on Monday at 11:00 A.M.M-BM- Interment in Glen Haven Memorial Park. Family requests friends call on Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M.

Arlington Baptist Eagles1994 record: 11-7. Coach: Tim Hurlburt.Top players: Andy Booker, Sr., M; Paul Durso, Sr., F; Daniel Birx, Jr., M; Kevin Hamilton, Jr., D.Outlook: The Eagles are hoping to enjoy the same amount of success this season competing in the MIAA C Conference as they did last year as a member of the Christian Schools Athletic Association. Booker, who scored 30 goals last season, will have to have a similarly productive senior campaign to compensate for the team's defensive shortcomings.

The receivers laugh about it today, how Maryland teammate Jamarr Robinson told them to "shut up" in a huddle last season so he could finally call the play. "I had to turn into the enforcer," said Robinson, a redshirt junior to whom such an outspoken role doesn't come naturally. Robinson, from Charlotte, N.C., enters this preseason as Maryland's starting quarterback. With the position comes the expectation -- particularly on a team with just 16 seniors -- that he will become a leader.

The Maryland football team is set to open five weeks of spring practice today, culminating with the annual Red-White game April 24. The Terps return 12 starters from last year's team that went 2-10, losing its last seven games. That team had a relatively small senior class - 14 players, compared with 30 the previous year - and played 24 freshmen. Maryland, which opens with Navy on Sept. 6 at M&T Bank Stadium, will practice three times a week until the spring game April 24 at 3:30 p.m. at Byrd Stadium.

COLLEGE PARK -- Let's start with the bottom line: Ralph Friedgen expects to coach Maryland's football team next season. He said that at least three times after the Terps' 19-17 loss to Boston College on Saturday before thousands of empty seats at Byrd Stadium. He said it even as the Terps finished the season 2-10, their worst record since 1967. And he said it with athletic director Deborah Yow, who will ultimately decide his fate, sitting not 20 feet away from him in the Gossett Football Team House.

- Tailback Da'Rel Scott , who broke his wrist in Maryland's win over Clemson on Oct. 3 and missed the next five games, has begun practicing and is likely to return Saturday against Florida State. But quarterback Chris Turner (knee) will miss his second straight game. The fifth-year senior is "50-50" to play in Maryland's final game of the season - and the last of his career - against Boston College on Nov. 28, coach Ralph Friedgen said Tuesday. The Terps have not won a game since Scott's injury Oct. 3. But Maryland (2-8, 1-5 Atlantic Coast Conference)

COLLEGE PARK - - Jamarr Robinson didn't see Maryland quarterback Chris Turner go down. Turner, who had just suffered a knee-ligament injury, was lying on his back on the Carter-Finley Stadium field with his hands over his face in the second quarter of Maryland's 38-31 loss to North Carolina State. Robinson, Turner's backup, had little time to process that he was about to play in the game or to contemplate what his entry meant to Maryland or to his career. "It jumped on me quick," Robinson said.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen saw a rainbow at practice last week, desperately hoping it was a positive sign for a team he said has been rained on all season, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. Sure enough, the skies were bright blue over Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday. But the Terps couldn't part the dark clouds of their season, losing starting quarterback Chris Turner to a second-quarter knee injury and falling, 38-31, to a North Carolina State team that hadn't won an Atlantic Coast Conference game in four previous tries.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The speech won't be transformed into an inspirational recording that will be replayed through the ages. This wasn't "win one for the Gipper." This wasn't anything dramatic or particularly memorable. Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen directed a halftime message to senior quarterback Chris Turner on Saturday that was simple and to the point. And he can only hope it has a carry-over effect. Maryland@North Carolina State Saturday, noon, chs. 54, 20, 105.7 FM, 1300 AM Line: North Carolina State by 1 MARYLAND REWIND Replay Quarterback Chris Turner seemed to regain his focus after being benched for two series and threw for 242 yards, though he completed only 16 of 32 passes.

The Maryland football team is set to open five weeks of spring practice today, culminating with the annual Red-White game April 24. The Terps return 12 starters from last year's team that went 2-10, losing its last seven games. That team had a relatively small senior class - 14 players, compared with 30 the previous year - and played 24 freshmen. Maryland, which opens with Navy on Sept. 6 at M&T Bank Stadium, will practice three times a week until the spring game April 24 at 3:30 p.m. at Byrd Stadium.

When a Division I college football team struggles, the most vocal portion of the fan base tends to make itself heard. That's the case at Maryland, where coach Ralph Friedgen and his staff have been a target of criticism in blogs and on message boards as the Terrapins have slipped to 2-6 overall (1-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) - his fewest victories this late in a season since taking over the program in 2001. While Friedgen has the support of a number of prominent boosters, his critics say Maryland's football program, which had a bye this weekend before playing Saturday at North Carolina State, needs new leadership.

COLLEGE PARK - -It has come to where Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen can't bear to watch a football team turn the ball over - his team or anybody else's. Friedgen talks these days like a man a little bit haunted. "NOOOO!" the coach says he screams when he watches a critical interception, even one on television involving another team. As his Terps (2-5, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) prepared for Duke (3-3, 1-1) on the road today, turnovers had become the bane of the coach's existence - and of his young Terrapins.