Friedgen

Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen and a top Military Bowl official said Tuesday that Terps fans need to attend the Dec. 29 game here to demonstrate to high-level bowl games that they are committed to their team. "The dilemma we're in right now is our fans really need to come out and support us because I think we've got a chance to send a message to these people that turned us down that we do support the program," Friedgen said. Friedgen appeared at a Military Bowl event in a downtown Washington hotel as another of his players — cornerback Dexter McDougle — was about to undergo surgery for a motor scooter accident.

The attorney for Maryland's Ralph Friedgen says the football coach has earned the right to have his contract extended after next season -- an assertion that places the school in a sensitive position because it has already named Friedgen's successor. "To me, an extension is absolutely in order," attorney Jack Reale told The Baltimore Sun. "I think he has earned it. " Friedgen, whose contract expires Jan.2, 2012, was named Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year on Tuesday after a regular season in which the Terps (8-4, 5-3 ACC)

One year after a 2-10 season almost cost him his job, Maryland's Ralph Friedgen was named Atlantic Coast Conference football Coach of the Year -- an honor that he says provided him "vindication" for standing by his staff and players in trying times. Friedgen, in his 10th season, got 29 votes, outpolling his close friend Frank Beamer (19 votes) of Virginia Tech. Tom O'Brien of North Carolina State and Florida State's Jimbo Fisher got six votes each from the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.

Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen said Sunday that the Terps deserve a bid to an "upper-echelon" bowl game befitting a team that tied with two other schools for the third-best record in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Maryland's 38-31 victory over North Carolina State on Saturday pushed its record to 8-4 (5-3 ACC) — a mark that Friedgen said entitles the Terps to one of the top bowls affiliated with the ACC. Bowl games are not required to pick teams based on final record alone, making their selections difficult to forecast.

Maryland said Thursday that football coach Ralph Friedgen will return next season to complete the final year of his contract, an announcement that seemed inevitable given the team's turnaround from a year ago. The announcement ends any possible distractions from speculation about Friedgen's immediate future. Maryland (7-3, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) hosts Florida State Saturday needing a victory to stay alive in its ACC divisional race. The Terps have one more regular-season game (N.C.

Maryland was a two-touchdown favorite the last time the Terps played at Virginia's Scott Stadium. But Ralph Friedgen knew better. "I've got butterflies," the Maryland coach said two days before that 2008 game. Three hours before the contest began, Friedgen's wife, Gloria, had stood nervously in the lobby of the team hotel, talking about how she had pre-game jitters and needed an Advil. When the Terps (6-3, 3-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) return to Virginia today, the Friedgens will remember how their premonitions became reality in a 31-0 Maryland loss.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Head coach Ralph Friedgen said he hoped to run out the clock with Maryland leading by two points with 5:22 left in Saturday's game with Miami. It didn't work out as the coach envisioned. Davin Meggett rushed three times but could not make a first down, and the Terps punted the ball back to Miami. Trailing 20-18, the Hurricanes then drove for the touchdown that put them ahead to stay, 26-20. Meggett rushed for 70 yards on nine carries in the game, including a 37-yarder.

Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen and a number of his players criticized the campus newspaper Tuesday for an editorial cartoon making light of the motor-scooter accident that left offensive lineman Pete DeSouza hospitalized with multiple leg fractures. The cartoon by Morgan Noonan in The Diamondback, an independent campus daily, depicts a woman addressing a player in helmet and full pads. "I didn't think there was a game today," she says. The player replies: "There isn't.

A year ago, Maryland won its opening Atlantic Coast Conference game. Then the Terps dropped the rest of their league games, skidding to the worst record for a Ralph Friedgen-coached team. This season, Maryland again won its initial ACC contest after four nonconference games. That's where the Terrapins desperately hope the similarity to last year ends. After losing to Clemson to drop to 1-1 in the conference, Maryland is determined to distinguish itself from last season's team.

COLLEGE PARK — New Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson said Thursday that football coach Ralph Friedgen is doing "a fantastic job" under trying circumstances, but that it would be premature to guarantee that Friedgen will return next year if the team keeps winning. "He's 4-and-1 right now," Anderson said in an interview. "Continue on that path, I don't think we'll be having this discussion. " Anderson was less enthusiastic about the "coach-in-waiting" plan that his predecessor, Deborah Yow, negotiated under which Friedgen is to be succeeded by offensive coordinator James Franklin by January 2012 . "I'm going to go out on this limb: I can't see how this (plan)