Monday, August 04, 2008
Terrapins coach hands over play-calling duties
Ralph Friedgen puts his new OC in charge of calling plays.
Ralph Friedgen remembers the exact moment he realized things had to change.
Late in the fourth quarter on Nov. 3, 2007. Maryland down by three. Fourth-and-2 from the North Carolina 41-yard line.
Friedgen would later realize he should have called a timeout. Instead, the Maryland coach -- who also doubled as the offensive play-caller -- hastily ordered a sprint-out pass.
It fell incomplete. And the Terrapins lost.
"That's when I knew: I can't do this anymore," Friedgen recalled at the recent ACC Football Kickoff in Greensboro, Ga. "That would have never happened before.
"I know what I should have been doing and I wasn't prepared for it."
If Friedgen has his way, such a situation won't repeat itself this year. The eighth-year coach is giving up the play-calling, handing those duties to new offensive coordinator James Franklin.
Senior offensive lineman Edwin Williams described Franklin as a high-energy guy who makes practices fun. Franklin, a Terrapins assistant from 2000-04, returns to College Park with a West Coast offense that helped Kansas State break school records last season.
Just as important, though, is his role in easing the burden on Friedgen, who admits he overextended himself last year.
"I didn't feel like I was coaching to my expectations," said Friedgen, whose Terps went 6-7 last year and have notched only one winning season in the past four. "And I wasn't around the players enough."
His responsibilities collided off the field, when his weekly keep-your-chin-up meetings with freshmen gave way to more game-planning.
In practice, Friedgen found himself calling specific plays just to test a green defender, instead of gearing all efforts to making the offense hum.
"I saw that as a bit of a conflict," he said.
Known as a sharp offensive mind, Friedgen points out that he didn't call his own plays his first four seasons at Maryland, either. The Terps piled up three 10-win seasons and an ACC title during that span.
The decision to change that, he now realizes, was a mistake.
"I was spreading myself too thin," he said, then broke into a smile. "Not to make a pun."
