Shades of Mike Gundy in College Park
Ralph Friedgen pulled fifth-year senior quarterback Jordan Steffy in the Maryland Terrapins’ season-opening win over the University of Delaware last Saturday. He classified the benching as medical related, citing an undisclosed problem with Steffy’s thumb.
Today, Friedgen told Terrapin faithful and members of the local media to get off Steffy’s back:
“If you want to boo me, boo me. Don’t boo the kid,” Friedgen said during a media briefing noteworthy for the coach’s intensity, but also for the fact that he wouldn’t commit to starting the fifth-year senior Saturday at Middle Tennessee State.
“You know, there’s a lot of things that bother me right now with this whole thing,” the coach said. “I’ve got a kid that has done everything that I could possibly ask him to do. Would I like him to make some better decisions or throw some better passes? Sure. But this kid to me is the epitome of what we want in this football program,” Friedgen said.
“You know, I’m like the father. If you’re booing my son I’m going to get upset. That’s how I look at this kid. If he was a kid that didn’t give effort, that didn’t prepare, then that would be a different story. That’s not the case with the kid,” the coach said.
Two interesting things about this. One, all of Friedgen’s praise for Steffy didn’t earn him the start for Saturday’s game, or a commitment that he would start any other game if and when he gets healthy. Second, I feel like we’ve seen this kind of thing before, and when we did see it, it didn’t turn out so well for the quarterback.
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[...] Ralph Friedgen almost went Mike Gundy on the media. [...]
Yeah, well, Steffy blows and shouldn’t be playing. Ralph must be the only person in College Park who doesn’t realize that.
But it turned out great for the second string QB Zac Robinson who is ranked as high as second amond dual threat qb’s.
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