Ralph Friedgen
University of Maryland
When Maryland opened its 2001 season with a 23-7 win over North Carolina, senior center Melvin Fowler called his older brother Kevin.
"I told my brother, ‘I think we have a chance to run the table,’" Fowler recalled. "He didn’t believe me. He said, ‘That’s only one game. It’s too early to tell." I said, ‘I saw the way the team played today. It’s a different team than in years past.’"
The Terrapins, indeed, were a different team and the difference started at the top with first-year head coach Ralph Friedgen, who led Maryland to its first Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1985 and a top 10 ranking in the final ESPN/USA Today poll. He is the 13th winner of the Maxwell Football Club’s George Munger Award for College Coach of the Year.
"It’s amazing what you can accomplish when everybody is working together for a common goal," said Friedgen, who was an offensive lineman at Maryland and graduated with a 3.2 grade point average. "It’s more "’we’ than ‘I’. You become very strong and very efficient when you do those things."
The Maryland football program was at a low ebb when Friedgen was hired prior to the 2001 season. The Terrapins had not won more than six games in a season since 1985 and they were 37-73 in the years from 1990 through 2000. The ACC media picked Maryland to finish seventh in the conference in Friedgen’s first season, but the Terrapins shocked everyone by winning 10 games and earning a berth in the Orange Bowl.
"He is the best thing that every happened to us in the sport of football," said the school’s athletic director Deborah Yow. "He is a natural leader. Our goal is to put him in place, with the right tools, to have a chance to win a national championship."
Friedgen had a track record of success as an assistant coach under Bobby Ross at Maryland and Georgia Tech, where the team shared the 1990 national title, and later with the San Diego Chargers, when they appeared in their only Super Bowl. It was a long time coming – 32 years as an assistant – but Friedgen finally got his chance to be a head coach when his alma mater called this past season.
Known as an imaginative offensive coach, Friedgen helped the Terrapins average 35.5 points per game during the regular season, an increase of 13 points over the previous year, and he became the first rookie head coach in ACC history to lead his team to the conference title.
"The Fridge," as he was known, brought the football program back to life. For the first time since 1995, the expanded campus stadium was sold out for home games. Work is underway on expanding the locker room, weight rooms and coaches’ offices. Just two months ago, the school signed Friedgen to a new contract, this one for ten years.
"This is where I expected us to be when I took the job, I just didn’t expect it this soon," Friedgen said. "Eventually, I want to get at least one more (national championship) before I retire. There is no other feeling like it."
