After practice Tuesday, a day after naming senior Jordan Steffy as his team’s starting quarterback, Terrapin football coach Ralph Friedgen sat down in his office and promptly proclaimed he was finished discussing the quarterback situation with the media.

But interest in Friedgen’s selection of Steffy for the starting spot over incumbent Chris Turner and the hard-charging Josh Portis wouldn’t fade. Eventually, Friedgen reflected on the aftermath of his decision.

Friedgen called it, “probably the most difficult” decision he’s had to make as a head coach.

“Probably just because it wasn’t going to be good no matter how I went with it,” Friedgen said. “I think a lot of those kids. I think they’re all great kids, and they work their butts off, and I believe in them tremendously as people.”

Friedgen’s move Monday came as a surprise to many observers, who saw Steffy struggle in games last season and Turner play decently enough to help the Terps upset two top-10 ranked teams. The decision prompted rumors that Turner would transfer, a notion put to rest yesterday, when Turner’s father told ESPN the quarterback would remain with the Terps.

According to Friedgen and offensive coordinator James Franklin, the decision to start Steffy was made because he performed better in practices and scrimmages throughout the spring and summer.

“It was a difficult decision, I care about all of them, and I want to see them all be very, very successful,” Franklin said. “You have to do what’s best for the team; that’s the ultimate decision you have to make.”

Franklin is the team’s new offensive coordinator and play caller, taking over those duties from Friedgen. He brings a new West Coast-style offense and said part of the reason for choosing Steffy as the starter is because he fits the offense better.

“I think that probably could be part of it,” Franklin said. “I think the most important thing is, whether it’s last year’s offense or this year’s offense, [with] the offense we’re running, who’s going to give us the best opportunity.”

Steffy said the quarterback corps was ready to move on and he had spoken with Turner, who is also his roommate.

“I think we’ve really sort of, all of us as a group, sort of moved forward from that,” Steffy said. “To be honest with you, we’ve talked about it, but at the end of the day, we both understand how this whole thing works, and the most important thing is that every one of us just continues to go out and try to get better.

“I know that people would like me to say [Turner] is down in the dumps now. It’s nothing like that. He really is the same way he was all of camp,” Steffy said.

Turner wasn’t available for comment Tuesday.

The wildcard in all of this was the emergence of Portis, a junior who sat out two seasons with the Terps. Portis didn’t play in 2006 because of his transfer from Florida and missed all of last season because of an academic honor code violation. Coaches praised his athleticism throughout camp and said he was finally starting to understand the playbook.

Friedgen said Monday that Portis will see time on the field this year.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t get the starting job, but they told me I was going to play a lot. My role is to come in, change the tempo and make big plays,” Portis said. “I got into the playbook more mentally, so that’s what I was doing this offseason during the summertime,g rinding in the playbook, and fortunately, I closed the gap a lot during camp.”

Franklin said the Terps had the most quarterback depth in the conference, and Friedgen said he could envision all three players playing this year.

But when it comes to the starter in the season opener Aug. 30 against Delaware, Franklin said despite the close competition, Steffy’s grip on the starting job is tight.

“Very firm, the three things that [Friedgen is] saying is that in this league you have an opportunity to lose a quarterback and another quarterback has to step up, just like what happened last year,” Franklin said. “We got one guy that, athletically, will probably play and then, depending on injuries and other things, things could change [with the starting spot].”

“But we have a starting quarterback.”

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