During his weekly press conference, a reporter asked Ralph Friedgen if he felt a need to schedule William and Mary because other top teams schedule easy opponents early in the season.

“How many bowl teams are we playing?” Friedgen asked back.

For the record, the answer is nine.

Friedgen later said tomorrow’s game was scheduled before the ACC expanded into a super-conference with the addition of Boston College and Miami.

But even while keeping himself from talking badly about the Tribe, Friedgen recognized that his team can’t go through intense challenges every week like the one coming up at West Virginia Sept. 14.

That leads the Terps to a home game against a Division I-AA team with most fans expecting a huge win. A loss would cause widespread panic throughout Terp Nation and would mark the most embarrassing point of the Friedgen Era.

While far from being a barometer of ACC success, the Terps proving they can manhandle the Tribe is a legitimate first step to erasing memories of last season. Some players and coaches put more stock in how the Terps play and the tally in the win column, but others are concerned with the message they send tomorrow.

So, would a close win be enough?

“It probably wouldn’t make coaches happy as it would to really put it to them,” junior safety Christian Varner said. “We don’t wanna come out and have a close game and barely beat these guys.”

Three years ago, the Terps clobbered The Citadel 61-0 in their home opener after losing back-to-back games at Northern Illinois and Florida State. But this game – against a team that’s projected to finish fourth in the Atlantic 10’s Southern Division – is the Terps’ first taste of game action since slipping out of bowl contention last season.

“We wanna come out, set the tone, [and] let the rest of the teams know this season that Maryland is back,” Varner said. “We’re a better team and we’re improved.”

When questioned whether the Terps need to make a statement with a blowout win, though, other players were hesitant to peg the score as the determining factor.

“I think we definitely have to make a statement. I’m not sure if the point value will be the statement we’re going to make,” sophomore receiver Isaiah Williams said. “Any team would like to do really good and get a lot of people scoring and things like that, but it doesn’t really matter to me how many points we beat them by.”

Senior punter Adam Podlesh agreed, saying the score doesn’t matter as much as the Terps playing well to prove they wouldn’t be a “pushover” once the ACC season begins.

That theme was consistent among Terp players and coaches, as defensive line coach Dave Sollazzo said the team had to focus on reaching excellence.

But what if the Terps are marred by mistakes and inconsistencies and still eke out a win?

“If we play sloppy and still win,” Podlesh said, “we will know there’s still work to be done.

Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.