Well after most ESPN viewers flipped away from West Virginia’s convincing win over the Terrapin football team, those who kept watching inside Milan Puskar Stadium saw some bright spots.
The guy who saw the most might have been coach Ralph Friedgen. Among all the questions the 21-point loss raised, he and his players had little trouble finding a silver lining.
After losing Thursday’s game in the first fifteen minutes, the Terps spent the second half putting points on the board and allowing only one West Virginia touchdown. Swamped with concerns over sloppy tackling and special teams turnovers, Friedgen noted several positive results including his team’s perseverance in a blowout to the offensive efficiency after the first few rocky drives.
“I saw some bright spots I know it’s hard for you to all see,” Friedgen said, addressing the reporters huddling around him. “You know how I am after losses. They affect me greatly, but it’s a long season. This is one game.”
In the trenches during the disheartening moments, guard Donnie Woods looked to team unity as a source for optimism.
“The positive out of this game is seeing everybody stick together on the sideline and actually put some points up on the board and make it respectable,” Woods said. “I still think we have a good team even though we lost.”
Last week, Friedgen said the confidence boost from a win against West Virginia could propel the Terps to a successful season. Standing in the bowels of the Morgantown, W. Va., stadium, Friedgen said this one loss was not a season-defining defeat.
“I would have been [worried] if we had folded in the second half,” Friedgen said. “Sometimes it’s tougher to play harder in that situation. It’s easy to give up in that situation. They didn’t do that.”
West Virginia dusted the Terps 28-0 in the game’s first quarter, but after that, the statistics bear out a pretty even game. Despite allowing 230 first-quarter yards, the Terp defense held the Mountaineers to 153 yards the rest of the game.
On offense, senior quarterback Sam Hollenbach and the Terps eventually clicked. Hollenbach finished with a couple of touchdown passes, leading the offense on three touchdown-scoring drives. After the Terps made some offensive progress from far behind, they finished with only 50 fewer yards than West Virginia.
Friedgen called Hollenbach’s play “OK” and cited the running game and redshirt freshman receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey (5 catches, 49 yards) as positives in the losing effort.
Without senior Drew Weatherly, who has not played this season because of a stress fracture in his right foot, the Terps have had to rely on Heyward-Bey and several other untested wide receivers. The young receiving corps as a whole still needs to improve, but Friedgen said he hopes the game teaches the group.
“[The receivers] got better as the game went on. They did some good things,” Friedgen said. “I know these kids got a chance to be good. It’s a growing pain.”
Describing some of his players as “star-struck” by the atmosphere and national TV spotlight, Friedgen said the Terps can use the game’s memory as a tool for the rest of the season.
“It’s embarrassing,” Friedgen said. “But you gotta be able to come back for these things and get better, take this experience and put it in your back pocket and the next time you’re in it, grow from it.”
Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.
