After being knocked out of Saturday’s win over Iowa for more than a quarter because of a crushing hit, Terrapins football quarterback C.J. Brown said his back injury is “feeling better” and he is continuing to get treatment.
“Just trying to get things back in line,” Brown said.
The sixth-year signal-caller said he is receiving between two-and-a-half and three hours of treatment each day on his upper trapezius muscle to help remove knots that developed after Hawkeyes cornerback Desmond King walloped the quarterback near the right sideline early in the third quarter.
Brown said he typically makes three separate visits to the trainers: once in the morning for an hour, once in the afternoon for an hour and once after dinner for about 45 minutes. There, Brown spends time in the cold tub and also receives heat stimulation to try and relax the muscle.
“It definitely was a late hit,” Brown said. “But at the end of the day, I’m glad I’m all right. No hard feelings.”
COACHING TIES
In 1995, Terps defensive coordinator Brian Stewart was offered an opportunity to return to his alma mater, Northern Arizona, to coach tight ends and special teams.
He had spent the previous two seasons at Cal Poly as a wide receivers and running backs coach, but he jumped at the chance to join the program he played for a decade earlier. On top of that, Stewart also would be allowed to take classes.
He just needed to find somewhere to stay.
That’s when Northern Arizona’s defensive line and special teams coach Gary Andersen, now at the helm of Wisconsin, who the Terps play Saturday on the road, offered Stewart his basement free of charge.
Stewart stayed there for the entire season — about four or five months — before he departed for his next job as a graduate assistant at Missouri.
“As far as knowing Gary as a person, I don’t know if I know a better person,” Stewart said. “It was an awesome situation for me. It helped me, and I learned a lot from him.”
ROAD WARRIORS
This weekend, the Terps head to Madison, Wisconsin, to take on the Badgers with a five-game road winning streak on the line.
The stretch dates back to last season and started when the Terps defeated Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium in overtime. Coach Randy Edsall said that victory was crucial in his team’s heightened play away from Byrd Stadium.
“You have to learn how to win on the road, and we didn’t learn how to do that until Virginia Tech,” Edsall said. “You have to be able to block things out, and you have to have a chip on your shoulder. You don’t have many people cheering for you. It’s a mindset, focus and belief that everybody’s got to hang together and find a way to get it done.”
The team traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina two weeks later and handed N.C. State a 20-point loss at Carter-Finley Stadium in the regular-season finale on Nov. 30.
This year, the Terps are 3-0 on the road, with victories over South Florida, Syracuse and Indiana.
“I don’t know if there is any special formula. We haven’t done anything different in how we go about it,” Edsall said. “We just try to get the kids focused on what we have to do between the lines from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. central time and 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. eastern time. For me, it’s just preparing the same way each and every week and guys believing that they can win.”