This isn’t the way any member of the Terrapin football team’s small senior class wanted to end their careers. Not with a team seemingly incapable of pullling everything together, unable to grind out a win as its season fades fast.
“It’s a devastating thing. I take that to heart,” senio safety Jamari McCollough said. “I wouldn’t have ever expected it to be like this. But things go wrong. Everything can’t be perfect. Everything can’t be good all the time.”
The 14 seniors — the fewest in coach Ralph Friedgen’s nine-year tenure with the Terps — have amassed a 25-22 record through the last four seasons, making a bowl game each of the last three. This season’s bowl chances appear slim — the Terps (2-6, 1-3 ACC) will have to win their final four games to become eligible for the postseason.
For those upperclassmen, the season began with an emphasis on leadership and teamwork. Many have suggested this is the hardest working team they’ve played on in their four, five or six, in the case of cornerback Richard Taylor, years here. But that effort hasn’t translated into success, and now a collection of guys likely to be playing their last organized football game have had to watch inexperience and sloppy mistakes drown out any positives thus far.
As the season wears on, Friedgen is being forced to evaluate his team’s future, as well as its present. Known for his undying loyalty to veterans, Friedgen has admitted he may look toward younger players in planning out the final four weeks of the season. He’s still trying to win every game, but at some point, next year becomes more relevant than this one.
The seniors empathize with their coach. But such a statement, which Friedgen has repeated several times, leaves those players in their final seasons with the Terps sticking out like a sore thumb. Still, the seniors remain optimistic.
“In this situation, it’s probably the right thing to do,” senior defensive end Deege Galt said. “It kind of sucks for me — I’ll be losing reps. But I get as much enjoyment out of watching my teammates make plays as I do when I’m making plays. So I think as long as everyone’s winning, everyone’s getting their time and everything’s right, I have no problem with it.”
Thus far, Friedgen has said no changes are finalized. And it doesn’t appear likely any of the seniors will feel the effects of the forward-looking mandate too strongly.
“I don’t think there’s going to be any all-out, ‘Take the seniors out, we’re starting anew,’” senior fullback Cory Jackson said. “Well, unless we pick up another loss, because right now if we win this next game, we’re still in it. But [benching seniors is] a hard thing to do, and I don’t see it happening.”
Quarterback Chris Turner came under fire two weeks ago, when, after a poor performance in a loss to Virginia, his role as the Terps’ signal caller was brought into question by a vague statement from Friedgen. It appears Turner will be the man for the rest of this season, though coaches continue to suggest reserve JaMarr Robinson may take more snaps should the team continue to struggle.
After reading Friedgen’s comment online, Turner broached the subject in a text message to offensive coordinator James Franklin the night after the Virginia game, only to earn a vote of confidence. In a season such as this one, it’s tough for a player to feel comfortable at any moment, and the third-year starter later admitted his confidence was low at the time.
“It’s in the back of your mind that when you’re struggling a little bit, they’re going to start making changes,” tight end Tommy Galt said. “As a senior, you kind of want to finish your career in the right way. But you understand and you’ve got to keep working. And hopefully that respect you’ve earned will kind of allow you to finish the way you want.”
To do that would mean winning out and going to a bowl game or, potentially, the ACC Championship. No member of the senior class has given up hope for that just yet, though several admitted another loss could put a serious damper on their spirits.
It’s with that in mind, then, that the players have come out after a bye week this past weekend with renewed energy. Several seniors stressed that it was at this point where they could make their biggest impact as leaders, simply by showing younger players that there is still quite a bit to play for, even if the team does lose another game.
“You’ve got to love to come out and play,” Tommy Galt said. “Here I am, counting down. Four weeks left in my career, and all I want to do is go out and practice. That’s the kind of attitude I’ve taken.”
This group of seniors is unique. Last season, Friedgen fielded the largest class he’s had in his nine years, a group full of players with several years as starters under their belts. A number of those players have since gone onto the NFL, a luxury many of these seniors may not have.
Because of its smaller size, the seniors say they are a more tightly knit group than in years past. Jackson, a fourth-year player, and Taylor are the only members of the class who did not come in together in 2005. By this point, the fifth-year players joke that they are sick of seeing each other.
But the size of the class has also instilled in each member a greater sense of leadership. And many of these players are more limited than some of their predecessors. Former Terp receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey’s early entry last season left this group with no blue-chip NFL prospects. Jackson, the only four-year starter on the team, is also the only Terp rated as one of the top 20 players at his position for the upcoming NFL Draft by ESPN.com’s Scouts Inc.
For a player such as Deege Galt, who had made little impact for the Terps before earning a starting job this season, the struggles have been particularly difficult.
“This is my one shot. I only get one shot at this thing,” he said. “And it happened to be this year, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. This is the best chance for me. I think it’s awesome that it’s worked out that I’ve been able to play. Granted, I would like to win more.”
Those sentiments have been echoed by Galt’s classmates. While the previous five years for the program have featured plenty of rocky times, including two losing seasons, never before has a Friedgen team struggled like this one.
The seniors often talk to one another about just that. At times, players come to one another with their frustrations over the latest bad break for the team. “But when there’s 12 people, everybody’s not going to feel that way,” defensive tackle Travis Ivey said. “So you can come back to that circle and get some encouragement so you can go out and do your job.”
Saturday, the team will play at N.C. State. There can be no more losses this season. No one has to remind any of the Terps’ seniors about that.
“This is all or nothing — put everything on the line,” McCollough said. “I look at it as, maybe, my last four games of my whole career playing football. I want to leave it with a bang, win or loss. I want to know I played my hardest, I did my best.”
ajoseph@umdbk.com
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