Sam Hollenbach

The fortunes of the University of Maryland football team can be reduced to a game of finder's keepers. The Terrapins will have a great chance to be successful in the 2006 season if they can find a way to keep the football. Maryland sat near the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference in a number of offensive categories in 2005, but only managed a 5-6 record and missed an invitation to a bowl game. The main reason was turnovers - particularly interceptions thrown by quarterback Sam Hollenbach.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Sam Hollenbach stayed around to throw his own version of the Hail Mary in 2004. He got his prayer answered in 2005. How else would Hollenbach explain his ascent from fourth-string quarterback at the University of Maryland last season to the one scheduled to take the first snap this season when the Terps open on Sept. 3 against Navy. "The end of the season was a sign from God for me to stay," Hollenbach admitted Monday during Maryland's annual media day festivities.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Sam Hollenbach is heading to Raleigh, N.C., to look for a breath mint. The University of Maryland quarterback wants a chance to clean his palate with a flawless game against North Carolina State to cancel out his recent failure against Boston College. "I want to get out there again because it left a bad taste in my mouth," Hollenbach said. "I was really down Saturday after the game and I spent Sunday thinking about it. By Sunday night, I had this incredible feeling to get out there again.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Vernon Davis is in a class by himself. After all, when it comes to football, there aren't many guys signing up to take Tight End 101. Davis is, and he relishes the coursework "I have come a long way, in terms of getting bigger, faster and becoming a student of the game," said Davis at the recent University of Maryland football media day. "I still can't believe how far I have come....

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - There were three big news stories coming out of the University of Maryland's victory over Navy last Saturday. The good news. The bad news. The Friedgen news. There was much to rave about, review and rewind after the Terrapins beat the clock to beat Navy 23-20 last Saturday before a near-capacity crowd at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium. Maryland fell under the microscope as the performance was pulled apart and dissected as the first step of a return to a winning record after last season's misstep.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - After last Saturday, Ralph Friedgen decided to become Roger Ebert with a whistle. The University of Maryland football coach decided to watch and rate a film. It wasn't a comedy, a horror flick or a mystery, and yet, it was all three combined. It was the game film from Maryland's 28-24 loss to Clemson. But instead of giving the Terps' cinematic effort a thumbs-up or thumbs-down sign, it was more like the palm pointing straight down in a "y-ahh" motion.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The days of football coaches are like field goals. They are either good or bad. For University of Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen, Tuesday felt as good as splitting the uprights. "It's always better coming to talk to you guys on a Tuesday after a win," said Friedgen to the assembled media representatives at his weekly press conference. There was a much different feeling surrounding the whole program after the Terrapins played their best game of the season last Saturday in a 22-12 win at Wake Forest.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland has at least one player who wants an old adage to be true. They say, "You can't run the offense without a Ball. " For the Terps, that's Lance Ball. Ball returns as the top ground threat from the 2005 season for a Maryland team that had a lot of inconsistancies. There will be a lot of offensive changes for the Terps this season, but it will still come down to following a bouncing Ball to have any success. "I still feel like the top dog," Ball said at Maryland's annual media day. "I felt that way last year.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Sam Hollenbach has become a thinking man's quarterback. By his estimation, that might be the thing that is holding him back from being a successful one. In the time it takes for the University of Maryland senior quarterback to react to an opportunity knocking, it leaves. And with it goes some prime chances to score for the Terrapins. "I have to make quicker decisions," Hollenbach said. "The route will come open while I'm still making my drop and then it won't be open.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Adam Podlesh doesn't think his contributions have put his signature on any University of Maryland football game. They do allow him to do a little doodling, though. As the Terrapins' punter, Podlesh doesn't have touchdowns or tackles to count to show his effectiveness in a game. He's a guy who has to settle for subtleness to get his satisfaction of contribution. "I feel like it's not my signature, but it's one of them," the senior said. "Field position has an overall impact on the game.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Jordan Steffy was sure of one thing when it came to becoming the University of Maryland's starting quarterback. He wasn't going to be an Indian giver. The redshirt junior entered spring practice and summer training camp as the top candidate to replace Sam Hollenbach as Maryland's quarterback. And as unofficial as it was, the last thing he was going to do was give the job back. "To be honest, I came into camp as the starter and approached it like it was my job," Steffy said calmly Tuesday during Maryland's weekly media conference, before he starts as the Terrapins' quarterback in Saturday's home and season opener against Villanova.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - To Josh Portis, practice is a necessary evil. In fact, it is both necessary and evil at the same time. That's the world Portis is living in during the University of Maryland's football training camp. He is a player in the competition for the Terrapins' starting quarterback positions with Jordan Steffy and Chris Turner. By the same token, he is limited to what he can show. Portis, a cousin to the Washington Redskins' Clinton Portis, transferred from the University of Florida for a chance to be the Terps' quarterback.

The University of Maryland football team is undergoing some plastic surgery. The Terrapins are getting a nip here and a tuck there in an effort to put their best face forward offensively this year. For now, the face of the offense is would-be starting quarterback Jordan Steffy, but he might not have to be as complete as other quarterbacks to help the Terps look good and be good. "One thing that I have confidence in in Jordan is that he knows what to do," Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said at the Terrapins' annual media day. "What I want is for him to be able to run and pass and put us in a position to be successful.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Jordan Steffy is all about time. His life, his future and his success have come down to his ability to manage it. Time has been of the essence of Steffy's life since he stepped on the University of Maryland campus with the intent to be the quarterback of the Terrapins. He's had to take his time, bide his time, let time pass and work on his timing - all pointing to when his time would come. And that time seems to be now ... in due time. Steffy is precariously sitting atop Maryland's depth chart for quarterbacks as training camp opens for the 2007 season.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Ralph Friedgen put the NFL Draft on a personal level. He put himself on the clock, but it's not to select in the first round. It's a self-imposed deadline the University of Maryland football coach has set to pick his starting quarterback for the 2007 season. "I'm not going to take long ... at least a week, maybe a little bit more," Friedgen warned during his news conference Monday at the annual Maryland media day at Byrd Stadium. "I'm anxious to see them practice and see how they did during the summer.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The best of times quickly became the worst of times for the University of Maryland football team. For an entire season, the Terrapins struggled for the opportunity to enjoy some success. In the long run, that success may have been their undoing. That thirst for success is often unquenchable. But the well ran dry for the Terps on Saturday as Wake Forest used its sweeping style of a running attack to claim a 38-24 victory to win the Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic Division title and a trip to the ACC Championship game.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The battle with Wake Forest for the Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic Division title Saturday became a wake for the Maryland football team's league title hopes. In a classic battle of college football "can you top this?" the Demon Deacons found a way to trump every Maryland score to take a 38-24 victory and earn a berth against Georgia Tech in next weekend's ACC Championship Game in Jacksonville, Fla. Wake Forest, the only ACC team that's been more of a shocking upstart than Maryland this season, beat the Terps more times to the perimeter and got some clutch play from freshman quarterback Riley Skinner to become the king of the hill in the Atlantic.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Playing a 60-minute game is the gold standard for football teams. That has been the case for the University of Maryland this season. The goal was to play on every down and every snap like it was the first. The No. 21 Terrapins went down to the last second again on Saturday, this time for a very important 14-13 win over Miami. It has been their trademark, considering they have won their last five games by a total of 13 points. But when it came to punching in for this 60 minutes of work, Maryland's defense used a time clock while the offense employed an egg timer.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - There was a time for Sam Hollenbach that a legend was nothing more than a good bedtime story. But now, as the University of Maryland's senior quarterback, there's a legend that is becoming ironic and eerie at the same time. In some circles, this story would be called folklore. Here, at College Park, it is a game which will be remembered as Franklore. It was 22 years ago today that Frank Reich - one of Hollenbach's predecessors behind center for Terrapins football - completed one of the greatest comebacks in college football history.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - There is a strange feeling of familiarity at the University of Maryland these days. The more the Terrapins play, the more there is this feeling that Maryland has been here before a feeling of dj vu. That's because the more the Terps play, the more they seem to be following the same course that was carved by Maryland's 2001 team, the first coached by Ralph Friedgen. And that's not a bad thing. "There are a lot of similarities between this team and the first team," Friedgen said.