Steve Suter

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Steve Suter has a way of keeping things in personal perspective. In the world of the University of Maryland receiver, things may not be perfect, but it's still an improvement over the past. "I had never been part of a big game before I got here," Suter said. "Now in my second year and I've got the chance to play in two big bowl games. " So Suter is taking Thursday's Gator Bowl against West Virginia seriously. Heading to Jacksonville, Fla., on New Year's Day isn't exactly Utopia, but it beats the alternative.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Steve Suter will probably never get called on in class, become a traffic cop or ever get sworn in for any political office. It's because he refuses to raise his hand. The University of Maryland receiver proudly admits he has never raised his arm and shown the palm of his hand to anyone - most of all opposing punt teams - in his life. That would mean he is asking them to stop, and that isn't Suter's style. "I have never called for a fair catch, in high school or college," Suter admits.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - In football, there's wins, and there's Wins and there's WINS. To football laymen, Maryland's win over The Citadel was just a win. But to the Terrapins, it was much more than that. It was a Win which could be used as the foundation of WINS to come. The Citadel proved to be just what Maryland needed after a 0-2 start. Critics are saying the Terps' 61-0 win came at the expense of a Division I-AA team which says little about their resurgence.

keller@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - It sounds as if Ralph Friedgen and Scott McBrien are finally on the same page. The Maryland coach and his junior quarterback had many of the same things to say after McBrien's stellar performance Saturday in the Terrapins' 45-3 win over Eastern Michigan at Byrd Stadium. McBrien had a career night, going 14-for-19 for 300 yards and three touchdowns - most of which came in the first half as the Terrapins built a 31-0 lead.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - What you see and what you get are often two different things. The University of Maryland football team started the 2003 season with the grandest of expectations, especially since the Terps had a huge number of returnees from last year's Peach Bowl-winning team. The school of thought became "If things go right, we could ... " But so far, things haven't gone right and the options for filling in the rest of the sentence are becoming fewer.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - At least the Maryland Terrapins know they have Florida State's attention. There is just something about ending a team's run of nine straight Atlantic Coast Conference football titles that makes a team get a little annoyed. And the Maryland football team knows they are on the top of the Seminoles' very short list of "Things to do" in the 2002 season. Florida State hasn't been bashful about using the media to let the Terps know they are coming after them.

bobp@herald-mail.com In this time of preseason practices, coaches try different tactics to get their teams ready for the upcoming football season. At the University of Maryland, it's pretty certain that coach Ralph Friedgen won't be pushing the Terrapins through any 20-mile hikes anytime soon. Leg injuries have become the major hurdle for Maryland as it prepares for its 2003 season opener at Northern Illinois on Aug. 28. The little strains and pulls have sidelined a number of Terrapins players, but hasn't lessened the workload Friedgen expects.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Ralph Friedgen has had the University of Maryland football team traveling the road to respectability since becoming its head coach eight years ago. This season, the journey will continue and shift into the fast lane. Outside the usual talk of experience and depth during Monday's annual media day, one special five-letter word was added. Speed. "We've been trying to upgrade our speed since I got here," Friedgen said. "It is kind of like the situation we had when we had Steve Suter here.

I haven't read the column Bob Fleenor has penned for the upcoming Maryland-WVU Gator Bowl match-up. No need. No need to read the obligatory chest-thumping over West Virginia's mid-season resurrection. No need to pore over the offensive skills of running back Quincy Wilson the superhuman defense of Grant Wiley. No need to read Bob gushing about the job Rich Rodriguez has done as head coach. No need, you see, because I read this column the first time he wrote it - prior to last year's Maryland-WVU game in Morgantown.

This might be a loose example of reality imitating art. Old-time movie buffs might remember a critically acclaimed flick called "The Three Faces of Eve. " Joanne Woodward starred in a story of a young woman who had multiple personalities - one shy, one sexy and one normal. Now, 47 years later, the University of Maryland looks to be making an athletic remake of the cinematic classic. It would be called "The Three Phases of Ralph. " As Terrapins fans well know, Ralph is played by Ralph Friedgen, the closest thing there has ever been to a savior for a floundering program.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Ralph Friedgen has had the University of Maryland football team traveling the road to respectability since becoming its head coach eight years ago. This season, the journey will continue and shift into the fast lane. Outside the usual talk of experience and depth during Monday's annual media day, one special five-letter word was added. Speed. "We've been trying to upgrade our speed since I got here," Friedgen said. "It is kind of like the situation we had when we had Steve Suter here.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Usually, they say if you are going to talk the talk, you had better walk the walk. It's a little different at the University of Maryland this season, especially for the passing attack. For now, before the Terrapins can talk the talk, they have to run the route. The Maryland passing game is an unknown. All the experience and household names have graduated and have turned the game over to a pack of kids. They are "The New Breed. " And they have the potential to be pretty good.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. ? Vernon Davis is becoming the University of Maryland's high-wire act. Every time he makes a play, Terps coach Ralph Friedgen is looking for a safety net. It isn't because Davis is doing such a bad job. It's quite the contrary. The tight end does so much when he gets the ball, Friedgen is looking for ways to stop plays for Davis' own good. "He doesn't want to go down," Friedgen said. "He gets the ball and he keeps trying to go forward, even when there are five and six defenders around him. When that happens in practice, I have a whistle I blow.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Success is like a bouquet of roses. Their beauty is something to behold, but don't forget about the thorns. University of Maryland football started to bloom into one of the up-and-coming programs in the country in its first three years under coach Ralph Friedgen. There was a surprise Atlantic Coast Conference title and three consecutive bowl trips to help it all take root. All was rosy with the world. All the early success was so pretty, even Friedgen took time to stop and smell the roses.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Steve Suter will probably never get called on in class, become a traffic cop or ever get sworn in for any political office. It's because he refuses to raise his hand. The University of Maryland receiver proudly admits he has never raised his arm and shown the palm of his hand to anyone - most of all opposing punt teams - in his life. That would mean he is asking them to stop, and that isn't Suter's style. "I have never called for a fair catch, in high school or college," Suter admits.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Sometimes, two weeks can seem like a lifetime. The 14-day span between games won't seem like an eternity to the University of Maryland football team, but coach Ralph Friedgen is counting on last week's off week to be the difference between infancy and adolescence for the Terrapins. The Terps left their Sept. 25 win over Duke teething but return for this weekend's with Georgia Tech already shaving in the eyes of Friedgen as Maryland begins the critical juncture of the season.

This might be a loose example of reality imitating art. Old-time movie buffs might remember a critically acclaimed flick called "The Three Faces of Eve. " Joanne Woodward starred in a story of a young woman who had multiple personalities - one shy, one sexy and one normal. Now, 47 years later, the University of Maryland looks to be making an athletic remake of the cinematic classic. It would be called "The Three Phases of Ralph. " As Terrapins fans well know, Ralph is played by Ralph Friedgen, the closest thing there has ever been to a savior for a floundering program.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - University of Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen might consider having a full-sized, cutout photo taken of Steve Suter before he graduates. It could become the good luck charm for Terrapins football teams to come. All Maryland would need to do is just stand it up whenever there's a punt. After all, all Suter has to do is stand on the field right now and just the sight of him throws opposing kicking games out of sync. Suter has built a reputation as the most dangerous kick returner in the Atlantic Coast Conference - and maybe the country - in his stay at Maryland.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The rematch turned out to be a replay. Scott McBrien threw for a career-high 381 yards to help No. 23 Maryland to a 41-7 victory over No. 20 West Virginia in the Gator Bowl on Thursday, a rematch of a regular-season game that was almost as lopsided. Playing against the team he left in 2001, McBrien threw for three scores and ran for another. His teammate, Steve Suter, returned a punt for a touchdown and made a highlight-reel catch to help the once-downtrodden Terrapins (10-3)

As the Gator Bowl began Thursday, Mountaineer diehards at Ollie's Sports Bar & Grill in Martinsburg, W.Va., were thirsting for revenge - and maybe a couple of cold ones - for the 34-7 mauling West Virginia University suffered earlier in the season at the hands of the University of Maryland Terrapins. By the end of the game, Terps fans in the Stadium Tavern in Hagerstown were savoring hot dogs, cold beer and Maryland's most lopsided bowl victory ever. "Fear the Turtle!" Brad "Beef" Grimm bellowed at the end of the game, which the Terrapins won, 41-7.