Steve Suter

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - You could call it a game of chicken. The Peach Bowl may be decided on which team flinches first - Maryland's offense or Tennessee's defense. The game itself will be measured by yardage, but a couple of feet will make all the difference in the world. That's all the Terrapins say they need - just two feet ... that's 24 inches - to make a difference on Tuesday in the 35th anniversary bowl game. The Volunteers' style of pass defense makes that arm's length of space oh-so-important to Maryland if it hopes to have a diversified defense.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - North Carolina State, Clemson, Virginia and Wake Forest ... beware. E.J. Henderson is grumpy ... and you last four opponents of the Maryland football team should know that can't be a good thing. Maryland's All-American linebacker is excited about where the Terps are right now in the ACC race - second and on a six-game winning streak - and happy about how the team's offense has come around. But the factor that makes the senior more irritable than an old bear that's a week past his hibernation check-in is that he and the defense haven't done more to christen the success.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Steve Suter isn't exactly an angel in Maryland's backfield. The punt return specialist sure knows how to use a "halo" to his advantage. Suter has been bedeviling opposing punt teams while his ability to turn an everyday punt into a huge offensive weapon for the Terrapins. "I just want to get field position," Suter said. "It is doing my part to help both the offense and the defense. Even if I get tanked after returning the kick one yard, it's one yard more than we had. " Suter's ability to break big returns has shifted momentum to the Terps' favor and forced opponents to work on ways to keep him from breaking the game wide open.

bobp@herald-mail.com COLLEGE PARK, Md. - There is no such thing as a safe place on the University of Maryland football team. Everywhere the Terrapins turn, they are marked men ... and for the most part, they like it that way. Last Saturday, for example, quarterback Scott McBrien and freshman tailback Josh Allen were doing their best to avoid the wrath of Eastern Michigan's defense. And by the looks of the 45-3 outcome, they seem to have done a pretty good job. Those are the perks of not getting voted off in coach Ralph Friedgen's version of Survivor, the game that every Maryland player plays during the week.

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. - 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.