Play to Win

I guess playing offense at Maryland is tough. It has been written that learning the playbook is really difficult for quarterbacks.

Ralph Freidgen (head coach) has said so himself. In order to streamline the process, he brought on former Terp coach James Franklin for the 2008 season.

James left Terpland to be the receivers coach for the Green Bay Packers. Then coach Franklin became the OC (offensive coordinator) for his friend Ron Prince at Kansas State (former head coach, let go in November, 2008). This ace recruiter came back to Maryland in 2008.

So now we have two offensive geniuses on staff. Based on the loss of Josh Portis, who could not get on the field at Maryland, the offense is still too complicated.

It is a shame that we could not get the offense to fit the players. It is going to always be difficult to find the players to fit the system.

It is unreasonable to think that Ohio State could get a freshman (tyrell Pryor) on the field in his second game. Pat White was on the field all four years for West Virginia. Virigina Tech beat the Terps with a tight end playing QB this November.

We have the top rated QB in the 2004 class and could not get him on the field. What is worse is that we don’t think we need him at all. Josh Portis was good enough to put national championship quarterback on the bench for a bit when JP was in Florida.

These national power teams found a way to use a run first QB. They adjusted their system. And they won.

Ralph and James did not think he could carry the mental load of the Terp offense. We did not score a point at Virginia this year, but JP did not even get a chance.

The Terps could not score enough at Middle Tennessee, JP got a few plays back in September.

At Virginia Tech, once again Chris Turner could not get it done, where was the spread formation? Where was the Wildcat? Once again, no JP.

I am not saying it is not a complicated game. OK, that is what I am saying. It really is not complicated. JP was / is too good to not put on the field. Run the spread. Use your talent. Win the game.