| Maryland was outgained by all but two opponents in 2006, finished with an equal number of points for and against and had a minus-5 turnover ratio. How did this team win 9 games last fall and stay in ACC contention through the final Saturday in November? Stellar Special Teams. Maryland went on a five-game winning streak to go from Conference contender to pretender-- the five wins coming by a combined 13 points. Each week coordinator Ray Rychleski's unit played a crucial role--from Dan Ennis's 31 yard field goal at the gun against Clemson to recovering a muffed punt at Virginia to Jeremy Navarre's block of a Florida State field goal attempt. I thought Rychleski deserved consideration for the Frank Broyles Award (annually goes to the top coordinator in Division I-A). This year's kicking game will have quite a different look--Ennis graduates after connecting on 20 of 25 field goal attempts; Juniors Obie Egekeze and Chris Roberts shared the kickoff duties last fall--one must emerge as Coach Ralph Friedgen's go-to-guy. Punter Adam Podlesh departs as well; whoever gets the job, whether it's Roberts or Freshman Travis Baltz they'll be hard-pressed to match the 43.6 yards per kick of 2006. |
Coach Rychleski has a fun fall in store.
2 comments:
why dont they let you just do the virginia beach hour by yourself
Thanks for listening--as the 1pm hour is titled "The Bram Weinstein Show" it's only natural we have Bram front and center-- hopefully once technical issues get taken care of we'll have Bram live from Redskins Park for the full hour. T
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