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Every Week A Season
Last year, author Brian Curtis spent a week with the Maryland Football Program prior to the Clemson game. Brian attended staff meetings, practices, dinner with the Friedgens, and Breakfast with Fridge. All of this and more is described in great detail in his book, "Every Week A Season; A Journey Inside Big- Time College Football". At the last Breakfast, Brian and Coach Friedgen did a joint book signing after Breakfast, and fans were able to buy copies of the book. The book is available at the following locations:
Maryland Book Exchange Below is an excerpt from the book. Friday morning, Ralph Friedgen has breakfast with some friends. About 350 of them. In what has become a Maryland tradition, Friedgen invites the entire Maryland community-students, fans, alumni, boosters, and family-to the University of Maryland Inn & Conference Center on the southwest side of campus, for a free continental breakfast and some football talk on the Fridays before home games. Many head coaches stop in to a booster luncheon during game weeks, though usually only for a few minutes. But Friedgen's breakfast, or "Breakfast with The Fridge", is his idea and he hosts the program. It started out in 2001 as a small gathering but grew to as many as 900 during the 2001 and 2002 seasons. The coach talks about the previous game and the next day's opponent, and answers questions for more than 45 minutes on topics from game day parking to concession food to nickel defenses to his wife's tailgate party. There are many people in the crowd wearing red this morning, from silver-haired alums to a 10-year-old boy, who should probably be in school. The coach begins promptly at 7:30 a.m., talking about the win over Eastern Michigan. He talks about the Clemson game, how the outcome could dictate the season, how critical special teams will be, especially kick coverage. He adds a unique feature to the breakfast on this day-an 11-minute video presentation by defensive line coach Dave Sollazzo. Sollazzo taped a segment on Thursday on signaling in plays, before hitting the road to recruit on Friday. Friedgen warns the audience about Sollazzo's standard decibel levels and then introduces the segment in which Sollazzo explains how plays are signaled in to players during the games. [It's also worthy of mention that Friedgen greatly surprises this author by inviting him on stage to explain this book project and answer questions] Afterward, the coach makes some comments and takes questions from the audience. "This has been a tough team to coach.there is true parity in college football.I've had discussions with [running back] Bruce [Perry] about the NFL and I told him, 'They want to see you practice and play, even with some injuries'." The coach is candid with his words, as if speaking to three close friends over a late-night beer. It is part of his charm but a habit that has gotten him, and will get him, in trouble. Comments that he believes are "off the record" have been known to end up in newspapers. He speaks his mind and, for a coach, that is not always a good thing. |
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