Still a Big Man on Campus

At 315 pounds and just eight months removed from leading Maryland to its first major bowl bid in 25 years, Ralph Friedgen is the quintessential big man on campus.

“It’s been almost humbling. I’m so appreciative of the warmth,” he says. “I can’t go into a store, or anywhere, where people don’t congratulate me and our team on last season. It was a long time ago, and they are still talking about it.”

His popularity hasn’t waned, but his waistline sure has. Thanks to a diet that has enabled him to shed 40 pounds since April 1, the man affectionately known as “Fridge” may soon have to get a new nickname.

Mini Fridge? Ice Chest?

“Call me whatever you want. I won’t care,” he says.

It’s a bit too early to call him “Slim,” but Friedgen certainly does look better. The crash diet is the result of his unyielding quest to make Maryland a perennial football powerhouse.

Friedgen carried 355 pounds last year as he huffed and puffed his way through a 10-2 season in his head coaching debut.

He made it big all right, but it was also apparent that the coach was also far too large for his own good.

Friedgen shunned suggestions of a diet, but finally came across an offer too good to refuse: Two concerned boosters promised to donate $500 to the football program for every pound he lost. Eager to refurbish the team house, Friedgen has targeted the two big spenders to foot a sizable chunk of the bill.

“They came up with the proposition. I’m a competitor and I like goals,” Friedgen says.

His objective: lose 100 pounds by next April. His pursuit has become so noteworthy that when Friedgen recently visited the White House, the first thing President Bush asked him was how his diet was going.

“I never expected it to turn into what it did, with everyone talking about my waistline, but I’m trying to get this building built,” Friedgen says. “I’m going to do everything I can to get this place where it needs to be.”

And he’s doing whatever it takes to get his weight down. Friedgen claims he hasn’t had pizza, beer, ice cream or potatoes since he started the diet. At media day last week, the coach ate salad while reporters wolfed down pizza and subs.

“I’ve eaten so much rabbit food, my ears are getting longer,” Friedgen jokes. “You know, I was a happy fat guy.”

There wasn’t much reason to be anything but happy last year, when Friedgen turned a perennial loser into Atlantic Coast Conference champions. The Terrapins’ 56-23 loss to Florida in the Orange Bowl did little to detract from the team’s heady and unexpected success.

Friedgen faces the task of coming up with a suitable encore. The season opener against Notre Dame is just two weeks away, but the coach isn’t sure who will start at quarterback, running back or middle linebacker.

It’s enough to make a guy drop a few pounds without even trying.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of questions to answer. There are a lot of holes in this program,” Friedgen said. “But the one thing we have this year that we didn’t have last year is the belief that we can win.”

Friedgen still sounds the same on the practice field. He doesn’t tolerate mistakes, and his booming voice hasn’t lost any of its authority.

“There might be physical change, but his personality and energy hasn’t changed at all,” linebacker E. J. Henderson says.

A year ago, carrying around all that weight caused Friedgen’s legs to swell from edema. That’s not a problem anymore, and he’s bouncing from one group to another during drills.

“The weight loss probably has him running around more. The yelling, of course, is the same,” punter Brooks Barnard said. “The attitude and intensity is still there -- if not more so.”