The Only Losing Ralph Will Tolerate...

is the 105 pounds he has lost on Medifast since October 10th!! We are thrilled with his accomplishment and know that he is working on even more weight loss. This program has been something he can live with especially within the confines of the stress and time commitments of the season. You will begin to seen him around town as Medifast talks up his accomplishments!! Way to go Ralph!!!

Gossett Staff Enjoys Crab Feast at the Steuarts

Saturday afternoon weather couldn't have cooperated more and the breeze off the Patuxent River made the Football Staff Party a great day! Families enjoyed the hospitality of Cal and Cynthia Steuart, MGN Gold members, who opened their beautiful home to us in Huntingtown, MD, for a day of family fun. Their lovely home is situated along the river with gorgeous views and along with the pool, a big hit for the kids, or those who feel like kids, the stress of the upcoming season was put away for the moment in a wonderfully relaxing atmosphere. The Steuarts supplied steamed crabs, fried chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, and drinks, while folks brought food to share. It was a great day for the families and a wonderfully generous gesture by Cal and Cynthia! Thanks so much!!!

MGN Invades Sonoma's Bar and Grille in Columbia

Over 200 people came to the MGN meet and greet where the entire football coaching staff gathered to mingle with fans. After an hour of socializing, Larry Grabenstein kicked things off by welcoming all in attendance. Coach Friedgen spoke next and stressed the importance of helping the football program by joining the MGN. Our strength, he said, is our numbers. We have over 150,000 living alumni in a one hour radius of the University. We need their help! Next up was Coach Don Brown, new defensive coordinator, who got the crowd excited about his pressing blitzing defense! We need more INTs and TOs for touchdowns and much effort is going into this goal. New Special Teams Coordinator, Charles Bankins, reminded us all that he coaches all the players on the team because all are involved in Special Teams! His desire is to give us great field position and score points on FGs, too! Coach Franklin in his 2nd year as Offensive Coordinator spoke about the comfort that our players feel in the second year of his system. We have some great offensive weapons in our receiving corps and backs. Chris Turner in his 4th year is the starting QB and has a confidence that should be a benefit this year. Jamarr Robinson is coming on strong as the number 2 guy.

Following the coaches talks and Q and A's, drawings were done for TERP stuff. We had about 30 winners. The fans that showed up had a great time and Sonoma's had some great deals on food and drink. We even had a Hokie fan, Ron Cote, JOIN the MGN!!! We picked up 10 new memberships and need many more.

If you missed this event we will be doing the same thing at Caddie's on Cordell in Bethesda, August 6th! Hope to see you there!!!

The Way They Were....

On August 10th, 2005, the TERPS had just reported for camp and it was Media Day. As I had done each year before, I took photos of the incoming freshman players so that I could learn their names. Thought you might like to see who is still with us. Some have graduated from that class, some have left, but I am looking forward to a great 2009 season.

2009 ACC Football Kickoff

Entering his 9th season, Coach Ralph Friedgen along with Chris Turner and Nolan Carroll represented the Terps at the annual ACC Football Kickoff. Players and coaches arrived Sunday at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, NC, the location of the home office for the ACC. Nolan and Chris handled media questions on Sunday and posed for lots of photos and autographs. Monday Chris and Coach Friedgen participated in the Skeeter Davis Golf Tournament (Ralph finished in 3rd place!!) while Nolan took some golf lessons by the pros at Grandover. The afternoon was filled with media interviews of all the coaches. The official ACC page for this event can be found at this link.

Meet Our Staff Wives: Carla Griffin

Name

Carla Griffin

Years married: 2-years

Names and ages of your children: Brandon Griffin 12, Joshua
Griffin, 1

Occupation: Regulatory
Submissions Publisher

Hobbies: Singing,
Theater, Tennis, and Scrabble

Favorite Movie: Usual
Suspects

Favorite Restaurant: Linwoods,
Owings Mills MD

How did you meet your husband? We were both teachers at Woodlawn
High School. Jemal passed me notes in the hall.

Describe a typical game day. While Jemal has left a day
or two earlier, the boys and I need to be up and ready by 7:30am Saturday
morning to travel and weigh in for Brandon’s Olney Rec football game.
BJ plays and then we’re off and rushing to College Park. Hopefully,
we are able to grab a bite to eat, because by then pre-game tailgating
is over. So for us, its football all day and we enjoy it. Whew, wait
until Joshua can play. Go Terps!

What’s the best part about being
a coach’s wife? Knowing
that my husband is living his dream.

What’s the worst part? The time Jemal spends away
from home.

Would you also include a favorite recipe?

White Bean Chicken
Chile

1 tablespoon vegetable
oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 (4 ounce) can diced
jalapeno peppers

1 (4 ounce) can chopped
green chile peppers

2 teaspoons ground
cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground cayenne
pepper

2 (14.5 ounce) cans
chicken broth

3 cups chopped cooked
chicken breast

3 (15 ounce) cans white
beans

1 cup shredded Monterey
Jack cheese

Directions

Heat the oil in a large
saucepan over medium-low heat. Slowly cook and stir the onion until
tender. Mix in the garlic, jalapeno, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano
and cayenne. Continue to cook and stir the mixture until tender, about
3 minutes. Mix in the chicken broth, chicken and white beans. Simmer
15 minutes, stirring occasionally

Remove the mixture
from heat. Slowly stir in the cheese until melted. Serve warm.

I serve over rice or
with tortilla chips. It’s a great tailgating dish.

Winter Workout/Spring Practice WINNERS!

The winter workout/spring practice intrasquad competition culminated in a dinner at the Friedgens' home on July 14th. Remember that the squad is broken down into teams, headed up by senior captains, who "draft" their fellow teammates. Captain Nolan Carroll's team won by doing what there were supposed to do and more, on and off the field. Congratulations! Members of Nolan's team included Lamar Young, Quinton McCree, Antoine Perez, Hakeem Sule, Andrew Gonnella, Herb Law, Michael Carter, Ben Pooler, and winner from last year, Trenton Hughes! The boys opened with chicken wings (a big hit), shrimp, and chips and salsa. Ralph grilled filet mignon, NY strip steaks, and chicken breasts; we enjoyed pulled pork and sides of haricot verts, southern style baked beans, and diner rolls. Dessert was blondies with ice cream and add what you wanted from chocolate chips, whipped cream, nuts, and chocolate syrup. Boy could these guys put some food away!! There was good dinner time conversation in a relaxed atmosphere. Ralph had a chance to tell some stories and that's always fun. Our sous chef was MGN Board member, Debbie Bebee, who also handled clean up - thanks, Deb!
After dinner there was a group that satisfied Gloria's thirst for ROCK BAND - Herb Law is on fire on the drums, and Trenton Hughes is quite a ham on the vocals - just like Gloria!

Check out the photos!!

Football Is Just Around the Corner! Check out these Events!

We are delighted to do two football kickoff events in the community. One at Sonoma's Bar and Grill and one at Caddie's! It's a mix and mingle event and we hope to see many MGN members and folks that might like to become members! GO TERPS!!

Ralph Friedgen Invitational Golf Outing 2009

It was a great day - low humidity, comfortable temperature, wonderful food and drink, great people, cigars on the terrace, and golf. What could be better!!! David Dorn, Josh Trembley and the entire staff at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland put on a great event. Special thanks to our special guest, Scott Van Pelt, of ESPN, and great supporter of our program. We were also joined by Mark Bryan, Maryland native of Hootie and the Blowfish, and Doc Walker, former Redskin. Coaches who played were Don Brown, Johnny Donovan, and Al Seamonson; on hand to meet and greet were Tom Brattan, David Sollazzo, Lee Hull, and Charles Bankins. Phil Costa, starting OL for 2009, took part from our current team. Former players in attendance were Kevin Glover, Bruce Perry, Stan Gelbaugh, Jordan Steffy, Sam Hollenbach, Nick Novak, Scott McBrien, Delbert Cowsette, Darryl Hill, Justin Duffie, Todd Wike, Greg Harraka, Brad Schell, and Aaron Thompson. James Franklin ran the "Football Throw" event, coaching up the golfers. The object was to throw for distance - and then your team could tee from there.

Awards went to:
Longest Throw: interesting outcome - Jay Walker, former NFL QB had the longest throw, but we also awarded this distinction to the best civilians, male and female - Casey Connor and Lisa Splaine
Longest Drive: Walker Jones who turned around and gave his award to Bruce Perry in honor of his work at Walter Reed. Under Armour will also be sponsoring a program called the Wounded Warrior - stay tuned for more info.
Closest to the Pin: Kathy Waters
Sponsor Team with the Highest Score - Good in Football, not in Golf: Ed Woods - TerpSys Team
Flight 1 Winners: Pat Caulfield - Coakley Williams
Flight 2 Winners: Greg Harraka - Coakley Williams
Flight 3 Winners: Under Armour Team

Interesting to note that each winning team had a former UM QB - Scott McBrien, Stan Gelbaugh, and Sam Hollenbach!!

Special thanks to our sponsors:

Presenting Sponsor: Barry Gossett and Acton Mobile

Gold Sponsor: Ed Woods and Terpsys

Gold Sponsor: Patrick Caulfield and Coakley Williams Construction

Bronze Sponsor: Rohit Kishore and Sila SG

Bronze Sponsor: John Brophy and ACS

Bronze Sponsor: Carole Harris

Gifts sponsor: Kevin Plank - Under Armour

Hole in One Sponsor: Marquis Jets

In Kind Sponsor: Nick Cibel of Nick’s Riverside Grill

Hole Sponsor: David Lee of LMN Solutions

MGN Gala and Auction

On Saturday, May 16th, the N. Bethesda Marriott was the beautiful venue for the MGN Gala and Auction. Those in attendance enjoyed an opportunity to obtain great bargains on various gift certificates, football access and memorabilia and various other great merchandise. It was also a chance to relax and enjoy a night of dining and dancing. We are grateful to our wonderful sponsors, without whose support we would could not offer such grand opportunities for all our football family!



Our sponsors:
Barry Gossett and Acton Mobile
Pat Caulfield and Coakley Williams
John Alahouzas and MDG
Lawrence Grabenstein and Raymond James Financial
Tom McCausland
Rick Jaklitsch and Debbie Potter and the Jaklitsch Group
Joe Katz and Auntie Anne's Pretzel Perfect
Jeff Herndon and JTP Printing
Paul Intlekofer and Medifast
Tiffany and Co.
Maryland Book Exchange
Men's Wearhouse