Friedgen surprises many by choosing Jordan Steffy as Terps’ starting QB
Despite leading Maryland to the Emerald Bowl last season and entering summer practice as the favorite for the Terps’ starting quarterback job, Chris Turner has been beaten out by Jordan Steffy to start the season opener against Delaware.
Steffy, a fifth-year senior who started the first five games last season before being sidelined with a concussion, won this season’s starting job because of his consistency in practice and because he surpassed Turner in almost every statistical category the coaches measured. Turner, who led the Terps to wins over two top-10 teams last year, will be No. 2 with dual-threat Josh Portis seeing the field in specific situations throughout the season.
“I evaluate what I see, and I have to have some credibility with my players,” Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said. “If you don’t reward people who practice well, you are in danger of losing the whole team.
“It was a hard decision. We looked at every statistic that we kept, from pass completions, yards per catch, yards after catch, interceptions, percentage of drives scoring, good practices and bad practices. We even consulted with some of the players.”
Steffy led Turner by a large margin in completion percentage (67 percent to 57 percent) and lowest interception percentage. Portis led the three in percentage of passing plays longer than 16 yards.
In Saturday’s scrimmage, Turner went 8-for-16 for 124 yards, Portis 3-for-8 for 100 yards and Steffy 9-for-13 for 63 yards. Each led the Terps to at least one touchdown. Portis produced two.
“If one quarterback all through the spring and all through summer camp was statistically better in almost every single category,” offensive coordinator James Franklin said, “it’s hard to rationalize not making him the starter.”
Portis has the highest upside of the three. The speedy transfer from Florida missed one season because he transferred, and was out for all of 2007 because he got caught cheating in school.
Friedgen didn’t dismiss the idea of using all three quarterbacks over the course of the season.
“I think they’ll all end up playing throughout the year, to be honest with you,” he said.
Related posts on The Red Zone Report
