Harris KOed as defense blows lead
By David Selig
October 31, 2005
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As Terrapin coach Ralph Friedgen paced across the field at Doak Campbell Stadium to see safety Milton Harris laying still on the grass, several Terp defenders knelt about 20 yards away, wearing anguished looks on their faces.
Harris had been crushed by a block from Florida State wide receiver Joslin Shaw and remained on the ground as medical personnel rushed out a stretcher and transported him to an awaiting ambulance. Friedgen said Harris was unconscious for about 25 seconds.
“When I went out there he was talking, and he actually didn’t want to be taken off,” Friedgen said. “He wanted to go back in the game. He was all strapped in, but he was talking and said, ‘I can play.’”
Instead, Harris was headed for Tallahassee Memorial Hospital as his comrades tried to conjure some intensity from the solemn mood on the field.
Harris turned out to have a concussion, and no spinal or neck injuries, but his teammates were forced to finish the game not knowing how he would fare.
“Yeah it had an effect,” senior linebacker William Kershaw said. “He’s a senior on the team — we hate to see anyone get hurt — but that hurts a lot. We knew we had to step it up.”
Kershaw said the defense tried to inspire itself to play harder for Harris’s sake, but some mishaps in the secondary hurt their chances to win.
But Friedgen wouldn’t let players use the injury as an excuse for their late collapse and a 35-27 loss against the Seminoles. It wasn’t the first time the unit has fallen short in the final minutes.
Similar to the Oct. 20 game against Virginia Tech, the Terps sprinted into the tunnel at halftime hoisting their helmets — this time after taking a 21-14 lead.
As they did in their Sept. 10 loss against Clemson, the Terp defense wilted under pressure. Florida State scored touchdowns on three of its last four drives, the exception being a drive halted by a dropped pass intercepted by linebacker David Holloway.
“I didn’t think we gave the effort that we had in the whole game,” Friedgen said. “That was my opinion. I’m an emotional guy, and I might be totally wrong, but that’s what I thought and I called a time-out to tell them that.
“That’s the thing I was frustrated about because I thought our defense played their guts out the whole game, and just battled every darn down. And then it seemed like they didn’t have anything else left. And you’ve got to have something left, especially when it gets down late in that fourth quarter. That’s when you win and lose games.”
PETER J. CASEY-THE DIAMONDBACK
Florida State receiver Greg Carr continually beat Terp cornerback Gerrick McPhearson, causing the shorter defender to commit two costly pass interference penalties.
The Seminoles made the most of the biggest mismatch on the field during the fourth, looking for 6-foot-6 wide receiver Greg Carr when he was matched man-to-man with Terp senior cornerback Gerrick McPhearson. Twice, McPhearson committed pass interference on Carr, extending a touchdown drive.
McPhearson was not available to the media after the game, but the defense realized it had lost the grip on another opportunity to win.
“They’ve always been a simple offense,” Holloway said. “Their style is ‘We think our players are better than yours so here’s our plays, go run it.’ It wasn’t really hard to pick up what they were doing.”
But it was still hard to stop them, apparently.
Harris returned home with the team after the game and is expected to be held out of contact drills for most of the next two weeks, but Friedgen said yesterday he could be ready for the North Carolina game Nov. 12.
The coach, however, was far less pleased with his defense’s overall performance.
“I thought we had a heck of a chance to win the game,” he said. “It would’ve been a nice win and it would have shown some real character in our players. And that’s what I was hoping for, because they played hard enough to do it.”
Contact reporter David Selig at [email protected]
11-01-2005, 06:31 PM
