Ralph Friedgen would rather not have lacrosse played on his field

It's been 10 long years since the ACC lacrosse tournament was played at Byrd Stadium.

One guy who probably isn't looking forward to it is Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen.

Friedgen, of course, has business to attend to in Byrd on Saturday. If the NFL Draft is ongoing and College Park is overrun with hordes of free t-shirt seekers who temporarily swell the size of the town thanks to a campus open house, that means Maryland is doing what it can to lure fans over to the football stadium to get them to watch a glorified scrimmage.

Anyway, Maryland's lacrosse team has played in Byrd twice this month, and the two creases are officially chewed up to the point only a resodding will solve the problem. Given that resodding costs money and Maryland has so little of it that it's a minor miracle that all the new seats in the stadium's recently constructed suites didn't come with "I Like Ike" stickers affixed to them, betting on having some new grass on the field by Saturday seems unlikely.

But here's the thing. The creases are located at the 10-yard line. Extra points are kicked from ... wait for it ... the 10-yard line. Rather than grass, there's just a lot of dirt. And if it rains on Saturday, as is forecast, it will basically just be a big mud puddle.

Hence, Friedgen has something of a legitimate gripe.

"I was thinking, we have to kick it from the 5-yard line, we should get like a point and a half because of the lacrosse things," Friedgen said. "We can't even put our ball down. This is a football stadium, isn't it? If we have trouble, I don't know what we're going to do in the spring game. We'll probably have to dig a hole. You can't even put the ball on it."

For one day, it wouldn't be the most awful thing in the world to kick 25-yard extra points. What's the worst that can happen.

An even better idea: Encouraging players to get all the taunting out of their system now rather than get slapped with unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the fall. The guys get to express themselves, and the ensuing penalty moves the extra point far from the tattered crease.

I keed, I keed.

And so, in some ways, does Friedgen.

"I was telling [offensive coordinator] James [Franklin], in the NFL when we used to play in those stadiums that had [baseball] infields, we used to run certain routes we'd run on the infield where the DBs had trouble standing up," Friedgen said. "I said 'I wonder if you can work that in the crease?' Run a drag route over the crease; see if they trip and fall.'"

At least Friedgen hasn't lost his sense of humor.

But here's something he might not find all that funny. Exactly 12 major-college football schools also play Division I men's lacrosse.

Of those, the following play the majority of their home games in their school's football stadium: Army, Maryland, Navy and Syracuse.

And of those, the following play on grass fields: Maryland.

So in this case, it really is something none of Friedgen's peers have to deal with.

"Life at Maryland," he sighed.

Comments

[Eddie T]

Any chance they'd consider moving the lax games over to Ludwig? Haven't been following tournament attendance figures in recent years to figure how much of a financial sacrifice that would be...

[Eddie T]

Oh wait -- nevermind. There's -- something else going on over there...

[D1scourse]

Eddie ---

The womens tournament is over at Ludwig, and the schedules overlap a bit (5 p.m. games at both sites on Friday, for instance).

Also, a lot of the temporary seating at Ludwig from soccer season isnt around in the spring. So that tightens things up a bit.

Finally, I suspect TV is in much better shape at Byrd than anywhere else at Maryland. And lets face it, TV is probably going to get what it wants under most circumstances.

[Mikeinrockville]

The only person here with a legitimate gripe is Dave Cottle, who should be angry that Debbie Yow is letting the 2-10 football team tear up HIS field for a practice/exhibition game in the middle of Maryland hosting the ACC Tournament and playing real games that count.

2-10 coaches should be seen and not heard.