Friedgen on Defensive Changes

I am writing about the changes on Maryland’s defensive line in Saturday’s paper (it should be on the Web on Friday). But here is some of what Ralph Friedgen said about the changes that he hopes will yield better results against the run.

Friedgen said Travis Ivey can play nose tackle, but he will be the starter at defensive tackle Saturday in place of Jeremy Navarre, who moves to starting defensive end, where he played the past three seasons. At 6-4, 325 pounds, Ivey is a big body.

“We wanted to get some bigger bodies in there to hopefully help us,” Friedgen said.

At nose tackle, Dion Armstrong (6-1, 303 pounds) will start over Bemi Otulaja (6-0, 285).

“Bemi plays very hard but sometimes he gets mismatches in there,” Friedgen said. “You have a lot of big bodies and sometimes he just gets thrown around. It is not a question of effort. It is not a question of him trying to do it. Sometimes he gets overpowered. My concern is that he will still have to play, but we will limit it to see how he is doing. If Ivey can play with the same intensity that Bemi plays with, we will be fine.”

By Eric Prisbell  |  November 13, 2008; 1:27 PM ET  | Category:  Football
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