Looks Like Friedgen Trusts Hollenbach After All

For the longest time, I thought that Friedgen was trying to win ball games in spite of Sam Hollenbach. All the plays were run plays except for really short passes for the last few games before the Clemson game. But with the Tigers defense completely shutting down the Terps running game, it was all on Sam Hollenbach to make some plays. And after he had his fair share of that, he started calling them.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Friedgen let Hollenbach call his plays as he saw fit during the last drive of the game. Hollenbach took Ralph's freedom and made the most of it. The final play before setting up the field goal, as we all remember it, was a 12 yard pass to tight end Joey Haynos to set up a 31 yard field goal. Turns out that Friedgen's play call was a running play but Hollenbach had better ideas.

With the way that Maryland had been running, it's possible that Hollenbach made the call that saved the game. Maryland was getting stuffed at or behind the line of scrimmage plenty of times during the game, and I wouldn't be surprised if Clemson geared for the run on that play as well. Instead of a 12 yard gain, imagine they got barely any yards. It would have been a 43 yard field goal instead of a 31 yard field goal. That's certainly a makeable kick for all kickers not named Mike Vanderjact, and Ennis has had a great second half of the season. However, there's more of a chance that he'd miss the field goal from 43 than 31. Hollenbach insured the win with that last play call.

The Clemson game took Hollenbach from an offensive care taker to a real quarterback. He's making decisions and making plays on the field -- he had his first good long pass in a long time, a 56 yarder to Jason Goode. From here on out, we should all be less weary when Hollenbach takes the field. When the run game was shut down, he proved he could take the game himself.

And speaking of Mike Vanderjact, former Terp and current Redskins kicker Nick Novak hit the game winner against the Cowboys. Sure, he had missed one just minutes before that he should have made, but as I predicted before he even walked on the field, Vanderjact missed a 35 yarder and gave Novak another chance. Must feel good to hit big kicks against, Nick.