There’s been a Hall of Fame theme to this month’s issue of PressBox. So while we’re at it, I’d like to make an argument for another local Hall of Famer.
Former Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen is back on the ballot for the 2026 class of the College Football Hall of Fame. I’m not impartial. I consider Ralph a friend. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him for decades. He and Gary Williams were the first coaches I ever covered in this business. I genuinely love Ralph. He’s a special human. And I would like to see him inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
I fear that for much of the country, the idea of Friedgen’s candidacy is quickly dismissed. He never won a national championship as a head coach. He won just one conference championship. He wasn’t a major national brand during his career.
That in particular separates him from the late Mike Leach, who is widely expected to be elected posthumously this year because the Hall of Fame literally changed its rules to get him in. His career win percentage was 59.6 percent, short of the 60 percent needed to be eligible. The Hall decided to lower that number to 59.5 percent specifically to allow Leach to get in even though he never won a conference championship.
Which isn’t me throwing shade at “The Pirate.” I believe Leach should get in. And in comparison to Friedgen, he won more than twice as many games in his head coaching career. But I think Friedgen’s case deserves more sunlight.
On top of the limited championships and lack of national celebrity, it is easy to point out that Friedgen only won 75 games as a head coach. Of the 214 coaches currently in the College Football Hall of Fame, only 10 have won fewer than 75 games. Only one of those coaches coached after 1969. Friedgen’s 75 would be 13 fewer than the next fewest wins for a “modern” coach (Jimmy Johnson, 88, including a national championship.)
“Glenn, aren’t you supposed to be making the case FOR Ralph Friedgen to be inducted?”
The thing about Friedgen’s candidacy is that consideration requires you to say the quiet part out loud. It requires you to believe that Friedgen’s 75 wins are somehow more impressive than another coach’s 90 or 100. And I think there’s a significant argument for that. Because winning 60 percent of your games at Maryland is dramatically more impressive than winning 60 percent of your games … almost anywhere else.
For argument’s sake, let’s just juxtapose Friedgen’s 10-year tenure with the 14 years that followed. Maryland’s post-Friedgen record, through multiple coaches (and even including the success that Michael Locksley found from 2021-2023) is 70-107, a winning percentage of 0.395. Friedgen won 1.52 games for every one game the program won in the years that followed. If we use that math, we set up an adjusted win total of 114 during Friedgen’s tenure.
And while I’m not trying to argue that Friedgen ACTUALLY won 114 games during his Maryland tenure, I think that’s about what his 75 wins were worth had he been coaching at a school with even a reasonable emphasis on football. Winning at Maryland was simply much more difficult than winning at Clemson, Penn State or Virginia Tech. His candidacy should reflect just how remarkable his success really was. Friedgen truly elevated a program with no modern track record of success. That should matter as much if not more than his raw win totals do.
And now consider the success Friedgen had as an offensive coordinator. During his stint under Bobby Ross as Maryland’s offensive coordinator from 1982-1986, the Terps won three ACC championships, reached four bowl games and had a top-20 scoring offense nationally in all five seasons.
Friedgen’s two separate stints as offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech (1987-1991 and 1997-2000) included the Yellow Jackets’ 1990 (split) national championship and an offense that produced more than 35 points per game in both ‘98 and ‘99. The ‘98 team finished second in the nation in scoring offense. Tech’s 1999 season was so impressive that Friedgen won the Broyles award as the nation’s top assistant coach.
And again, this happened at Georgia Tech. Not Georgia.
My argument isn’t that Ralph Friedgen is Nick Saban. I’m not trying to suggest that he’s one of the five or ten greatest coaches of all time. But his resume is worthy of the College Football Hall of Fame, and it would be nice for it to happen while he’s still alive to enjoy it.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics
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