Steffy to start for Terps, Portis to play … where’s Turner?

Posted by ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Around 8 a.m. today, Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin called a meeting among his quarterbacks and went through numerous statistics that backed Ralph Friedgen’s decision to name Jordan Steffy the starting quarterback.

Yards after catch. Completion percentage. Yards per catch. Interceptions. Percentage of drives scoring. Good practice, bad practices.

“It’s hard if one quarterback all through the spring and all through summer camp was statistically better in almost every single category, it’s hard to rationalize not making him the starter,” Franklin said. “Having all that documation to make sure — because your gut feeling is one thing and statistics are another — we’ve got to make sure we’re being credible with information we’re putting out. Jordan led by a pretty large amount in completion percentage, he led in the least interception percentage.”

Steffy wins in just about every category except one: 2-0 against top 10 teams. That one belongs to Chris Turner.

“What made it hard is that Chris played well in the games,” Friedgen said. “That’s his M O. But based on not only fall practice, but I even went back to spring practices, and (Steffy) was by far and away ahead in all the statistics.”

Friedgen knows there were will be a few fans who won’t be happy with this decision.

“I know I’m going to be second-guessed on it,” he said. “That’s people’s prerogative, but I would hope that they would get behind this kid and give him all the support they can like I am.”

Turner is No. 2 on the depth chart, even though Josh Portis at this point is the only other signal caller guaranteed to play.

“He will play,” Franklin said of Portis. “He will play. He’s one of the most freakish athletes I’ve ever been around at any level.”

(Like I said before, X factor).

The staff has rotated the quarterbacks equally for the past nine practices. They’re going to have to continue to share reps because odds are all three of them are going to wind up playing. Strong odds.

Here are the Saturday stats:

Turner: Started eight games last year, and completed 153-of-241 attempts (63.5 percent) for 1,958 yards, seven touchdowns and seven interceptions.

Steffy: Started five of 14 games in his career, completed 82-of-141 pass attempts (58.2 percent) for 818 yards, two touchdowns and six interceptions.

Steffy is not looking over his shoulder, though. The competition is over.

“Coach Franklin said it this morning, the competition is over with and we’re moving forward,” Steffy said. “That’s what he said we’re going with. … I’m not going out there playing worried or looking over my shoulder at all.”

I understand Friedgen’s logic here — Steffy is the better practice player, he’s been more consistent, and the staff has numbers out the wazoo to prove it. He wants to reward the guy who has been the best player and leader at practice.

“He played well in those games, but we lost some games, too, with him,” Friedgen said of Turner. “There’s a consistency there that has to work. I’m a believer that good practices make good games, too. Some guys can do that, some guys have a talent for that, and if you can do that, it’s obviously better to play well in a game than in practice, and if we did that every game, it wouldn’t be a concern. We didn’t do it every game. We did it in some big games, and we had some support there, too. If I did that for every position, what would we do?”

It’s a fair point, so now it’s up to Steffy to prove he’s the best option on Saturdays. Something Turner did last fall.

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