tarheelsben1
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Found this article on him as well...
Quote:Figuring it all out
By ED KRACZ
phillyBurbs.com
The University of Maryland's football playbook is no short story.
It spans about 700 pages. It has more X's and O's than a tic-tac-toe tournament. It has more verbiage than Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
Try walking into a huddle and thinking your way through this: Shop to far right, fake motion, fake hag 46 gap, naked boot left, 239. It's one of thousands of plays and formations tucked inside the playbook. And, to make things even more fun, everything is waggled into the huddle from the sideline in a series of hand and arm signals.
While inhaling that, try digesting thermodynamics, electrodynamics physics, differential equations, and any other course required in earning a mechanical engineering degree.
It has taken Sam Hollenbach nearly two full years, but he finally looks ready to excuse himself from the table and get into a ballgame for the Terrapins.
Heading into Maryland's spring practice, he was the No. 2 quarterback behind redshirt freshman Joel Statham, who attempted 25 passes last season.
Coming out of spring practice, and on the heels of a strong performance in the Red-White Spring Game on April 24, Hollenbach has forced the Terps' coaching staff to declare the starting job open again.
"I'd say prior to Saturday, Joel, if we were to play the next day or next week, Joel would've been the (starter)," said Charlie Taaffe, Maryland's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. "But he fell off a bit and Sam gave a good account of himself."
Taaffe added that it would probably be the end of summer before a starter is anointed, and even then, a final decision may not be made until a couple weeks into the season.
Hollenbach, a redshirt sophomore after graduating from Pennridge in 2002, played the first half of the spring game with the second-team offense against the second-team defense. He began the second half on the first-team offense against the first-team defense and promptly orchestrated an 80-yard scoring drive, capped with a 24-yard TD pass. A second TD pass was dropped in the end zone. Statham, for his part, threw three interceptions.
Head coach Ralph Friedgen told the Baltimore Sun in an interview following the game, "I don't think Joel has the position sewed up. I saw the gap narrow some. We'll wait and see."
While the coaches wait and see, Hollenbach will continue doing the things that put him on the brink of becoming the starting quarterback for a school that has produced about a dozen NFL quarterbacks, including notables such as Boomer Esiason, Neil O'Donnell and Frank Reich.
That means continuing to lift weights. Able to bench 325 pounds and squat 550 pounds, he is already one of the strongest quarterbacks to ever play at Maryland, Taaffe said.
That means keeping up with the heavy course load in his mechanical engineering curriculum. And that means, of course, keeping his nose in the playbook whenever and wherever possible.
"There are so many variations to (the playbook)," he said. "You could run so many different plays off so many different formations. ... It's confusing sometimes."
It most certainly isn't high school, where Hollenbach guided the Rams' Wing-T offense for his head coach and father, Jeff, for two years, completing 52 percent of his passes for 2,696 yards, 26 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
Taaffe said when Hollenbach first arrived at Maryland, he would drop back to pass and freeze, not quite certain where to go with the ball or where his hot reads were on blitzes.
"I was definitely frustrated, especially my freshman year," said Hollenbach, who is 6-foot-5, 223 pounds. "It wasn't something like being in the weight room where you try harder and you get stronger. It was more a mental thing, something you have to put time in to. You have to allow yourself time to learn and not get frustrated."
Taaffe said he already has seen Hollenbach improve by leaps and bounds.
Much of that improvement can be traced to Hollenbach getting the hang of the offense, of slowly and steadily learning the nuances of, Shop to far right, fake motion, fake hag 46 gap, naked boot left, 239.
It also helped that he got more repetitions during spring practices and scrimmages because the Terps' top two quarterbacks from last year have moved on.
"I'm just trying to do the best I can on the field and leave it up to the coaches," Hollenbach said. "Joel's worked hard (and) I've worked hard. We both have good and bad days. I just want to do the best I can every day and be the best I can be."
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That's pretty impressive..and cool.