\ Burley took Monday and Tuesday off, practiced some on Wednesday, and then throughout all of today’s practice. He sat out much of the second half against Wake Forest last week.\
\ “He’s doing good,” coach Ralph Friedgen said. “He practiced today. It’s something he’s just trying to get through. I don’t know if he can hurt it any more. It’s just he has a bone bruise and he has a soft tissue bruise. They’re right in the same area, and when the soft tissue one gets hit he has trouble locking out. … We just hope he doesn’t get hit on it again.”\
\ Reading between the lines, I’d bet Burley starts for the Terps. Whether he can finish the game seems a lot dicier.\
\ Sort of makes you wonder what things would be like if Jared Gaither was still around. I mean, still a part of the program. He actually popped into the team house around 6 p.m. tonight.\
\ One injured guy who won’t play is Alex Wujciak, who is nonetheless progressing from his ACL tear of more than a month ago.\
\ “He told me the other day, ‘I can go out and play,’ ” Friedgen said.\
\ Not so fast. In any case, the redshirt freshman linebacker does have some good news. Apparently, his other knee — which was gunked up enough to make offseason surgery likely even before his ACL tear — might not be as much of a concern as previously thought.\
\ “His dad wanted to have both of the legs done at the same time,” Friedgen said. “I said ‘I think you’d get a cripple if you did that.’ I talked to [Dr. Craig] Bennett about when one’s healed and we can go ahead and do the next one. He said the fact that it didn’t swell, they’re going to re-look at it and maybe he doesn’t need an operation. That’s what I’m kind of hoping for.”\
\ And what would an entry about practice be without a reference to quarterback Jordan Steffy, who will make his fifth start on Saturday.\
\ “He was very good today,” Friedgen said without prompting. “He was as sharp as I’ve seen him.”\
\ — Patrick Stevens
