Defensive tackle Joe Vellano was pretty much the only bright spot in an otherwise morbid 2-10 season for the Terrapins football team. It’s only fitting that in an off-season marred by an avalanche of transfers he’s providing the only relief.

Vellano was named to the second team of the 2011 Walter Camp All-America team Thursday night, just weeks after being an first team All-ACC selection.

“It’s a great honor be chosen for the Walter Camp team,” Vellano said in a release. “I certainly want to thank my teammates and coaches who made it possible, as well as everyone who voted for me.”

The junior had a fantastic 2011 season. He had 94 tackles including 7.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks, four pass breakups and two fumble recoveries. Vellano led the FBS in tackles by a defensive lineman (7.8 per game)  — and had a career-best 20 tackles against Georgia Tech, the most by any defensive lineman in the FBS this season.

“Joe is not only one heck of a football player, but also a great leader who plays hard on each and every play,” coach Randy Edsall said. “This is a tremendous honor for Joe and his family, and certainly well deserved. I couldn’t be happier for him.”

Jeremy Schneider is The Diamondback’s Terrapins football columnist. He can be reached at schneider@umdbk.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jschneider_.

With the Terrapins football team’s number of offseason transfers (six) slowly threatening to eclipse its number of in-season losses (10), it’s damage-control time here in College Park.

And what do you do when things aren’t going to great? You write a letter.

Here’s what Athletic Director Kevin Anderson penned to Terps fans recently:

Dear Maryland Football Fan,

On behalf of our student-athletes, coaches and staff, thank you for your continued support of Maryland Football. While no one is satisfied with the results of the season just ended, we are committed to building a football program that matches the academic excellence and national prominence of our University. A program of which we can all be proud. Our record for the 2011 season is unacceptable. As the leadership of this football program, Coach Edsall and I take full responsibility for that disappointing performance.

We have never been more determined to move this program forward. We have a solid foundation upon which to build, and you have our commitment to work tirelessly in the off-season to that end. That work began last week, when Coach Edsall took to the recruiting trail to bring in more of the quality student-athletes who will make us successful in the classroom, on the field and in the community. In coming days, Randy and I will conduct a comprehensive review of our football program to determine how we can improve our systems and personnel from top to bottom.

We are also committed to keeping you informed of our progress throughout the off-season. We have heard from many of you, our passionate fans and supporters. We appreciate your concern for the future of Maryland Football. We appreciate, and share your passion. We promise to keep you informed of our plans and our progress as we prepare for 2012.

We cannot thank you enough for all you do to support our student-athletes. We both consider it a great honor to represent the University of Maryland and to work with the outstanding young men in our football program. Come and watch this spring, as this young team matures and improves. Next fall, show the Maryland Pride that electrifies our campus every football season. Only with your help and continued support can we accomplish great things.

Fear The Turtle!

Sincerely,

(Kevin Anderson and Randy Edsall co-signed)

No word if this was also sent to players inside Gossett State Pen Team House.

Jonas Shaffer is The Diamondback’s sports editor and can be reached at sports@umdbk.com.

It was far from pretty for the Terps tonight, as a seemingly easy matchup with Mount St. Mary’s took the Terps down to the game’s final seconds before they ultimately prevailed, 77-74.

For the inaugural edition of Walsh’s Wisdom, I’m going to do a little plus/minus for tonight’s game.

Plus:

• Faust’s maturity — Coming into last night’s game, Nick Faust’s play had screamed “freshman” all season. He was jacking up ugly shots — many of which ended up far from the target — and struggling to maintain possession as the team’s primary ball handler. But last night, after a post-practice meeting with Turgeon on Tuesday led Faust to simplify his game, the lauded freshman had what was probably his best performance of the season. He finished with 13 points, five assists and two blocks, and played his best in pivotal moments. With his team trailing by two with 6:35 to go, Faust knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner. Two possessions later, Faust drove the lane and dumped the ball off to Ashton Pankey for a three-point play. And with the game on the line in the final minute, a Faust block — one of two in the game’s final 2:15 — helped preserve the Terps’ victory. He’s not there yet, but he’s certainly on the right path.
• Stoglin in crunch time – It’s no secret that the Terps’ success this season will hinge on Terrell Stoglin’s play. There are worse guys to lean on. With the game slipping away in the second half, Stoglin took over and scored six straight points for the Terps to put them back up by three points. He finished with a game-high 23 points, and only further established his dominance. And do some of these wild leaners remind anybody else of the No. 21 jersey in the rafters?

Minus:

• Post play — Sure, James Padgett and Ashton Pankey combined for 28 points and 11 rebounds last night. But the Terps’ post play took a serious step back last night after a solid performance against Notre Dame on Sunday. The Terps struggled on the boards, breaking even in the rebound margin at 31-31 and allowing the Mountaineers to haul in 10 offensive rebounds. Berend Weijs needs to be better, and his continued foul trouble isn’t helping anything (he played just 13 minutes and finished with four fouls). But more than that, the Terps will need to lean on Padgett and Pankey. And while they’ve continued to show glimpses of offensive prowess in the post, especially Padgett, the Terps need them to be far more consistent on the boards if they hope to hang against the big dogs in the ACC.
• Defense – Mount St. Mary’s shot 52.4 percent from beyond the arc last night, knocking down 11 of 21 attempts to prevent the Terps from pulling away. And in large part, you can’t really do much to prevent a scoring barrage like that. But even still, the Terps’ defense took a pretty serious step back last night after appearing to have really turned a corner against Notre Dame. They’re still keeping teams off the line, which is a plus, but I don’t care how hot Mount St. Mary’s was. It’s Mount St. Mary’s. They were 1-6 coming into last night’s game. You cannot let them torch you from 3-point land. It didn’t bury the Terps last night, but the Mountaineers came close. So we’ll just chalk it up as another learning experience for a team still trying to figure out its coach and a coach still trying to figure out his team.

Two days after releasing the contract information for 11 of Randy Edsall’s 12 assistant coaches, the university released the details of the final member of the Terrapins football team’s staff yesterday.

According to an unsigned copy of his contract, offensive coordinator Gary Crowton will make more than $500,000 in guaranteed compensation this year.

Like his fellow assistant coaches, Crowton is signed to a three-year deal. As expected, his contract commands the highest salary of Edsall’s staff, with a base salary of $375,000 and an additional $125,000 in guaranteed compensation for things like TV/radio appearances, fundraising and personal appearances.

Crowton received $37,500 in relocation assistance after joining the Terps this season from LSU, where he held the same position.

He also receives a healthy allowance for his car and cell phone, which bring his guaranteed total to $507,440 for this year.

In comparison, Crowton earned $475,000 at LSU in 2010.

Crowton’s contract brings the grand total of assistant coaches’ salaries to $2,256,964 for Edsall’s first season, nearly half a million dollars more than coach Ralph Friedgen’s staff earned in 2010.

The Terps announced today that running backs Jeremiah Wilson and Rahsaan Moore and safety Titus Till have been granted a release from their scholarships and will pursue a career with another program at the end of the semester.

That brings the transfer list to six.

“We appreciate the effort of all three of these young men and wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavors,” coach Randy Edsall said in a release.

Check tomorrow’s Diamondback for a more in-depth update.

I figure Terps fans might have an interest in coming out to see this tonight, so here are the details:

The Shirley Povich Center For Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism will host a panel discussion on “Turmoil in College Sports, What the Media is Missing” on Tuesday, December 6, at 7 p.m.

The conversation will take place in the Richard Eaton Theatre at Knight Hall on the University of Maryland campus.

The discussion, to be moderated by Kevin Blackistone of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism and ESPN, will address a number of issues, including the child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State and the recent elimination of eight varsity sports and a budget crisis at the University of Maryland.

Athletic Director Kevin Anderson is a panelist, and there will be a question-and-answer session afterward. Given the topsy-turvy state of Terps football, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple folks on hand stray from the topic at hand and bring up the contract of a certain ex-Connecticut coach now working in College Park.

Check out the paper tomorrow for full coverage of the event.

Jonas Shaffer is The Diamondback’s sports editor and can be reached at sports@umdbk.com.

With Virginia Tech surprisingly — OK, undeservingly — making it to the Sugar Bowl, the Terrapins athletics department will be be rewarded with $500,000 of BCS money along with every other ACC program. With an athletics department in debilitating debt, it’s pretty obvious that the money will be used to help fight the deficit. It’s the sensible thing to do, and the only real option.

That’s all well and good — but it’s boring. Here’s how they really should be spending that cash.

1. Seat-fillers at Byrd Stadium

During the football season, it was hard to tell at times if the Terps were playing a game or having a practice. The place was empty. Nobody wants to sit for three hours, sometimes in the rain, to watch a team that beat only one FBS team this year. With this new money, the athletics department can at least make it look like they have enough fans to fill the stadium!

2. MORE UNIFORMS

The Terps have 32 uniform combinations to chose from, not to mention the Maryland Pride unis. Obviously, that isn’t enough. Make more! Different styles, different helmets. They should have at least 10 more seats for next year, one for each loss this year. Because that’s obviously the problem with this program.

3. Ralph Friedgen statue

Remember when everyone was calling for Ralph Friedgen’s job when he went 2-10 in 2009? Of course you don’t. Nobody does. All anyone remembers is that he had a good year in his last year, after which he was forced out by Kevin Anderson. Edsall went 2-10 in his first year, and all of a sudden the Fridge is Bear Bryant. So let’s give him a statue! It could be a statue of an actual refrigerator, or we could just put a statue of him in line at Chick-fil-A in the Stamp Student Union.

4. More studio time for A.J. Francis

The Terps were terrible this year. But on the bright side, they have a really good rapper on their team! Defensive tackle A.J. Francis’s “Fear The Turtle” is a Youtube hit. Guy has swag. Maybe he could record an inspirational song to make the team better in 2012.

5. Sabotage Debbie Yow

Everyone remember Debbie Yow’s infamous remarks at the press conference that introduced their new basketball coach last year? The former Terps athletics director, now in the same position at N.C. State, said that Gary Williams had sabotaged their coaching search. He must have! Why weren’t Bill Self, Coach K and Tom Izzo all drooling over that dream job!? Time to get some revenge. She’s the reason why Gary retired, Sean Miller didn’t replace him, Jordan Williams left for the NBA, we have global warming and the economic crisis exists. Well, in all seriousness she was the athletics director when the department went into debt. Smear campaign!

(more…)

After a 31-point outburst against Notre Dame in the BB&T Classic Sunday, Terrapin men’s basketball guard Terrell Stoglin earned the ACC’s Player of the Week honor.

He scored 11 of the team’s first 12 points against the Irish, and hit a shot with less than 20 seconds left to seal the win. Stoglin also scored 25 points in a loss to Illinois in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge last Tuesday. He is the conference’s leading scorer at 22.4 points per game, and the only one in the ACC to average more than 20 a game.

Between the two games, he shot more than 50 percent from the field and pulled down eight total rebounds.

Stoglin earned a spot on the ACC All-Freshman team last year and earned ACC Rookie of the Week honors twice. This is the first time in his career, though, that he’s earned the ACC Player of the Week honor.

Chris Eckard is the Diamondback’s Terrapin men’s basketball beat reporter. Reach him at ceckard@umdbk.com and follow him on twitter at twitter.com/ceckard.