Travis Ivey is a big, big man. He’s one of the few Terp football players that makes me feel small.
His role this season is similarly enormous.
With Dion Armstrong transferring out of the program and Joe Vellano recovering from stress fracture surgery that has him sidelined until Oct. 3, an already thin defensive tackle position is looking like it could be a crippling weakness for the Terps.
Right now, Ivey is the only defensive tackle with any in-game experience. He’s also the only player who started the spring at the top of the depth chart. That’s fine with him though.
“I look at myself as a player that shouldn’t have to come out, anyway,” Ivey said. “I was preparing myself to play every rep, so if I have to play 100 snaps on Saturdays then it is what it is. It would be nice to have some guys to rotate in, but at the end of the day, I don’t want to be out of the game.”
Right now, the only DTs on the Terps active roster for the Sept. 5 opener at Cal are Ivey, A.J. Francis, Ian Davidson, Zach Kerr and Obum Akunyili.
Francis and Ivey are the listed starters, with Davidson backing up Francis and Kerr, a true freshman, backing up Ivey.
The 330-pound Kerr turns 19 on Saturday. He was originally recruited as part of the Terps’ 2008 recruiting class but opted for a year at Fork Union Military Academy.
The former three-star prospect according to Rivals.com has picked things up quickly, impressing the man he’s slotted behind.
“He’s a lot better than me when I was his age,” Ivey said. “He wants to learn, and that’s the great thing about him. He takes coaching, he looks up to me. I kind of treat him like a little brother.”
The D-line still remains a major question mark for the Terp. It would have been one even with Armstrong and Vellano.
But the Terps claim experience is a non-factor, a theory that will be tested from day 1 at Cal.
Adi Joseph is The Diamondback’s football beat writer. He can be reached at ajoseph@umdbk.com or followed @adijoseph.