Sunday will represent the official start of the ACC football season, as two players and the head coach of each of the conference’s 12 teams will descend upon the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C. to answer questions from the media about the upcoming season.
The players will be available for interviews starting at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday while the coaches will hold press conferences the following day starting at the same time. The Diamondback sports editor Jonas Shaffer and myself will be on hand for both days and will be updating Terrapin Trail as well as @DBKSports on Twitter.
The Terps will be represented by head coach Ralph Friedgen, as well as junior wide receiver Torrey Smith, and senior linebacker Alex Wujciak. A list of the who will be attending from the other schools as well as any other information you may want to know can be found here.
The actual season won’t start September 6, but with only a little more than a month remaining until the Terps take the field to square off with Navy at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, its certainly not too early to pinpoint some of the bigger stories and question marks surrounding the program. Question marks and stories that the Maryland representatives will be answering at length during the festivities this weekend.
We have highlighted five specific storylines the Terps will need to address not only on Sunday and Monday, but also once the season begins.
1. Will there be a quarterback battle?
At the end of the spring, Friedgen said Jamarr Robinson will be the starter in the opener against Navy, and he will likely echo that statement in Greensboro should the subject come up. Robinson played well in the spring game and the junior will likely be afforded every opportunity to keep the job, provided he plays well.
In seven games last season, including two starts down the stretch against Virginia Tech and Florida State, Robinson was 46-for-85 for 459 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also carried the ball 53 times for 229 yards and no touchdowns.
Robinson is probably the most athletic and mobile quarterback the Terps have had in a long time, and the coaches have raved about his arm strength in the past. But there are still questions about his accuracy and decision-making, and with his job potentially hanging in the balance, Friedgen won’t hesitate to make a change if Robinson struggles.
Redshirt freshman Danny O’Brien impressed the Terps’ coaching staff in practice last season with his strong arm and work ethic, and will be waiting in the wings should Robinson falter.
In addition, 6-foot-5, 198-pound freshman Tyler Smith will arrive on campus this Fall as one of the most highly touted quarterback recruits during Friedgen’s tenure. Rivals.com rated Smith a three-star prospect and the No. 16 dual-threat quarterback in the country. It will be interesting to see how he progresses once he gets in the flow of practice.
2.The offensive line needs to be better
Whenever a team finishes the season 2-10, the blame is going to spread around to a lot of different places. That is the case with last season’s Terps team as well, but one of the main culprits was an oft-injured offensive line. Due to injuries and lots of inconsistent play, nine different players got a chance to protect Chris Turner last season, and the coaching staff was constantly moving people around, trying to discover the best combination.
Unfortunately for the Terps, it appears this season will feature much of the same. Junior tackle Bruce Campbell left College Park early for the NFL and guard Lamar Young, who played in ten games last season and started three, left the team in June because of academic reasons. What they left behind is an assortment of inexperienced underclassmen, and one veteran who will likely start at a new position this season.
Sophomore Justin Gilbert and redshirt freshman Nick Klemm will battle for the right tackle spot, with Gilbert holding the slight edge after playing in 11 games last season. Junior Andrew Gonnella and sophomore Bennett Fulper both got their feet wet last season and will start the year as the starters at guard.
Senior Paul Pinegar started every game last season, but will get his first chance to play center this season. And the onus will be on well-regarded sophomore R.J. Dill at right tackle.
Behind them there is not a lot of depth as sophomore Justin Lewis is still recovering from injury, and redshirt freshmen Pete DeSouza and Cody Blue have zero game experience.
Wujciak and Smith will likely issue the general platitudes about the offensive line needing to come together as a unit and play better. But Friedgen, a former offensive line coach, should at least shed some light on what he hopes to see this season and how they have progressed during the summer.
3. Creating pressure and forcing turnovers
When Don Brown took over for Chris Cosh as the team’s defensive coordinator, it was nearly impossible to get players and coaches to talk about something other than the increased pressure and takeaways Brown’s aggressive, blitzing defense was sure to cause. Then, once the season started, it became clear that the Terps were too young and didn’t have quite the right personnel to carry out Brown’s scheme.
In their 12 games last season, the Terps’ defense forced just 18 turnovers and sacked the opposing quarterback just 27 times. For those who are too lazy to do the math, that is 1.5 turnovers per game and just 2.25 sacks per game. The unit finished tied with N.C. State for dead last in the conference in scoring defense at 31.2 points allowed per game and passing defense, allowing 245.0 yards per game through the air.
This season the Terps have a lot more depth and experience along the front line, especially considering sophomores A.J. Francis, Joe Vellano, and Zachariah Kerr all earned more playing time then expected last season along the interior. The key will be the secondary which will be breaking in an brand new cornerback tandem and will need more consistency from safeties Kenny Tate and Antwine Perez.
Wujciak was one of the lead trumpeteers of Brown’s defensive scheme last season and it is likely he will face a barrage of questions about whether the unit has improved and whether they will be able to create more pressure this season. Of course Wujciak is not known for his long-winded responses either, so it could be that we need to wait and see once the season starts.
4. Who is going to get all the carries?
Even with speedster Caleb Porzel leaving the program because of academic issues (including Young and linebacker Javarie Johnson, Porzel is the third academic casualty since the end of last season), and veteran stalwart Morgan Green transferring to Towson for more playing time, the Terps will still have a veritable stable of talented running backs at their disposal this season.
A first-team All-ACC player as a sophomore, Da’Rel Scott is back from injuries and apparently 100% healthy. If he is healthy, he is the team’s best running back and deserves the lion’s share of the carries during the fall.
Of course it’s ludacris to expect Scott to shoulder the entire load considering his previous injuries, and so the rest of the carries will likely be split between junior Davin Meggett, and sophomore Gary Douglas.
Meggett regressed slightly last season after a breakout freshman campaign despite leading the team with six touchdowns. He is a good short-yardage option and has shown some ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, but may not be quite as useful as Terps’ fans had once hoped.
Douglas played sparingly as a true freshman last season, carrying the ball 16 times for 84 yards and catching six passes for 78 yards, but he showed flashes of potential during those stints.
The darkhorse in this race is hulking redshirt freshman D.J. Adams. Rated as the No. 29 running back in the country out of high school, Adams paced the Terps with 14 carries for 71 yards and two touchdowns in the spring game. Friedgen said he expected Adams to serve as a goal-line option for them until he learns the nuances of pass-blocking.
5. Take the money and run
It’s important to issue a disclaimer with this storyline and say that, while the hottest topic in college football right now is the NCAA’s investigation into players taking illegal benefits from agents and runners, no Terps’ player has been mentioned in any of the allegations and it seems Maryland has managed to steer clear of the mess.
That being said, the investigation as ensnared conference rival North Carolina as the NCAA is still determining whether or not star defensive tackle Marvin Austin and wide receiver Greg Little were in the wrong when they travelled to Miami for a party. Austin has since deleted his entire twitter profile, which had photos of him at parties in Miami.
The Tar Heels may come out of the fiasco no worse for the wear, but after watching reporters dog coaches and players alike on the subject at this week’s SEC Media Day, it would be naive to think there won’t be more questions at ACC Media Day.
The worst Smith and Wujciak are likely to face are hypothetical questions about whether or not they would take the money if they were in the same situation, as Georgia Tech players Josh Nesbitt and Tevin Washington did earlier this week.
Friedgen could be in for some tougher questions about what he would like to see the NFL do, especially after Alabama coach Nick Saban and Florida coach Urban Meyer issued such strong remarks on the subject.
Who knows? Maybe the national media won’t descend on the ACC the same way they did the SEC. After all, the bulk of the players implicated are from SEC schools. But the question is still pertinent to coaches in major conferences who routinely place players in the NFL, so the Terps should at least be ready.
Michael Lemaire is the 2010 Terrapin Football beat writer. He can be reached at lemairedbk@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter @Mike_Lemaire.